Hundreds Left Stranded After Fuel Gauge Failures

[Don_G]

Apparently, this is going on in the Louisville, KY area, the Toledo, OH region and in Pennsylvania also.

Are any other regions affected by this?

Link: http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/05/18ky/A1-gas0518-6393.html

[Az_lefty]

1. Weird, haven't heard of this in Az.

[Occulus]

2. Damn peculiar,

but it seems like they should be able to narrow it down.

[BiggJawn]

3. Sounds like an Urban Legend...

So a bunch of yuppies and "NASCAR Dads" who've never let their tanks go below 1/2 are finding out that the gauges aren't accurate when you're on fumes trying to find that station you saw the day before that was at $1.93-9...

I worked in a gas station. Every night, we'd "stick" the tanks. What this involved was the high-tech procedure of taking a calibrated rod of wood, smearing a little "indicator paste" on the end, then sticking it down into the tank. You checked for 3 things when you brought it up, first, the level of gas in the tank, second, you'd look to see if there were flakes of rust or whatever in the paste, and most importantly, you'd check to see what colour the paste was. If it was BRIGHT purple, you had water in the tank, and that was it, the tank was condemmed, and they'd have to come pump-flush-refill.

People who claimed "you sold me a tank of water" were full of shit, and I had a few of those. The way we'd handle them is to re-stick the tank and tell them they must have got their water elsewhere. If I had sold them 15 gallons of water, then how did they even get down the street after filling up? after their injectors (well, back then it was carburettors) ran the residual gas out and started sucking the water out of the tank....

What actually happens is that the tanks in the vehicles were more empty than full, and with the weather we've had lately in this part of the country, it's very possible that what they've gotten in their tanks is condensate. moisture in the air (humidity) condensing out into water, which does NOT mix with gasoline...

[Don_G]

4. It's Not An Urban Legend

The same problem is happening and reported in 3 different areas of the US; north central Kentucky, northwest Ohio and Pennsylvania according to a "google" search.

The gas or something seems to be affecting the float gage inside the tank itself to the point that all three areas are now analyzing the fuel to determine what the problem may be.

It hasn't affected me (yet) but I'm still curious to see if other areas of the country have been affected.

On edit: I worked at a C-store myself and know the problem, but it has affected quite a few cars and in different regions.

[pretzel4gore]

7. the term for that is 'ullage'

it's what's 'wantage' to fill up a tank.
tho airplanes have fuel gauges, pilots iggy them and are suppose to know exactly how much fuel they using, how much is left, with a (for small private prop planes) reserve of 45 minutes. once fuel becomes expensive, same thing will happen in cars, for a different reason. when the stuff's precious, you KNOW when you're low ;)

[slaveplanet]

5. easy solution

mechanical float , electrical sender...like the good old days ....when those went out it was a matter of drain,drop, replace pickup...about $25US if you did it yourself and bought parts from JCwhitney....now everything is inside the tanks, my father had this happen on his 01' SaaB...$1000 and not covered by warranty, this almost sounds like a designed in failure, to hawk parts or to sell newer models.

[Don_G]

6. Here And In Ohio

It's getting to the "Class Action" status because of the number of people affected. I'm wondering if the refineries have mistakenly added a "secret ingredient" to the reformulated gas that doesn't belong and if other areas are affected.