...petrol, that is, not the gas station roller-dog variety. And to what degree/severity? Or is the whole "might just be a bad tank of gas" some urban legend E36 M3?
...petrol, that is, not the gas station roller-dog variety. And to what degree/severity? Or is the whole "might just be a bad tank of gas" some urban legend E36 M3?
I saw a guy fill his tank on his CJ5 with diesel once...
Once filled up a diesel FJ45 from a can that had some water in the bottom. In the Outback. In a station that was 50km from the nearest neighbour. That could have ended badly.
But seriously, I did once have a problem with fuel from a discount fuel place. Had to rebuild the carb.
Fresh from the pump?
No.
Had bad gas sitting in a project car's tank?
Yes.
2 times.
Short story since I'm on my phone.
Filled up my 92 ram d250 at the trucker pump with diesel, about 15 min later truck shuts of.
Mess with it some. Decide to check filters. The filter on FASS smells like gas and has sand in it.
Id call it bad fuel.
Also filled up gas cans for my mowers and such and the fuel that got pumped was like half water.
My dad once had to fill up his E36 (when it was still pretty new) at a sketchy station. It ran poorly after that tank. The gas burned a hole in one of the valves. I have the valve somewhere still.
I had a tank that would predetonate badly in my Mazdaspeed3 once. Roadtripping with no boost was sad.
In both cases the cars required premium which I imagine is much older at the sketchy stations and possibly lower quality to begin with.
About 25-ish years ago, I stopped and filled my Subaru GL before jumping on I71 and heading towards Radcliff, KY. After a handful of miles, the car starting running terribly and my fuel consumption was way higher than usual. By the time I went about 40 miles, I was down to almost a half tank of gas. I stopped and topped off the tank and got rolling again. It ran a little bit better for a while and after another 70ish miles, I was down to a half tank again. This time when I topped it off it started running right again and never had a problem after that.
I wrote a letter to BP and sent them a copy of my receipt and they mailed me a check to reimburse me for the fill-up.
About 5 years ago I put a load of premium from a little mom-and-pop gas station in my Goldwing, it ran like garbage until I filled up with fresh fuel from a busy station.
Premium doesn't sell as much as regular so the stuff in the tanks at a low volume station can go stale. I had to learn the hard way.
One time when I was in the SAAB, I filled up at a locally owned one-man shop gas station. Car ran rough starting about 2 minutes after I left the gas station. Didn't throw any codes or anything, but just was running a little rough. Because I was a broke college student at the time, I had only put in 2-3 gallons, so I stopped at a BP and put in a full tank. It ran fine within 2-3 more minutes.
I expect that if I had a Chevy Truck I wouldn't have noticed, but the SAAB went all Swedish on me.
Filled up my Astro from under half a gallon left in the tank to plumb full and didn't make it out of the parking lot. Almost a 5 gallon bucket worth of water after it all settled out. Had to get towed, a hotel, diagnostic at a service station, etc...
Owner of the station told me to pack sand; Texaco put $500 credit on my gas card.
Yes. Feels recent, but probably 3 years ago now. Filled up my Courier and made it maybe 1/8 mile before the truck just wouldnt run anymore. I had just done points. I stupidly messed with the carb before draining gas. New tank of gas and a carb adjustment later and it was perfect.
Filled a Gatorade bottle with the drained gas and could clearly see the gas/water separation after a little while.
Always save your receipt at least till the next fill up. That way, if the station has a rash of bad gas complaints, you have proof that you have some of that tainted fuel. Otherwise, most gas stations tell you to pound sand.
Yep, the RX-7 hates whatever they use in Illinois. Had lots of light load misfire and lean surging. Ran that crap out as much as possible and refueled halfway through Missouri and all was well again. A friend who runs E85 in his Subaru said he noted something similar, his knock counts went off the charts until he got the Illinois swill out of his car.
I had a couple occasions where cars would die soon after filling, the tank would be half full of water and the fuel filter was full of jellied napalm mayonnaise. In that case we'd see three or four cars towed in that day with the same symptoms. We'd dump the fuel, change the filter, top off the tank with a couple cans of Seafoam for flavor, and tell the customer to keep the receipts and take them to the gas station. It's a rare occurrence but when it happens, the gas stations don't fight it, they just get out the checkbook.
My wife and I have owned a couple cars that had misfires on off-brand gas like the stuff sold by Kroger; switching to a top tier gas and this would go away. No real damage happened; it just felt like an intermittent stutter. Had this happen on a '86 Corvette, a '95 Acheiva with a Quad Four, and a '05 Camry four cylinder. We called these cars picky eaters.
Oooh, forgot. Somewhere in Kansas on I-70. Filled up the Grand Cherokee on mid-grade. Truck doesn't need it, it can run on 91, but Janel likes to pamper her Jeep. It immediately started running badly. Stopped at a WalMart at the next exit and bought a bottle of octane boost. Problem solved.
I was on the bike once (1980 CX500) and stopped at a station out on the back roads. I was on fumes. I had to wait because the tanker was there and was filling the underground tanks. I filled up right after and was on my way. The bike ran like crap for the rest of the ride and I had to drain it and change the filters once I was home again. A friend told me that the gas in the storage tanks was "stirred up" by the refill and I probably got a lot of sediment that normally would have sunk to the bottom and water that normally would be floating on top. Not sure if that was the case, but fresh gas put the bike right again with no other adjustments, so I believe it.
photo dramatization
No.
I did once, but I couldn't prove it. I had a 73 AMC Hornet and filled up at a Hess gas station and started having pretty crazy issues that were solved with 5 bottles of dryer. I assumed it was water. I posted on some community forums to see if anyone else had issues from that station but never got a response.
Yes. If you ever buy a 94/5 Mustang GT on the stock ECU, you will know bad has right away when you get it. This is by far the most sensitive let's take away all your timing ECU ever programmed. These ECUs hate ethanol too.
My dad's old racing buddy put unleaded into his Powerstroke Ford once too at a BP station.... all the handles are green there.
They were towing an old race car to be restored which is now in the Nascar hall of fame / museum.
Apparently that fiasco took a long time to clean up before the truck ran right. I figure they are darn lucky it didn't go kaboom.
And apparently the car got auctioned... not sure hiw I feel about that. If you remeber my LeMans Camaro story, Tex Powell built this car too. My dad and his driver had it in the late 70s, found it again in TX and towed it to NC for Tex to restore. My dad's driver had many of the last Nascar spec 427 parts. He ran them way after everyone else had gone to small blocks. The car was fast but generated lots more heat and ate heads.
I haven't, but I have 3 tips:
1. Like Appleseed said, keep your receipt until your next fillup, so you have some evidence if you do get a bad tank.
2. Don't fill up when the tanks are being refilled. There is always water/sediment in the bottom of the tank, and it gets all stirred up when the new gas is being dumped in.
3. At least at Chevron, if the pump is running super slow, that means there is water in the gas. Go tell the attendant and get gas elsewhere. There is a filter in the pump that swells when it absorbs water.
Source - My wife, who is a diesel fuel chemist for a big oil company.
Dad filled his air cooled VW with diesel about 10 years back. Ran fine for the 30 min drive home.
Went to it the next day to go somewhere and it wouldn't start.
That's how we found out that VWs dont care what they burn so long as they are hot, otherwise you have to start them on gas. Same trick works for older 2-stroke engines.
Other than that, one day the towing company my brother worked for had a field day. There was one highway that just had a dozen or so cars stopped on it in about a half mile stretch. If you went the other way on the highway for about a mile there were another dozen or so cars. Right there between them was a gas station. They shut it down for a couple days while they drained the tanks. They somehow got a contaminated tanker truck
AnthonyGS said:Yes. If you ever buy a 94/5 Mustang GT on the stock ECU, you will know bad has right away when you get it. This is by far the most sensitive let's take away all your timing ECU ever programmed. These ECUs hate ethanol too.
What allegedly happens with ethanol?
E10 was all that you could get at the pump here when those were new, and people drove and raced 'em just fine. Only gripe was they were heavier than the Fox and the intake manifold was cramped because of the lower hoodline.
Nope. And I only know of one legitimate case, it ruined a friend E92 M3.................and many other cars from one station. Apparently it had leaked water into the underground tank, enough that most cars were dead on the side of the road in a few miles.
That station was dug up and had the pumps replaced.
Then you have something like my E30 S52 swap. Old gas was in the tank probably 10 months? Started right up, numbers looked good, etc.
Last year there were a bunch of news reports around here (SF Bay Area) about a gas station that had been pumping diesel contaminated with "brine" and it did significant damage to a couple dozen vehicles. There's a news story about something similar in Ohio that circulated last week too.
Knurled. said:AnthonyGS said:Yes. If you ever buy a 94/5 Mustang GT on the stock ECU, you will know bad has right away when you get it. This is by far the most sensitive let's take away all your timing ECU ever programmed. These ECUs hate ethanol too.
What allegedly happens with ethanol?
E10 was all that you could get at the pump here when those were new, and people drove and raced 'em just fine. Only gripe was they were heavier than the Fox and the intake manifold was cramped because of the lower hoodline.
Not allegedly. Drive one of these cars with ethanol in the mix and it starts knocking pinging and retarding spark above about 4500 rpm. It'll annoy you like nothing ekse. On good gas, the engines run without pinging and pull to 5500 rpm like they should. I recently sold a 94 GT here. Ask that owner about poor gas quality. Modern cars handle poor fuel quality much better. I'd say of modern engines the VAG 2.0 turbos are most sensitive to it. I've owned three and they do not like watery ethanol laden fuel either.
You'll need to log in to post.
