Contaminated fuel from fuel stations

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There's a new issue emerging where water (& other contaminant) have damaged car engines after fuelling up.
There's always a good chance of some moisture at the bottom of car or station fuel tanks but this seems to have got worse since the ethanol has been added.
Living in the land of wind& rain where humidity hovers between 70&100% humidity is there a petrol additive that gets rid of any possible water in the tank?

We are currently on a diet of E5
 
Those stations need to have their tanks inspected for water intrusion. Underground tank temperatures don't really change drastically fast enough for condensation to form. I see you're in the UK, so I can't speak for the conditions over there.

Here, when I gauge the level of an underground tank before I drop product...I'm verifying 2 things. #1, make sure my load will fit. #2, I test for water. If water is present...REGARDLESS of the amount...I don't drop product and the store has to have the matter investigated. Often, they aren't allowed to sell any gasoline until it is resolved.
 
There are very rare isolated cases where a gas station hasn't properly maintained their storage and water gets in, and like 20 cars all at once fail right near the station. It makes news and the station is forced to fix the issue. But again, rare.
 
I can't say that I've ever personally seen any fuel contamination issues from a fuel station around here and we also have high humidity and plenty of wind and rain. I have heard of fuel contamination on very rare occasions-maybe once or twice.
 
Never really heard of it around here. I think several years ago there was some new regulation or law that required a lot of gas stations to replace their gas tanks and a lot of smaller mom and pop type gas stations went out of business because they didn't want to spend the money upgrading their tanks.
 
Tank replacement was to keep gas from leaking out, not water coming in. The old style single wall steel tanks are almost certain to rust through, and the leakage is hard to detect until a large quantity has escaped.
 
Something happened at the WalMart gas station in Crosby, TX last month, can't seem to find out what. There are a bunch, 5-7 of those tanks dropped off by Mack trucks, and the pumps are all closed. No digging. Yet. We did have flooding from Imelda, maybe something to do with that.
 
Originally Posted by Chris142
Here in California(and I assume the rest of the usa) bad or contaminated fuel just does not happen.

It's rare.

The last big incident I remember around Chicago was 2012 where the local BP refinery shipped out a batch of fuel with some sort of polymeric residue in it, and it caused hard-start/no-start for cars that got hold of the fuel.
 
I'm pretty sure I experienced contaminated gas once. The car ran like crap as soon as I left the station. It took burning off the entire tank for the car to act right again.
 
Only problem I've had was contaminated diesel, had gasoline in the diesel tank (Speedway). I wasn't completely out, so the van still ran, just badly. Dealer was a little stumped by it at first, they found it after they changed SIX 6.0 PSD injectors first!
 
Originally Posted by mk378
Tank replacement was to keep gas from leaking out, not water coming in. The old style single wall steel tanks are almost certain to rust through, and the leakage is hard to detect until a large quantity has escaped.


Either way, if gas is getting out...you can be certain water can get in.
 
Once upon a time I had an three year old S60 that I ran exclusively on mid grade from a First Nations Indian gas station (was the cheapest).
After getting home I shut the car off, only to have it never start again.
Turns out the entire tank was filled with slushy brown fluid.
After reaching out to the station, they agreed to paying the entire repair bill as well as any additional maint. work the dealer did.

The station went out of business shortly thereafter, despite being very busy.
Turns out I wasn't the only one who got the bad batch.
 
I got a load of Diesel in my '03 Marauder about 2 years ago. Filled put around 8 gallons of what I thought was premium and drove home 8-ish miles. By the time I got home the exhaust was smoking and had a distinct "diesel" smell.

Turns out the delivery truck had filled the in-ground tank THAT DAY with diesel, and I was one of the first to use it. Super America (now Speedway) was very easy to deal with and they paid for all the repairs.

Lucky for me, I fix cars! So I got an estimate, in writing, for ~$1,700 in repairs (injectors, fuel pump, spark plugs, labor to drain the tank and dispose etc etc). I never stopped driving the car, other than a few low power moments and some smoke it ran pretty well. I just kept diluting the tank every day until I had run 2-3 tanks of fresh fuel through it. I replaced the plugs, the fuel filter (twice), and the car was totally fine.

I think all in I was out $30 for 8 Motorcraft plugs and $8 each for the fuel filters. Speedway cut me a check for $1,400, which I happily cashed. Heck, that's 1/3 of what I paid for the car BACK! So in the end, it worked out for me.
 
Originally Posted by rekit
Something happened at the WalMart gas station in Crosby, TX last month, can't seem to find out what. There are a bunch, 5-7 of those tanks dropped off by Mack trucks, and the pumps are all closed. No digging. Yet. We did have flooding from Imelda, maybe something to do with that.


Thanks for posting that. I work with lots of Crosby folks here in Baytown. I will put the word out!
 
Was at the WM yesterday and they are pumping gas and down to 3 portable tanks. Asked around and all I got was there was "some sort of leak". Still no digging and there appeared to be a PVC "rigged" vent on the south side of the gas station office.
 
Sounds like in general this is not an issue for you guys. Maybe petrol stations have tighter guideline than over here. Interesting comment about the delivery driver checking for water before filling. I will quiz my nearby stations on their fill up practices.
Here the issue it big enough to have been analysed in. Tv program.
Few years back we had problems with silicon in the fuel in supermarkets fuel causing engine fault.
I have come across red line water remover which may be a good insurance for us
 
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