Ever get a bad tank of fuel?

My Corolla started running and idling really rough after its last fillup. Even had trouble making it up a mountain this morning. My coworker who commutes with me even noticed it, and he's completely oblivious with cars.

I pulled over and filled it up with 93 octane, and it immediately seemed to idle and run better. My coworker also noticed how much better it seemed to be running.

Thoughts? Could it have just been a bad tank of fuel?

I have a friend that has a gas station and got 3000 gallons of bad gasoline. There was something in it that ate up high pressure fuel pumps. Strangely, if it had a carb and a low / no pressure pump, like a mower or an old Ford, no problem. Cost his insurance company a bunch of cash for repairs.

There was a station near us that got a bad batch, but the results were much more dramatic. Cars that filled up were dying a few blocks away. A girl that I know was one of them and she got a new engine out of the deal.

Picked some QT up once. The F150 started running like E36 M3. Since it had two tanks I was able to flip back and fourth between tanks. When I put it on the BP tank, it ran just fine.

Guaranteed gasoline, my ass.

I went to pick a new car up (the E30 of Doom, in fact, ran when parked, hadn't moved in 4 years) with my Tundra. I loaded the car on the trailer in the pouring rain and then stopped for fuel at a gas station in Hellertown PA (100 miles from home). I got 30 feet from the station before the truck died. I had pumped about 17 gallons of water into the tank... the number of broken cars around the pumps left no real argument about who was paying so I went in, exchanged info... and arranged for a tow.

The tow truck said he couldn't come for 2hrs and I had my then 5yr old with me, it was miserable raining and ... I did just buy an E30. So... I took the battery out of the truck and the bastard of an E30 fired right up. So... no inspection, no tags, dry-rotted mismatched tires, dry rotted wipers, half a tank of 4yr old gas and monsoon rainstorm? OK. Off we went for home. It wasn't the most relaxed ride... but it went off without a hitch (pun intended).

The truck showed up the next day with the trailer in tow... the gas station paid $740 dollars for the repair at the yota dealer and $260 for the towing. The E30 is still out in the garage (albeit a bit "transformed").

I've had a number of cars - a C4 Corvette, wife's Quad 4 Oldsmobile - that ran badly on certain brands of cheap gas. The gas stations attached to some Krogers were repeat offenders; they always would run fine on Amoco/BP, QuickTrip, or Shell. It would just kind of hiccup and miss if you used cheap gas. Not especially dramatic next to the stories above, but very consistent.

I have had similar experience several times. It usually means the tanks at the station were low on fuel. Put in several bottles of drygas/fuel treatment and maybe change the fuel filter. I had it happen on a Motorhome with a 90 gallon tank and had to carry spare filters with me and change on the side of the road for months until it finally cleared.

There is a local Hess station I won't buy from anymore. I've gotten several bad tanks of gas from them.

Well, I hope it was just bad tank of fuel. I guess I'll find out on the way home if I have trouble making it up the mountain again. I really want my Toyota to last another 6-8 months.

I stopped at a BP once in an '86 Subaru GL wagon and apparently filled up a bad tank full. I hit the road and the car ran terribly and was just sucking gas -- the car was barely running and it went through a quarter tank of gas in about 20 miles or so. As I continued my trip, every time I would get down to about a quarter tank, I'd stop and top off and the car started running better and better with each top-off.

To their credit, I wrote to or called BP (it was about 17 years ago, so I don't recall the specifics) and when I sent them the receipt from the gas station, they sent me a refund check. Didn't do any permanent damage, and I've never had any other troubles with BP gas or even that specific station.

Every time I get fuel in Illinois. Must be some goofy fuel recipe that they have in that region. My Ohio E10-tuned car runs fine on Indiana fuel, runs fine on Missouri fuel, runs like poo on Illinois fuel, like the stuff is not volatile enough or something. Stutters and misfires at low load and clears up with heavier throttle.

I've heard similar from other people, including from someone who feeds his car E85. Said his knock counts went off the charts just driving down the highway until he refueled.

Oddly enough, my Uncle was ranting about a bad tank of gas yesterday. He bought it from Exxon.

My old motorcycle had an issue once after a fill up on a road trip. I was on fumes, and as soon as we got back on the road, it started running rough. My buddy said "I was a afraid of that". He said that there was a tanker filling up the underground tanks while I was filling up. He said that this stirred up the tanks and you could get old, stale gas from the bottom of the tanks. It ran rough for the entire tank, and went away the next fill up.

The ethanol blends tend to go bad more quickly and the older stations may have tanks with more sediment in them. Both can contribute to bad gas.

Only time I got a bad tank was at some little middle of nowhere station off the highway(water). A couple gallons of E10 from another station cleared it right up.

I try to only buy gas at truck stops when I'm on the highway, and really high volume places in the city, this prevents most issues.

I was once told that a tanker would stir sediment/water off the bottom and it would take a while to settle back down. I try not to buy when a tanker is filling the tanks.

Ran almost fine on the way home, so I guess she just had food poisoning.

Filled up my 328i up at the Shell up the road from home. Car was running a little funny when I got home (1/4 mile) and didn't make it out of the sub devision later before dying. Roadside assistance took it off to the dealer since it was still under the CPO warranty.
Dealer said they had to use a torch to get the fuel? in the tank to burn on the floor. $1500 in repairs and towing later the BMW was whole again.
I called Shell corporate directly and they paid for it once everything was documented and verified. I had to sign an agreement that I couldn't come back for more after the initial bills were paid but it was relatively painless overall. The station didn't have a price on their sign for mid-grade for months afterwards. While I'm pretty sure they didn't mean for us to have that issue, we haven't been back to the station since.

It doesn't only happen to cars. I spent the better part of this afternoon fixing the results of a bad tank of LPG on a forklift.

There was liquefied petroleum something in that cylinder, but it wasn't propane.

pinchvalve wrote: My old motorcycle had an issue once after a fill up on a road trip. I was on fumes, and as soon as we got back on the road, it started running rough. My buddy said "I was a afraid of that". He said that there was a tanker filling up the underground tanks while I was filling up. He said that this stirred up the tanks and you could get old, stale gas from the bottom of the tanks. It ran rough for the entire tank, and went away the next fill up.

This happened to my brother once on his motorcycle. I was with him but I, fortunately, did not require fuel. We thought it stirred up sediment or something. That was in New Jersey.

Interestingly-enough, I am pretty sure it's illegal sell gas in New York while the tanks are being filled. I believe this because EVERY TIME I went to the Hess station on Northern Blvd and Steinway St., the stupid place was off-line while they filled the tanks. Maybe it was a Hess thing?

Great story from GPS. I have one, somewhat similar, that I don't have time to type. My experience has been that the real, gas horror stories usually involve water and, sometimes, quite a lot of water.

I remember driving my sister's ZX2 cross-country from L.A. to Boston a few years ago. Somewhere in the Midwest (Nebraska? South Dakota?) we stopped at a Love's truck stop and filled the tank up with their regular gas. The normally zippy ZX2 started feeling very sluggish only a few minutes after we hopped back on the highway. Power, engine response, and fuel economy were all down significantly (like 24mpg vs. 34mpg normally). We got a receipt and when I looked at it I noticed we had filled up with 85 octane! Once the tank dwindled to about 1/4 left we pulled into another station (not Love's) and made sure we got 87 octane. The ZX2 ran fine soon after that.

I guess 85 octane is meant for high-altitude driving? Not that we were near any mountains on that part of the drive.

Chevron made a batch of Av gas a few years ago in California (jet fuel got mixed into it). Lots of it got used at the Watsonville Fly In (lots of classic planes).

Chevron bought a LOT of VERY expensive engine rebuilds.

N Sperlo wrote: Picked some QT up once. The F150 started running like E36 M3. Since it had two tanks I was able to flip back and fourth between tanks. When I put it on the BP tank, it ran just fine. Guaranteed gasoline, my ass.

If your engine had been damaged, yes, they would have fixed the damage.

They don't guarantee it's 100% perfect all the time, they can't. They promise to fix any damage that results from imperfect fuel.

We had a local guy fill up from a gas station a few years ago in his '09 M3.....I think his car alone cost the gas station on the order $5-6k for the dealer to replace the entire fuel system.

Never had damage, but I've certainly developed misfires and other problems with gas that went away with a new tank. It seems to happen to my van with Sunoco gas or various generic places, but not usually the busier stations (i'm guessing fresher gas) or mobile.