I AM LIVID: Bad gas & $400+ repair/tow/rental bill

[Kinare]

I don't visit this forum as often as I would like but I really need to blow off some steam here.



I just got a 2004 Prius about a month ago. I had an oil change on 4/15, and on 4/16, I drove to work from home. I was down to two pips when I filled my tank and as I was driving home, not a mile from the station, my engine started chugging a little. I was caught off guard, but babied the accelerator to see if that was the issue. I could glide fine, but accelerating was bad. So bad that I decided to pull off at the next ramp. A mile later (no ramp yet) the engine light was blinking. Then it was steady on. By the time I parked at a different gas station my car was hurting bad =(

So I call a tow truck. Truck comes to get me. I turn the car on and backed it out of the spot then pull forward (it really didn't want to) and something flashes on the screen (probably a complaint about being driven in the current state but I didn't read it). Had it towed to a Toyota dealer. I wrote a good long letter to drop it with the key in the night box. My husband was pretty mad he had to come get me. I had a spate of car issues before I bought my Prius, and he thought I was being careless with the car. I mentioned to him I thought it might be the gas, he said I should fill up more often to counteract any bad gas (wtf? lol). I said that was ridiculous and he reluctantly agreed.

Anyway, I get a call just before noon today. He's not 100% sure, but it appears to be *drumroll* bad gas.

I have the receipt from the station (I track my miles at CleanMPG.com so I always print one). I called weights and measures (the state department at the dept of ag where you can complain about this stuff). They said they'd check it out.

Just wondering if anyone has had to deal with this before? Thanks for letting me vent.

[exbauer]

maybe it was the gas that had disel mixed in?

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-ma...ed-abq-nm.html

[Kinare]

Good to know, because the server rep asked me if I had accidentally put diesel in the tank. Good thing I saved all of my receipts. It's got to be the gas, because nothing was wrong with this car before this.

[ny biker]

Originally Posted by Kinare

Good to know, because the server rep asked me if I had accidentally put diesel in the tank. Good thing I saved all of my receipts. It's got to be the gas, because nothing was wrong with this car before this.

Maybe things are different in your neck of the woods, but I have never been at a gas station where you could "accidently" put diesel in the tank instead of regular gas. It's always a totally different pump - different color and everything. I guess maybe if you didn't know how to read, you wouldn't know the difference, but otherwise it's pretty clear.

Anyway good luck getting this resolved.

[Betelgeuse]

Originally Posted by ny biker

Maybe things are different in your neck of the woods, but I have never been at a gas station where you could "accidently" put diesel in the tank instead of regular gas. It's always a totally different pump - different color and everything. I guess maybe if you didn't know how to read, you wouldn't know the difference, but otherwise it's pretty clear.

Anyway good luck getting this resolved.

Moreover, I believe that the nozzles on diesel pumps are typically larger (i.e. larger diameter), making it very hard (or impossible) to put diesel fuel in a car that uses gasoline.

[DeadPhish]

Interesting and perturbing as well.

Two of my customers ( H & W ) who've purchased four Prius' since 2003 just had a similar experience with their 4th. The Mrs. got down very low and filled it up a minimum amount to get to a normal station. After a short distance the entire screen lit up and it began to 'chug'. She too had to have it towed to us where we had it for a week.

We disconnected the main fuel tank and ran an alternate through the vehicle and it worked fine. Reconnecting the original caused it to go bad again. [drum roll] Bad gas.

[richard schumacher]

Moreover, I believe that the nozzles on diesel pumps are typically larger (i.e. larger diameter), making it very hard (or impossible) to put diesel fuel in a car that uses gasoline.

Correct. A Diesel nozzle in the US will not fit into a gasoline fill pipe, unless some doofus has damaged or removed the constriction. Ghod knows why someone would do that... and of course one can ignore the fact that the nozzle doesn't fit and stand there holding the nozzle while filling the tank. If the OP has a receipt proving that they used the correct pump then the gas station is on the hook for repairs.

[Kinare]

We disconnected the main fuel tank and ran an alternate through the vehicle and it worked fine. Reconnecting the original caused it to go bad again. [drum roll] Bad gas.

Now they are saying they drained the tank and put a tiny bit of their fuel in it and it worked fine. Then the tank was almost out, they filled with more gas and they said it was chugging again Now they have to keep it overnight and try again in the morning. Apparently the problem is so hard that they are calling some Toyota place in California to talk them through the issue. Now he's not as sure that it's bad gas anymore.

They said they would keep a sample of the gas. Hopefully the weights and measures guy will call me and I can give him the sample to test.

[galaxee]

i hope they cleaned out the fuel rails too. sorry to hear of your trouble.

[Michou]

Sorry to hear about your new 04. Be sure the dealer tests the gas and is certain that is what is causing the poor performance. Another issue with the 04-05 Prius is the cowl panel does a terrible job of blocking the water from getting into the spark plug chambers, so that will also contribute to what feels like bad gas.

Heres a link to a page of pics and info from a car we saw a month ago from a woman complaining of bad gas...

Luscious Garage | Hybrid Specialists

Best,

Michou