[cashman]

Filled up yesterday at Sam's. No problem yet. New caddy doing fine!!

[mrdills]

I have been putting gas in my 2 cars since Sam's been open with no problems, you might have a problem with your car.

[Pturner]

Originally Posted by The Great Fumar

I buy all my turpentine there and have noticed lately that it smells like gas !!!

Who knew !

I expected a smart-a** (pun intended) comment the moment I saw the first post. However, this isn't the one I expected.

[Rag Bagger]

poster ever get his car repaired? What was the problem? Sure would be interesting to know.

[eremite06]

Originally Posted by LARRYR

Having been in the petroleum business for a number of years, I can tell you that there are a number of reasons why car problems develop after "gassing up". First, there could be sediment in the gas caused by low station tank levels or receiving a delivery while you are fueling up. A fuel filter may not help. Second there could be water or another non-gas substance mixed with the gas which could be caused by low station tank levels (water problem) or somebody messing with the car. Third and most likely in this case is that diesel fuel was mixed with the gas. This is noooooo gooooooddd for cars. This happens quite a bit when the tanker delivering the gas delivered diesel on his previous delivery and did not clean out the truck compartments before taking on the gasoline for delivery. The station (Sam's) should be contacted about the problem and asked if there was a problem with the gas on that day. By the way, we fill up at Sam's alot and have had no problems to date. Most reputable stations would take care of a problem that they caused. Hope this info helps.

Gas trucks alternate gas and diesel deliveries? I kind of doubt it. How do they get out the oily residue from the diesel?

[tpop1]

Originally Posted by Rag ******

poster ever get his car repaired? What was the problem? Sure would be interesting to know.

from yesterday....."Hyundi Service Dept. indicates that the Gas was bad .....40-50% ethanol vs. 10% that it should be.
$500 to pump it out and clean out the system."

Picked it up this AM after the servicing and it runs perfect.

Now the discussions with Sam's Club begins.

[pooh]

Originally Posted by tpop1

Here's the latest on my gas problem.

For those of you who never heard of such a thing as bad gas:

Hyundi Service Dept. indicates that the Gas was bad .....40-50% ethanol vs. 10% that it should be.

$500 to pump it out and clean out the system.

Sam's Club manager indicates he's heard of no one else having a problem, but for us to come in and put in a claim.

No problems with Sam's Club gasoline. Gassed up one car day before yesterday and the other car today.

I DO understand that "bad" gas can cause problems. We used to frequent a particular Shell gasoline station in CA. Never had any problems. One day we filled the car, drove home, put the car away and thought nothing was wrong. The next day, tried to start the car and no luck. After having it towed to our Toyota dealer, we discovered just how much of a problem we had. The gas was "bad" for whatever reason and it had damaged all the spark plugs, the catalytic convertor, the fuel injectors to name a few of the difficulties. We contacted Shell Oil and they were positive it was not their gasoline. The mechanic showed us some of the gasoline he had removed from the tank. Not the usual color of gasoline. Some was sent to Shell Oil. Then another car showed up at the Toyota dealer with the same problems. After many dollars in repairs and an almost two year wait for reimbursement, we had to get rid of the car. It was never the same. We weren't asking for total compensation for the repairs, the car wasn't new, but we did want some help in defraying the cost of repair. Never did find out if there were more than the two cars damaged, but our perfectly good Cressida never ran the same, even with all the new parts...and that included a few sets of fuel injectors as well as a couple of catalytic convertors.

Hope it's nothing as serious.

[tpop1]

Luckily there should not be any residual issues.

From what I have learned, the problem with ethanol is that it does not have as much enery as gasoline and a high concentration causes harder starting, particularly with a cold engine and causes less gas milaged to be obtained.

Should not have caused damage to car!!!

[Rag Bagger]

NY, Thanks for the update. I wonder how that much ethanol could get in the mix? That's a high concentration. Maybe that former Gas guy can chime in here. How could the ethanol get to be such hich concentration?

NY keep us posted on Sam's comments.

It is true that ethanol will cause a car to get lower MPG because it has a lower BTU rating than gasoline and therfore has less energy capability per gallon. I can see that causing a starting problem.

[LARRYR]

Originally Posted by Rag ******

NY, Thanks for the update. I wonder how that much ethanol could get in the mix? That's a high concentration. Maybe that former Gas guy can chime in here. How could the ethanol get to be such hich concentration?

NY keep us posted on Sam's comments.

It is true that ethanol will cause a car to get lower MPG because it has a lower BTU rating than gasoline and therfore has less energy capability per gallon. I can see that causing a starting problem.

As far as I know, there are EPA laws against that kind of concentration of Ethanol in gasoline. I suppose a mistake could be made in mixing at the terminal, but that is a huge mistake. I still think it could be diesel fuel mixed with gasoline which is a more benign mistake. To the poster that doubted that this could happen, truckers do not have separate trucks for diesel and gas deliveries. If you do not flush out the compartments after deliveries the mistake is easy. In the 10 years as a petroleum distributor I encountered bad gas from Diesel contamination more than 30 times at a considerable cost to correct, including replacing the "bad gas" and customer car problems. I encountered contamination from too much ethanol 0 times either at my stations or others that I had contact with. Ethanol is not good for car engines. If you like to keep a car for a long period of time and many miles try and find gasoline with the least amount of ethanol, preferably none.