Bad Gas in Washington

[hdrygas]

I would like to see that as many Washington Residents see this as possible. Most of us do not fill up often but I am not getting gas at my usual Union 76 station until this settles down a bit. Makes one wonder how often this kind of thing happens. There was that sulfur in the gas thing in Louisiana a few months ago.
In case you have not heard ConocoPhillip Union 76 shipped a batch of bad gas to stations from its refinery. Most of it ended up in Skagit and Whatcom counties but reports are spreading south to as far as King county. Symptoms are poor performance particularly with heavy acceleration and up hill. ConocoPhillip will fix the car. I would move to Chevron or Shell for a while. If you start having problems get help quick. There is an 800 number 1-800-527-5476.

SEATTLE --- A bad gas problem that began in Ferndale, Wash., appears to be have spread to four Western Washington counties.
Pat McReynolds reports
The problem was believed to be contained to Skagit and Whatcom counties. But by Saturday, dealers in Snohomish and King counties were getting complaints from drivers who have recently filled up at stations supplied by the ConocoPhillips refinery in Ferndale.
Dealerships from Kirkland to Burlington were being swamped with calls. To some, the bad gasoline has been annoying, while to others it has been downright dangerous because it can affect the car's ability to accelerate.

AP
ConocoPhillips said a heavy polymer accidentally made its way into gas delivered to Union 76 stations and independent stations in Whatcom and Skagit counties.
Nancy Shen was stuck at her home in Kirkland Saturday. Her car was in the shop getting its fuel drained. It stalled when she tried to cross a busy intersection.
"It was a little freaky because there was a car behind me and it started rolling backwards and I had to keep trying to get up the hill," she said.
Dave Dick's car is fairly new and usually problem-free. But last week the engine light came on and his troubles have only gotten worse.

ConocoPhillips is still investigating how the residue got into its gas. Even though a spokesman said the problem still lies in north Puget Sound, the company wants to do right by its customers.
"Our biggest concern here is we want to do the right thing and we don't want anyone to feel that, ‘I'm not in these two counties, therefore I can't call in,’” he said. “We absolutely want them to call in if they feel they've got any issues."
If repairs are required due to this issue, ConocoPhillips will make payment directly to local authorized dealers.
The average cost to drain the gas and change the fuel injectors in the affected cars is about $600.
ConocoPhillips won't say how many drivers have complained.
Drivers who think they have a bad tank of gas should take their cars to an authorized dealership for inspection or call 1-800-527-5476 for more informatio

[Sufferin' Prius Envy]

HEY? . . . Isn’t that stuff TOP TIER gas?
Makes me wonder what we get 99.9% of the time.

[Herb]

And I thought this was going to be a political commentary.

8)

[Wolfman]

I stickied this thread to keep it front and center.

[jayman]

Up here, Shell Canada had a refinery problem a few years back that cost them plenty. Quite a few cars needed expensive work with fuel injectors and tank pumps.

This is another good reason to ask for and save gas station receipts. Even if the refinery doesn't have a problem, what happens if the gas station underground tank happens to spring a leak or the cover is loose, so a lot of water and dirt ends up in your tank?

[hdrygas]

Speaking of Canada I hope Frank in Vancouver is OK. I have no idea how much gas goes back and forth across the border. The refinery in question is just across the boarder. They could make deliveries to Vancouver just as quickly as Seattle and King county. My wife now tells me her car is acting up. I guess we will get it checked out. I got lucky for a change, I filled up at a Chevron last time because several folks thought Chevron and Shell got better milage and I thought I would test it out by buying a few tanks of each. Sometimes you do good, sometimes you get lucky, the important thing is to know the difference.

[Frank Hudon]

Speaking of Canada I hope Frank in Vancouver is OK. I have no idea how much gas goes back and forth across the border. The refinery in question is just across the boarder. They could make deliveries to Vancouver just as quickly as Seattle and King county. My wife now tells me her car is acting up. I guess we will get it checked out. I got lucky for a change, I filled up at a Chevron last time because several folks thought Chevron and Shell got better milage and I thought I would test it out by buying a few tanks of each. Sometimes you do good, sometimes you get lucky, the important thing is to know the difference.

Henry I nomal buy Chevron gas and the station I nomally use is about 1/2 mile from the refinery. When I was down in Lacey I did the whole trip down and back on less than 3/4 of a tank and did 2 day's commute to work and back. We had the Shell debacle here as well, seemed to mainly affect Chrysler products. Biggest problem was the corrosive effect that it had on the fuel gauge sender. Some stalling and plugged fuel filters and some O2 sensor problems as well. There are no Conoco/Phillip's stations here but that doesn't mean there is no cross border traffic in gasoline.

[DaveinOlyWA]

Frank points out another benefit of driving a Prius. infrequent fillups makes it very possible that most Prius owners will have seen this on the news before needing gas.

i first heard of this story on Friday night. but my last fillup was on the 14th and i will probably not get gas until Tuesday at the earliest. besides i always buy Arco so im not worried about it.

another thing to keep in mind is that the gas was also delivered to as many as a dozen different independent gas stations also.

[DanMan32]

Up here, Shell Canada had a refinery problem a few years back that cost them plenty. Quite a few cars needed expensive work with fuel injectors and tank pumps.

This is another good reason to ask for and save gas station receipts. Even if the refinery doesn't have a problem, what happens if the gas station underground tank happens to spring a leak or the cover is loose, so a lot of water and dirt ends up in your tank?

I don't think it was limited to Canada. I've heard of shell having a problem from down here.

[hdrygas]

The TNT (Tacoma News Tribune) had an article this morning that the problem "may have spread to the South Sound" so if there are problems call in.