Bad Gas Saga

[MIranger2000]

There is a question at the end of this story regarding 'bad gas' . If you've never had a problem with the fuel you've put in your vehicle, you may want to skip this Thread.

On a recent trip from KY to MI, I stopped in Central IL to get fuel for my 2000 Ford Ranger (3.0L) with the flex fuel sensor. I was towing a boat, and had dang near a bone dry gas tank. My tank specs are for approx. 16.8 gallons of fuel and I filled up at a service station with Regular Unleaded gasoline (87 Octane) with approx. 17.2 gallons.

After driving nearly 130 miles, I had a loss of power and severe "chugging" from the engine. At first I thought it was the transmission, but about 1 mile after the engine started chugging, the vehicle lost all power (died). I ran through all the checks I could and narrowed things down to the fuel system. I found the spark plugs to be heavily coated with carbon. For giggles, I cleaned them off and replaced the wires and restarted the truck. I got it running (extremely rough), but black smoke/soot shot out of the tailpipe. I couldn't get things well enough and ended up getting towed.

After all was said and done and a mechanic got involved, he told me my fuel was out of range for the vehicle (per computer and sensor diagnostics) and I shouldn't have been able to drive on that fuel in the first place. Apparently the bad fuel also contaminated the flex fuel sensor as 2 gallons of good fuel running through the truck wasn't enough to clean the sensor. It kept kicking on the "check engine" light.

Here's my ultimate question - Has something of this nature happened to anyone else because of bad fuel AND if you were able to recoup the repair cost from the gas station where you bought the fuel, HOW did you do it?

I have all the documentation from the gas purchase receipt up to the repairs.

If you just have comments about fuel systems, please post them to this thread, if you can answer the specific question I asked, please email me directly at: [email protected]

Thanks to everyone in advance. I'll be sure to keep you all posted regarding the BAD GAS SAGA!

[Millermagic]

Up here around the Northeast we have a chain of gas stations called Stewarts. I bought their gas and noticed that my car seemd to ping alot more than normal ... I mean ... pinging going 30 in town. I didn't think anything of it. I bought gas from a Stewarts in another town (this one was actually in the town I live in) and my car ran like crap. It misfired and didn't like to start and I think I got like 10mpg that tank. Switched back to mobile and had no problems.

I think my problem was I either got gas right after they filled the tanks or they just don't pay attention to how much water is in the tanks.