Bought some bad gasoline....need some input

I was travelling on Memorial Day and stopped in north Texas at a Valero station to fill up. I have a 2011 Lexus IS 250, bought it about three months ago and it’s the best car I"ve ever had. I still hope it is. About 5 miles or so after I filled up I noticed the car was having some trouble accelerating on hills wih the cruise control. The car also gets about 30-33MPG highway, and it was running about 24MPG, way below normal. I was in the middle of nowhere and after about 20 miles I came to a very small town with one stop sign. I stopped, and as I started back up, the car hesitated and sputtered before I made it through the intersection. I pulled over and stopped the car and tried to figure out what to do. First of all, nothing was open in the town. The next decent-sized town was about 10 more miles down the road, which would probably have some dealerships, auto parts stores, and mechanics, but being Memorial Day, I had serious doubts anything was open. I was pretty certain it was the gas, but I didn’t know whether I could get somewhere for help. As no idiot lights had come on, I figured my options were limited but I would drive to the next town and see if something was open. I got there, but the dealerships I saw were closed. Then I went by an auto parts store that was open. I went in and the first thing they recommended was Seafoam. Then a second employee said no way, that will void your warranty, and knew of cases where it had. Even another customer sugggested Seafoam. Finally, one employee called a Toyota dealership that was open about 25 miles away and got a service advisor to speak with me. He said it could be water, but it could also be that the ethanol mix was higher than it should be in the gas and, since it burns premium, it was taking a toll. Both he and the store employees suggested, if I felt the car was not going to stall out, to stop every 75 miles or so and fill up with “good” gas to dilute the “bad” gas. I stopped twice more on the way to Houston and ended up adding about 8 gallons to a 17 gallon tank. After both stops, the car was driving a little better and the gas mileage improved. By the time I got to Houston, I was only able to notice hesitation upon starting from a dead stop. I took it to the Lexus dealer the next day (after it took three times to start), and, of course they were “unable to replicate my problem” (love the language they use). I picked the car up as they were closing and, sure enough, it hesitated and sputtered at every start-stop on the way home. I went and put in 5 more gallons of gas. The next day I called the dealership again and they said bring it in and they would have a mechanic ride with me. But, I drove through my neighborhood and made about a dozen start/stops, but with little hesitation (still had some). I called them and cancelled the appointment, as it was obvious I wouldn’t be able to “replicate the problem”. They did say to put some Chevron Techron in it when it was nearly empty and then fill the tank.

So now I"m wondering. Do I have any permanent damage? Should I use the Chevron Techron the dealership recommmended or go with the Seafoam, which so many people have recommended? Are there other options I am unaware of? BTW, the gas station said they checked the fuel and it has no water in it, and that they had no other complaints (besides mine, of course).

Got 3/4 of a tank left, still have some hesitation, nothing at highway speeds, but need to know what to do when the tank gets low. Any input or advice would be much appreciated, and sorry for the long post!

The best thing to do in hind sight, might have been be to stop, drain the tank immediately and replace all filters. At this time it may be more a filter problem then gas that’s left. I would have it drained, change filter and start from square one.

It’s not too late to drain the tank and change the filter. Water in the tank is very hard to remove by driving it out. It is heavier than gas, so it sits at the bottom of the tank just below the fuel pump inlet. It will take a few tankfuls to pull it all out with the pump. Ditto for the filter. Once in the filter can, it will want to sit in it as the lighter fuel tries to go around it.

I’ve heard that adding a bottle of Heet will help draw out the water. It was made just for that reason. But, as it is still under warranty, I’d bite the bullet and have the tank drained and filter changed.

I wouldn’t hesitate putting Seafoam in the gas tank. One of the advantages of Seafoam is it absorbs moisture so it can be removed from the gas tank.

Tester

I got a bad tank of diesel once 200 miles from home. The last 80 miles I was down to about 25 mph. The dealer replaced the fuel filter and then I was replacing them about every 5000 miles. Finally I just pulled the tank and emptied it. It was full of slime and water and the car was about 6 months old. I think the dealer should have dropped and cleaned the tank and I don’t think you will be happy until that is done. All someone has to do is leave the cap to the tank at the station a little ajar and in a rain, the tank will fill. I think its more common than people realize.

This thread is 100% guesswork…Modern corporate filling stations take great care in handling and delivering their product…If you had gotten “bad gas” hundreds of other customers would have gotten it too and would be demanding satisfaction…Todays gasoline usually contains 10% ethanol, which makes “water in the gas” almost impossible. Even a small amount of water in the underground tank would cause the ethanol / gasoline mixture to separate, the water-ethanol sinking to the bottom of the storage tank and today, setting off alarms inside the station…

The “bad gas” complaint will get you nowhere unless there are MANY other people complaining or you can produce a sample of the contaminated fuel that was removed from your tank by a dealership…

So,Burn off the remaining fuel in your tank, fill it up and perhaps replace your fuel filter and drive on…

Caddyman, thanks for your response, and for all the others. The parent company of the gas station has had a rep call me twice after I called and reported the problem. He said they checked the gas and it didn’t show any water. Now, he may be playing me for a fool, but he seems entirely sincere and serious about what went wrong. He said they had no other complaints, but it was a weird deal. I accidentally (or so I thought) hit the button and some gas sprayed out before I put it in the tank. And the tank filled up VERY quickly, which was sort of weird to me also. I tend to think that it may be as the Toyota service advisor said, the batch got mixed with too much ethanol (as many are complaining that the new 15% ethanol mix won’t work with performance engines), and my engine just is having trouble burning it, as ethanol just doesn’t provide the same energy as pure gasoline. And it may be more noticeable since I burn premium in this car.

BTW, even the gas company rep was perplexed as to why Lexus didn’t at least draw some gas out to test. I"m not very impressed with Lexus service thus far.

Speculation I know, but all I have are the common sense facts. I had no problem. I bought gas. I started having problems almost immediately. Every time I put new gas in the car and diluted the mix, performance improved marginally. I think that anyone would say that common sense would dictate there was something wrong with the gas I bought.

I’m thinking your response may be what I do. I’m going to talk to my local mechanic instead of the Lexus dealership. Even if I put an additive in (be it Techron or Seafoam), you are supposed to run the tank nearly empty. And if you change out the fuel filter (at least on the Lexus), the tank should be near empty also. I’ll talk to my local guy tomorrow. The only question to me is whether I should change out the fuel filter, but to be safe, I think I will. And I know my local guy will be tons cheaper to do that than Lexus, and can get the same exact filter.

Thanks for all your responses. I’ll still check back to see if anything else is added, but I certainly appreciate all the other opinions and information.

Well I definately got a tank of bad diesel. last week in Sioux Falls, it was reported that several cars had to have their tanks dumped from several different stations due to water in the gas. Last year in Mankato and surrounding southern Minnesota, there were a lot of stations that had gotten a bad mixture of ethanol from the supplier. So it affected many stations and several states and several tankers that had filled up from the same refinery. Caddy may be right but for me, the problems didn’t go away until I dropped the tank and cleaned it.

Diesel fuel is a completely different animal…Different rules apply…ANY kind if contamination means serious trouble…

This year the Indy cars ran on E-85…High Performance engines LOVE ethanol if they are set up to burn it…It’s easy to blame problems on “bad fuel” if that fuel is never tested…

The correct procedure would have been to drain the fuel tank the MOMENT bad fuel was suspected, saving a sample for future testing. Refilling the car with fresh fuel and checking for engine performance problems. If operation returns to normal, have fuel tested and pursue the supplier if contaminated fuel is found. If operation does NOT return to normal, diagnose problem and repair…

Down here in FL a lot of motorists complained to the FL weights and measures as to bad gas at this one station and this was on the local news…They found 25% ethanol in the regular grade and almost 30% in the premium grade and were shut down so it is possible excess ethanol could cause the same issues as watered gas.

Yes it could but there would be hundreds of angry motorists clamoring for redress not just one…

Several years ago at a nearby station, a delivery driver made a mistake and dumped his Diesel fuel into the regular storage tank…Within an hour, dozens of angry motorists were clamoring at the station, arriving by taxi, their cars stalled out on the road or dead in parking lots…TV News trucks, the whole three ring circus…So this kind of stuff DOES happen…But it’s not rocket science to find the cause and cure the problems…SeaFoam and Techron are not the solution…

Just sucks.