did i get bad gas or is it worse?

[Milo2361]

I did a search for my symptoms and most of the answers i found i definitely don't have the means to do in the position that i am in right now.

I filled up 92 octane at a shell station about an hour ago. it's about 7 miles from my parking garage. ran great(as usual) until i was about a mile away, my idle suddenly dropped from the 950 it was at to like 500 - - REALLY rough running, almost sounds like its on 5 cyl(yes, all spark plugs are fine, distributor not cracked, no moisture)

stumbling idle, stumbles on acceleration, tiny backfires upon lifting the gas pedal. my dad told me bad gas would have started screwing with it almost right away, not after 6 or 7... i have nowhere to siphon out 20 gal of gas either! help!

[Rot 911]

Gas tank in front, engine in rear. 6 feet of fuel line, plus a big gas filter. It could easily take 6-7 miles before the bad gas got to the engine. If it is bad gas, the gas is going to have to come out. If it is bad gas, the more you accellerate the more sputtering you should get. I suspect it is as things came on so quickly after filling up.

[ossiblue]

+1 on bad gas.

If there was water in the gas, it will have been in suspension for a while due to the pumping and agitation while filling the tank. The water then, woulld begin to settle to the bottom of your tank as it falls out of suspension, and be sucked into your engine. Just one possiblity that could explain your problem. Changing gas is an easy and relatively cheap first attempt at a remedy.

[Milo2361]

if there is water in the gas, if i dumped some HEET water remover in it, it should take care of it i hope. not really interested in losing $36.25 - that and i dont know of any place i can dump 20 gal. of bad gas at.

[ClickClickBoom]

Originally Posted by Milo2361

if there is water in the gas, if i dumped some HEET water remover in it, it should take care of it i hope. not really interested in losing $36.25 - that and i dont know of any place i can dump 20 gal. of bad gas at.

I hear baby ducks and baby seals are quite absorbent!
BAAHAA
eric
P.S. Puppies and kittens are great for axle grease, I have a yellow lab that proves that daily!

[Joe Bob]

Call your local agency that regulates "Weights and Measures" they will sample your gas and the stations. They...at least in CA...regulate adulterated/contaminated fuel.

You will get reimbursed for the fuel, disposal costs and the repairs. DO IT NOW before they get another fuel drop. Save your receipt.

[Milo2361]

i called weights and measurements and they're closed on weekends the gas station was really snappy with me about it when i called and asked if they had any other complaints. total weekend ruiner. i hope it hasnt messed anything up.

Shell 92 octane non enthanol. - the guy bout shat his pants when i told him the engine rebuild is $10,000 and he gets to pay for it if its messed up and W&M determines its the gas.

[Flieger]

That's telling them! Go get 'em!

[Zeke]

Yes, the gas station people do not like to have to deal with the W and M folks. But if you have water in your gas, take out the sender unit and pump some gas from the bottom being careful to get your hose to the very bottom. You will need to replace the gasket, but you can do that later if you don't have a full tank.

If you don't find water after you've let a gallon or so settle for awhile, you might consider other problems. I thought for sure I had bad gas a couple of years ago on a domestic car. I had the people do the test and it came out clean. It was the car after all.

BTW, another thing you can do is on the CIS system is pump gas right out of an injector line. There are threads on that method. Be careful is all I can say.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

In 55 years of driving, I have never had "bad gas," nor do I know anybody who for a fact has had any. I've always thought it was a myth and an automatic immediate answer for a myriad of other problems. I'll be interested to see if this thread proves me wrong.

But then my father-in-law, a conservative old cuss who had a stack of "rules," always said to never get gas at a station where you see a tanker offloading. Said it stirs up the sediment at the bottom of the tanks.

[Milo2361]

if it isnt the gas, is it normal for these kinds of problems to just suddenly happen? it isnt running good enough to even drive it right now. anywhere.

[Zeke]

I'm with you Steve, and furthermore, the new tanks don't have the problems the older ones did when your f-in-l was buying most of his gas. Many people don't know about this and/or don't even think about it.

Originally Posted by Milo2361

if it isnt the gas, is it normal for these kinds of problems to just suddenly happen? it isnt running good enough to even drive it right now. anywhere.

sometimes.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Milo, I would think there are a zillion things that could happen to make a car start running terribly in an instant. Some crucial piece of wiring suddenly coming adrift or breaking, for example. Imagine this had happened two weeks after the last time you got gas. The last thing in the world you'd think of would be "bad gas," and you'd be imagining a host of other scenarios.

[mongrelcat]

There was a legit story about bad gas in Washington, last year:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/364597_gas26.html

[pozee]

If you're going to go the W&M route, don't dump anything in there.

Remove your sender and take a peek in there with a flash light. Do you see any junk around the outlet or mesh?

[Joe Bob]

I work for another agency that regulates gas stations. I filled up and didn't even make it up the on ramp before it fell on it's face. I called them and left a message and they about shat all over themselves making it right. I have a rather distinctive last name.....I didn't have to use the W&M route but I do refer others to them when I get a mis-routed call on bad fuel.

[mca]

Originally Posted by Formerly Steve Wilkinson

But then my father-in-law, a conservative old cuss who had a stack of "rules," always said to never get gas at a station where you see a tanker offloading. Said it stirs up the sediment at the bottom of the tanks.

Funny, I was told that same thing on Friday. Sounds legit.

[Milo2361]

i guess suddenly was a little more gradual.... gradually sudden may be the words. thinking back on the incident, driving back into lincoln, at the first light i hit i noticed my idle bounce a little. i was like hm.... ok... so i drove to the next light, and it dropped to 500rpm i was like WTF? then driving to the next light, it started to accelerate fine, and then when i slowed down i had slight backfiring. idle still 500 ish, then on the drive between light 3 and 4, (yeah just my luck i hit all reds) it was stumbling badly.

sadly, before the W&M comment was made i had already dumped a 20gal treatment dosage of HEET in it. i got it back to my parking garage O-K. still running like crap but this time it actually drove.


Also

Quote:
Originally Posted by Milo2361 View Post
if there is water in the gas, if i dumped some HEET water remover in it, it should take care of it i hope. not really interested in losing $36.25 - that and i dont know of any place i can dump 20 gal. of bad gas at.

Quote:
Originally posted by ClickClickBoom

I hear baby ducks and baby seals are quite absorbent!
BAAHAA
eric
P.S. Puppies and kittens are great for axle grease, I have a yellow lab that proves that daily!

that post was totally irrelevant to my situation. by the way, I HATE ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST HIPPIES. there's a 5 point buck's head hangin' on my wall at home. hope that offends you.

[Hugh R]

Originally Posted by Formerly Steve Wilkinson

In 55 years of driving, I have never had "bad gas," nor do I know anybody who for a fact has had any. I've always thought it was a myth and an automatic immediate answer for a myriad of other problems. I'll be interested to see if this thread proves me wrong.

About 20 years ago, I was on expert witness on a plane that crashed killing half a dozen parachuters in Riverside, CA. It was indeed "bad gas". Lots of water in the tank from the irrigation system runoff IIRC. The tank was almost empty, and the FAA found something like a foot of water in the bottom of the tank.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

As a pilot for not quite as long as I've been a driver--42 years--I'm familiar with water in avgas, and though I don't know how "expert" a witness you were, the only airplanes I've ever flown that had fuel tanks deep enough to hold a foot of water were the B-17 and the Lockheed Constellation. I've seen half an inch of water in a typical badly contaminated aircraft tank, but that's about it. What was the jump plane type? If it had a foot of fuel in the tank(s), which I frankly say is baloney, somebody must have put a hose into it at midnight.

There are dozens of ways water can get into aircraft fuel tanks, and virtually none of them have anything to do with a contaminated fuel source--i.e. "bad gas" from being refueled, which is what we're talking about in this thread.

So I'm still curious: did the original poster find that his problem was "bad gas" or, as I originally said I suspected, something else?