Watered down gas

Texas legislature just passed a bill consuring consumers that recive contaminated gas from a station pump. In the past,consumer called phone # posted on pump and an investigator was sent to station to investigate inaccurate measurement,contaminated fuel or other complaints. Under this old system,judgments have been won against stations and fines levied when smog equipment was damaged. Water was usually the contaminate but greedy merchants have been found adding solvents that had been collected as hazardous waste. New law require's a sample kit be mailed to station with instructions for owner taking sample and returning in pre-paid shipping package. State lab will analize sample and get back to station and consumer with results in 2-3 weeks. How many station owners will be dumb enough to send in a contaminated sample? Gonna be more expensive and difficult for consumer to prove he received bad fuel. I believe Texas is taking up ways of Washington DC.

I?ve always been afraid of getting a tank a bad fuel luckily it has never happened .

I recall a guy who would put 1 part acetone to 10 parts gas in his truck to get rid of waste acetone at his work. Mentioned he had to clean the carb frequently.

Last summer we filled 3 five gallon cans with straight gas, put one in each tractor. All 3 had to have tanks drained. Full of water. I went back filled another can and it had 3 inches of water in bottom. Nice middle Eastern owner said it wasn't his fault. Only station close that sells straight gas. Now my 2 fords and cub are happy wit ethenol blend.

SV, I have that fear too.

Just about every vehicle I have repaired that got a dose of bad gas came from a station that had just opened, usually having a grand opening with low gas prices.

I never go to a new station, or one that has been closed and reopened, or if I have seen the repair crews digging up tanks or lines.

Another thing to watch, don't gas up if the fuel truck is there. If there is trash or water in the bottom of the tank, dumping gas in will have it stirred up.

Also, high volume stations will be less likely to have contaminated tanks. The volume of gas will keep them cleaned out, and they are more likely to be well maintained and have the most up to date equipment.

Another example of the bright boys we have in Austin. A shining example of idiots making the rules.

Seems to me they would have to prove who exactly was at fault. A station owner could get bad gas from their distributor.

Several years ago (1998) I was traveling through Indiana and into Ohio and just across the state line I had stopped for gas in my 93 Chevy K2500 with a very happy running 454 with a 5 speed.
After about 40 more miles I had noticed black smoke from the exhaust and within a few more miles my service engine soon light came on and started to loose power. I stopped to investigate and found nothing obvious. pulled a plug and found darkened but not fouled. I removed battery cable and reset the code and proceeded on. Still smoking but SES light out and ran ok. I did this 3 more times before I got the Ohio -Pa. border.
Just across the border it started to run real bad. I started suspect the gas and filled her up again. I got it cleared again and continued on. Another 80-90 miles she started in again, pulled into a gas station to top it off. Called a buddy who was sort of guru explained it to him and he asked me if I could get the O-2 sensor changed. Which there was a parts store nearby and I proceeded to change it in their parking lot. (good thing I carried tools with me). At his point I had about 240 miles left to get home. Took me several more stops and topping off my gas 2 more times, managed to get her home.
The smoke was starting to diminish by then but still would kick a code.
Next day topped of the fuel again, replaced O-2 sensor again, reset with analyzer. took about a week of running before it finally ran 100% again.
I was told that from a few sources that I got what they called chase gas. Gasoline that was used to flush tanks and piping that may have had other products in them. Never did get to the bottom of it.
Anybody ever hear of this?
It sickened me I feared the worst for the engine in that truck it was real runner, fortunately it went for another 80k before I replaced it at 220k.
I got really conscious about where I fueled after that. I fueled at a high volume station off the interstate in Ohio never thought I'd have these issues.

Will someone explain to me how a gas station owner can get water to mix with gas in a 10,000 gallon tank. I can't get it to stay mixed in a 5 gallon can for more than a few minutes.

I worked at a full serve station in high school. We had people claiming water in our fuel all the time. I would just point to our wrecker that averaged 100 gallon of fuel through it a week and say it runs just fine everyday, then point to the rag hanging out of their fuel neck and ask what the fuse was about. We also had farmers try to pass off gelled up red fuel in their truck as our treated fuel. We didn't sell red fuel and kept a ball jar of our fuel in the fridge every winter for just such occaisions. My Grandpa thought he got water from a station in one of his cans, until I reminded him he had put the can in the back of the truck the night before for morning and we got a rain shower through that night. Moral of the story, most fuel problems are caused by circumstances beyond the station owners control. It happens, but it is rare. In 25 years of auto repair, I know of only 2 instances it was legitimate fuel sration issue, the truck driver dropped diesel in the gasoline tank. Station owner paid for everyone we drained, and we kept the fuel for our use.

The term watering down the gas doesn't mean water, it's other chemicals added to the gas that will mix. The actual water that gets into a tank at the gas station is from either ground water or condensation.

Well if you can't buy gas at new stations, can't buy gas at old stations, can't buy gas at stations where work has recently been done, can't buy gas at stations where work has not recently been done, can't buy gas low volume stations, can't buy gas at high volume stations, can't buy gas where the fuel truck is making a delivery, can't buy gas where the fuel truck has ever made a delivery...

WHERE DO YOU BUY GAS?

Do your vehicles run on unicorn farts and happy thoughts?

Ok, but some of the replies are describing actual water. Second question. What product is available in large quantities to station owners that is cheaper per gallon than gas and will mix with gas?

IS that anyway to talk about the people that control your health care and retirement?

A big problem back in the 1980's and early 1990's where I live. Then the state of New York started fining merchants heavily if caught selling with water obviously added in. Got a couple of bad batches of gas over that time frame and just one tankful in more modern times. I remember dry gas additive being on a multi-shelf diaplay back then near the check out of any fuel retailer. Now, if you want it you have to look around for it in the store.

(quoted from post at 06:18:10 05/15/18) Ok, but some of the replies are describing actual water. Second question. What product is available in large quantities to station owners that is cheaper per gallon than gas and will mix with gas?

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Not much if anything, and that's why it's almost unheard of.

Most of the problems are with actual water, that is not maliciously added to the fuel by the station owner, but seeps into the tank from the rain through a poorly sealed cover, from the ground through ruptures in the tank, or from the air through condensation.

"Second question. What product is available in large quantities to station owners that is cheaper per gallon than gas and will mix with gas?"
The list of products is long and varied,come from paint shops,dry cleaners,machine shops,manufacturing plants to name a few and not just cheaper than gas,haulers are paid to pick up and dispose of them.
Third question. What prompted you to ask?

Chase gas would be the mix of diesel and gas from a transport pipeline. When they talk about fuel pipelines there usually only one running from one place to another. They run gas or diesel through the same pipe. There is always a mix of the two when they switch from one to the other in the pipe line. There are supposed to be checks done on the quality of the fuel before it is sold to distributors. Sometimes it slips by.

OTJ

I?ve been lucky I have most of the fuel Delivered here so I don?t worry too much because I don?t buy much at the station but when I do it always scares me.

I'm not in the gas station business so I can't answer that question. Someone mentioned dumping waste chemicals in the gas instead of paying hazardous waste fees to dispose of. As long as they didn't dump too much they could dump used motor oil or something alcohol was used to clean. If someone has a junk yard they probably have vehicles with old gas in them. It wouldn't take very long before they had barrels of the stuff to dispose of.

(quoted from post at 12:04:39 05/15/18) Chase gas would be the mix of diesel and gas from a transport pipeline. When they talk about fuel pipelines there usually only one running from one place to another. They run gas or diesel through the same pipe. There is always a mix of the two when they switch from one to the other in the pipe line. There are supposed to be checks done on the quality of the fuel before it is sold to distributors. Sometimes it slips by.

OTJ

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Thanks' OTJ I was never sure if it was made up explanation or true. Never pursued the issue, the station I got the fuel from was almost 600 miles from home. Does make good sense.