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They have water in the tanks Posted by Saana88 [Email]  (#207)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Saana88) on Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:39:35
In Reply to: Is it serious, or just a case of gas?, Steve_86_900S, Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:44:58 Members see ZERO ads on the bulletin boards and get more feature. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Step one- run as much fuel as you can out of the car. I mean putting 30 miles on the car after the low fuel indicator light stays on.
Step two- get a full tank of good fuel from someplace else. In fact, boycott the old station because even if the delivery was stirring up gunk in their tanks, either the tank leaks (ah, our environmentally sensitive fueling stations!) or they haven't changed the inline/pump filters in bleeding ages. That truck was probably there by design after somebody noticed that there was too much water (condensation from an empty UST or just trying to pass along crap fuel) in the tank. Definitely avoid the place. If it was a major chain, call them up and at least let them know what was going on. If they care, they might try to retain your business by giving you a break. If not, they don't deserve your business.
Lots of people think they're giving their cars a tune-up when they dump in some fuel injector cleaner and change the fuel filter. The FI cleaner will dissolve and carry some contaminants until the filter carries it out, so they end up immediately gunking up a brand new fuel filter. My process is to dump in some serious FI cleaner (typically BG 44k if I can get my hands on it, but lately it's been something I get at NAPA) and run it all through, then on the NEXT tank of fuel, change the FF. Come on, a fuel filter is ten bucks.
Back in '05 I made my only trip to a certain gas station on Erie Boulevard in Schenectady, four days after Katrina, so gas prices were going through the roof everywhere. My '92 SC with electronic injection and EZK and a knock sensor decided she didn't like crap gas with lots of water. The knock sensor did its job, the EZK system did its job, and my spark timing was retarded into oblivion. Anything over one-third throttle and the engine would misfire and try to stall. Anything over 3500 RPM, same thing. The best way to burn that liquid dren up is to get on an expressway somewhere. Somewhere flat. Keep your engine as close to steady state as you can and just consume it. On the uphill entrance ramp getting on the fast-moving Thruway just after the toll booths, I had to run the engine about 500 RPM higher than usual (still staying under half throttle) before shifting.
Get your hands on some Isomeryn, the chemical used to make regular into high-test at the refinery, if your driving is too difficult.
I used to work at a filling station (full service, even!). The overlords (a. k. a. manager who doesn't give a frell, corporate structure that doesn't want to buy their stations a $2 tube of water paste) decided that underlings were too stupid (usually they were....) to smear paste on the oversized dipsticks used to manually check the levels in the tanks every morning and night. The paste turns technicolor if any water is sitting in the tanks. If the paste doesn't get used more than twice a month, there is an opportunity for shipments to mix in grades with too much water. Either it's that or the tanks are really really empty and picking up condensation overnight or they leak. If there has been recent minor excavation around those tanks, the company is probably trying to stave off the inevitable by installing cathodic protection. I'm not sure what the regulations are for replacing the inline filters (we did them once a year, so they probably require about four times that frequency) but it smells to me that the gas was so bad they couldn't settle or filter it out, or they were useless.
During the Katrina spikes, a number of LI filling stations were fined when they tried selling regular at high-test prices. The county/state folks came by, took their samples, and caught them with their pants down. $35k in fines later, I bet they won't do that again.
, Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:39:35 <-- Viewing This Message
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