Bad gasoline

[John A]

https://youtu.be/ChyV2_L7K0Q
Recent news, this wouldn’t be good , especially if you were just passing through Mankato . Watered .

[fotoguzzi]

Typical shallow tv reporting.. did the station pay the $900 repair bill? Or will she have  to take them to court? How did the water get in there? Not a word about the Mankato station, I guess it was the same. How many drivers were affected ?

[John A]

Yep, it was the typical shallow reporting. I was surprised to see it at all. It’s a reminder to not just blindly fill your tank , trusting that things are being done correctly. It’s not meant for you to see or smell the fuel anymore. I remember during the oil embargo they found hazardous waste was being disposed of by adding it to bulk fuel. I never heard if they ever prosecuted any of the alleged culprits. I suspect fuel contamination is more common than consumers realize. It was one of the things investigated when they were getting a STC approved for auto fuel approved for general aviation  . It reminds me :
https://youtu.be/o3SXKLas-ko

[egschade]

I avoid the budget gas stations. I've been told by my local station owner that they literally get the bottom of the tank which is often contaminated. Cheap gas isn't worth the risk if you have an option.

[JJ]

I avoid the budget gas stations. I've been told by my local station owner that they literally get the bottom of the tank which is often contaminated. Cheap gas isn't worth the risk if you have an option.

Indeed...When I am on any long "Road Trip", it's Chevron, Shell, or Mobil...

[moto]

I look for the “Top Tier” label on the pump. I hope that still means as much as I think it used to.

[Texas Turnip]

Having hauled gasoline for 25 years in my long semi truck driving career I can give you some REAL facts. I ain't got all day to right a book just a brief summary.
More than once I left the Fina terminal with a load and went directly to a major brand. I always use the cheapest brand and I've been buying gas for millions of miles in my 65 + years of driving.

Highest octane or premium WHY? are you testing the gas? Only a few tricks I've seen are switching the lids so the delivery driver put more in the reg. Offering the driver money to dump some reg in the premium because the owner forgot to order Premium. I've seen owners pump reg into the premium. Spend your money on the high dollar stuff if you want. All of my Guzzis always got the cheapest . I bought gas from a station in Alaska and Canada that didn't even have a name n the pump.

Watering down gas. OH YEAH. Water is heavier than gas and the pumps sit 3 to 8" above the bottom. When I drove for a major company we checked for water on every delivery. The water gauging paste will detect the smallest amount of water. We reported even a trace and over an inch we tagged the pump to not sell for a 1/2 hour as the water will settle to the bottom, below the pump in that time. When water was detected it was pumped out ASAP. Some so called water in the gas is when you drive through a flood.

Dirty gas. COME ON. All tanks are now fiber glass verse the old rusty steel tanks of the old days.

Did I just waste my time?
Tex

[bigbikerrick]

Thats good, realistic advice, Tex. Thanks for sharing that. I always buy the cheapest, as well,and have never had a problem, in  over 50 years of driving/riding. YMMV
Rick.

[rocker59]

Here's a good one.  Delivery d00d pumped diesel into one of the unleaded tanks at Sam's Club in my town, recently.  High volume location.  Mayhem ensued:

https://www.5newsonline.com/article/money/drivers-left-without-vehicles-sams-club-gas-station-issue/527-f9fc57f8-ed46-4e26-a645-9dea8b7f8122

[rocker59]

another story on the same incident

https://www.4029tv.com/article/fayetteville-sams-club-closes-gas-station-takes-drivers-claims-after-fuel-issue/43690742

[Guzzistajohn]

Having hauled gasoline for 25 years in my long semi truck driving career I can give you some REAL facts. I ain't got all day to right a book just a brief summary.
More than once I left the Fina terminal with a load and went directly to a major brand. I always use the cheapest brand and I've been buying gas for millions of miles in my 65 + years of driving.

Highest octane or premium WHY? are you testing the gas? Only a few tricks I've seen are switching the lids so the delivery driver put more in the reg. Offering the driver money to dump some reg in the premium because the owner forgot to order Premium. I've seen owners pump reg into the premium. Spend your money on the high dollar stuff if you want. All of my Guzzis always got the cheapest . I bought gas from a station in Alaska and Canada that didn't even have a name n the pump.

Watering down gas. OH YEAH. Water is heavier than gas and the pumps sit 3 to 8" above the bottom. When I drove for a major company we checked for water on every delivery. The water gauging paste will detect the smallest amount of water. We reported even a trace and over an inch we tagged the pump to not sell for a 1/2 hour as the water will settle to the bottom, below the pump in that time. When water was detected it was pumped out ASAP. Some so called water in the gas is when you drive through a flood.

Dirty gas. COME ON. All tanks are now fiber glass verse the old rusty steel tanks of the old days.

Did I just waste my time?
Tex

I asked a district MGR at a Casey's convivence store one time why Casey's gets such a bad rap about the gas they sell. She said they get it from the same place every other gas station does. Her words "mostly bullshit"

[Perazzimx14]

I'm not a gas snob, while i prefer to buy from a station with high turnover I will also not hesitate to buy from anyplace if that all that's around verses running out and having to poosh the bike. Also don't care about the 10% ethanol in fuel or high octane fuel, its never been a issue using E-10/87 octane

[bmc5733946]

I love the bad gas stories! As a lifelong mechanic I've actually seen bad gas from a gas station cause a problem zero times. I have seen where kids playing "gas station" filled the family car with a water hose more than once. Working in a department of transportation road garage with various pieces of equipment requiring diesel and gas I have seen them confused and filled with the wrong fuel. Some stations don't follow the color code we learned many years ago where diesel is green handle, green cap or tank, and gas is red handle, red cap or tank, there is also now ethanol with yellow handle, yellow cap. I think that things like this cause confusion among users. I try not to pump while the tanks are being filled but that's the only precaution I take, although with the bike you'd never get to the gas being dumped because of the amount contained in the piping between their tank, the pump and your tank. I do try for high volume stations but I'm not anal about it. I have watched the trucks filling at the depot, every brand out of the same tank so, I agree with Tex and the others about what to buy, cheapest period.

Brian

[Chuck in Indiana]

Of course it was *many* years ago, but I got a load of water that killed my car dead. The station did pay to have it pumped out and the fuel lines purged. In 03, Harley Bob got enough dirt in his hawg in a no name station in Arizona that we had to clean his carb a couple of times on the side of the road, but that was only 20 years ago. 
No problems since then..

[fotoguzzi]

Last winter my snow blowing tractor started running poorly and smoking, after I stopped home for lunch it wouldn’t start. Called the boss who said 9 of the 10 tractors out were having trouble. Chalked it up to low temp, it was something like 10 below zero F.
I used a heat gun on the fuel pump and got started and went to shop for the spare, I didn’t top up the fuel and had no problem the rest of the day.. another guy came back to refuel and noticed gasoline was in our diesel tanks, Duh..
I think someone at the delivery company might have gotten fired, all the tractors had to have tanks drained and codes reset. After that everything ran fine so gas instead of diesel had no long term effect. But the shop mechanics were pretty busy for the next few days and we lucked out that no more snow fell for a week or so.

[Moparnut72]

I am retired Weights and Measures, doing that job I took fuel samples in the course of my duties. I took them to the state Weights and Measures where they were tested for quality. They had an engine with an adjustable head where they could increase compression until it knocked which would give them the octane rating. They also tested for impurities, water etc although I did that in the field with water paste. I only had one sample come back bad. It was a brand new station where the fuel delivery driver dumped regular in the premium tank. There was a pretty big fine in that case. The only other instance was one station owner put some gasoline in the diesel tank in really cold weather to raise the flash point so engines would start better. The state didn't want to push that one even though I consistently had problems with that guy. Fun times but I worked my way up, not much field work after that not fun anymore. I retired as soon as I could.
kk

[bacongrease]

I worked at a farm CO-OP, where the premium pump ( "ethyl" back in the days) , where the pump only put out 80% of what was metered.

I helped shovel out buckets and buckets of rust in the empty above ground tanks. 
Hey, they had filters.

that's all I got.

[normzone]

I have worked in Shell and Texaco stations where the owner would buy from the guy who provided discount pricing, no traceability to the name brand source. My travel policy is Chevron and Shell these days, with all other options only as a last resort, but I remember the days of Union 76 being the best premium - Best supplier changes periodically, just as the food at a restaurant will vary based on owners and cooks.

[AJ Huff]

Man, if it's not Casey's, Kwik Star, Kum & Go, or Hy Vee I don't know what I'd buy. Who knows where those 4 get their gas from. I'd have to drive far out of my way to find an oil branded gas station.

I used to live by a Motiva distribution terminal. I suspect that all of the stations in SE GA, maybe all of GA,  got their shipments from that terminal. Which means everyone is getting the same gas in a given area. At that time I believe Motiva was.owned by Shell.

-AJ

[s1120]

Last winter my snow blowing tractor started running poorly and smoking, after I stopped home for lunch it wouldn’t start. Called the boss who said 9 of the 10 tractors out were having trouble. Chalked it up to low temp, it was something like 10 below zero F.
I used a heat gun on the fuel pump and got started and went to shop for the spare, I didn’t top up the fuel and had no problem the rest of the day.. another guy came back to refuel and noticed gasoline was in our diesel tanks, Duh..
I think someone at the delivery company might have gotten fired, all the tractors had to have tanks drained and codes reset. After that everything ran fine so gas instead of diesel had no long term effect. But the shop mechanics were pretty busy for the next few days and we lucked out that no more snow fell for a week or so.

Your lucky the gas didnt mess up more. I used to work for VW and a few times a year someone would put gas in their TDi powerd VW. It REALLY did a job on the fuel systems, and in most cases we have to change out the pumps, and most of the other fuel components.

As far as bad gas. Ive had many times that I thought a issue was from that, and it really turned out that it was just dumb luck that the problem started after a fill up, and it was something else. I do buy from mostly busy stations though. Not the small hole in the wall places, but other then that, I know most get from the same places anyways.

[JJ]

I got some "really bad gas" after eating this meal!!!