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Bad Gas - Be Careful!

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tony barnhill

tony barnhill

Great Pumpkin - R.I.P
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Yesterday morning Jerri stopped at the only gas station she ever stops at to get gas for her Mercedes...as always she got $20 of 93-octane (don't ask me why she only gets $20 - she keeps her tank about 1/2 full)....within a few miles her car went dead...I got to it & tried to start it - start, die - start, die....so I asked her if she'd just gotten gas & where, then I had it towed to the Mercedes dealer....on the way home, I stopped by the gas station & asked how their gas supply was....the owner told me he was getting low.

So, today the dealer calls & tells me my <span style="text-decoration: underline">new</span> fuel pump is contaminated & clogged up (Yep, <span style="text-decoration: underline">NEW</span>...I'd just done some maintenance 2 weeks ago & had them replace the fuel pump because it was getting weak) with green grime & gunk to the point that my tank & entire fuel system will have to be cleaned (drop tank, pull injectors, replace <span style="text-decoration: underline">new</span> fuel pump with another fuel pump, etc.) to the tune of approximately $1,000!!

I talked with the owner of the station this morning & he said if there was a gas problem, it was the distributor's problem & gave me their phone number....I then talked with the distributor & he said if it was the tank, it was the station's problem...so, I told him I could see I was about to get in the middle of a "who's in charge" so I'd ask my lawyer to tell me which way to go.

So, back to the gas station....just as I got back there to talk with the owner again, the phone rang & it was the guy from the fuel distributor calling.

I asked the owner if he had insurance for such things....he said he did & pulled a report on his 93-octane tank....it said he had 400 gallons left with no water in the mix....to me, <span style="font-weight: bold">that tank's about empty!</span>

Now, I'm trying to find a laboratory that can test the fuel pump, fuel filter, and a sample of the gas that was in the tank.

And after I find a lab & get them involved, I've gotta give the results to a lawyer, & start fighting the gas station or gas distributor!

Plus, pay the Mercedes dealer when they get her car repaired!

Be careful in these days of supposedly short fuel supplies!
 
yeah, most dealers will allow the "premium" tanks to deplete, not the biggest seller and too expensive to keep topping up... I'm P.O.'d just reading that, Tony.

The longer we wait to open up domestic reserves and start tapping what we've got here the worse this situation is gonna get. Just ~announcing~ we're gonna start drilling domestically would toss the per-barrel prices into downward motion.
 
Is this the same gas company that supplies Puerto Rico??!
 
Well, I've talked with several large labs here in town - they don't do gasoline...got numbers for a lab in Chattanooga - no go; contacted a lab in St Louis - much more than repair to car; contacted a lab in Michigan - more than repairs.

Going to daughter's this afternoon - will seek legal advice from her & son-in-law who are both lawyers about next avenue....think I should at least have a lawyer write a letter to the gas station demanding reimbursement for repairs & telling them they can have the gas analyzed if they want.

How would a person ever know they're pumping gas from the bottom of the tank where contaminents, sludge, and gunk reside?
 
The only surefire way that I know of. Is the way Pemex did in Mexico decades ago. You pumped the gas from the ground/tank into a glass bottle on top of the pump, then into your car. Several times we stopped the attendant from filling our car from the bottle on top of the pump.

Doc, sadly it's politics talking.

Why? All the crude available in the world is not going to do us much good(other than we don't buy from outside) as we do NOT have sufficient distillery production to increase output.

There is reportedly an oil field in the Norhtwest of the US(Montana area) that is larger than Saudi Arabia. Haven't done any research on that yet, but I do no ANWR has enough petroleum to drop our cost to under $1 a gallon.... But the politicians are not letting us extract it..
 
Tony, your wife can't be the only one this happened to. Call the area network news stations, one of them will have an Action Team. This is a topical news worthy story, with the price fluctuations and supply problems.

How about having part of the lawsuit be making the GAS COMPANY pay for the analysis? They may say "Prove it was our gas in your car", you could counter with "Prove that it wasn't".
 
<span style="color: #FF0000"> <span style="font-size: 14pt"> <span style="font-weight: bold"> WHEW!!!</span> </span> </span>Just out of curiosity, I called USAA - my insurance company...they said incidents like that are covered under my comprehension policy...they're sending an adjuster to the Mercedes dealer to get an estimate for repairs & to pick up the old fuel filter/pump & a gas sample to send to the lab they use...they asked where she got the gas & the gas station name/contact info...said they're pay the Mercedes dealer for the repairs & take care of the gas station/distributor reimbursement!
 
Nice! Good to know you're not going to get "wrenched" on this one! Still worth a call to the news though. There were/will be others with the same events.
 
WOW!!!! Good save. :thumbsup:
 
And lets hear it for USAA.
 
Talked with the appraiser Sunday - he' scheduled to look it over on 25th but will try to make it earlier if possible.
 
Tony- Do you attract bad gas or something?

Those few gallons pumped into the Crypt Car
almost six months ago are the most expensive
gasoline I ever purchased in my life.

The car has been under constant repair and parts
replacement ever since the bad gas was pumped.

Yer real lucky to get out of your problem so easily.
You lucky dog.

I now pre-strain all my high test gasoline thru a
double layer of coffee filter into a gas can. Only
then do I put the gasoline into my car. 3 gallons
is all I ever purchase.

d :thumbsup:
 
hehehehe....I wasn't even around when Jerri pumped it...thank you very much....hehehehe
 
tony barnhill said:
hehehehe....I wasn't even around when Jerri pumped it...thank you very much....hehehehe
Click to expand...

<span style="color: #006600"> You say Jerri's bad gas was premium green?
Mine was a nice mixture of red and water.

d :thumbsup:</span>

badgas.jpg
 
Tony,my dad worked for Southern Pump and Tank co for 40 years. He worked on gas pumps and fuel tanks etc. Even if there was junk in that tank, the required filter in the pump itself should have caught that junk. All the filters also have a little plastic ball inside that float in water but not in gas that seals the flow off if water is detected. If the correct filter was used then the fuel should not have been bad enough to hurt anything. I am thinking that with people running the big tanks ,that are usually at least 7000 gallons to allow a full truck dump, so low, they have had trouble with the junk in the bottom of the tanks clogging the filters and have either bypassed the filter or put the wrong kind on to get them by. All that stuff is strictly regulated by the the state.
 
Interesting, Kim.....new fuel pump, new fuel filter ran fine for over a week on the gas that was in the tank when they did the new pump installation...when she added gas to the tank, it ran about 15 miles & died because the pump & filter were clogged with crap!
 
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