Can we trust the gas we buy.

[jagco1]

Man guy's this weekend, I was on my way out of town for Father's day, I got about 38 miles in to the ride stop off at a Crown gas station got about 3 gallon's of gas. Pull away from the gas station about 5 min's in to the ride the bike started back firing lose of power man I slowly may it back to the house. I thought at first the carbs was clog up again. But man when I look at the color of my filter and gas and some white stuff in the filter. I knew the gas was bad. I drain all the gas out.

My gas filter was only 7 days old clear not colored.

Install new gas the bike ran find.

"O" I put some of the bad gas in my lawn mower it would run but show a little light black smoke.

I was able to contact the gas station and talk to the manager, He said bring him the gas filter and some of the old gas. He will pay me for my time / gas, and treat me and my wifie out to eat for my troubles - glad I kelp the invoice. And he said I remember your bike the blue vmax. :clapping:

Here's a few pictures

 

[alorio1]

Well, good on the owner of the station, but usually its water in the gas when you get a bad tank full. I don't have any idea what the white particles might be. Maybe somone on here will chime in and know just what they are. This Ethanol stuff is really bad on rubber components of carbs and in tank fuel pumps. I had both carbs replaced on my stihl leaf blower and weed eater from using gas with Ethanol, both were under warranty. The owner of the shop disassembled one of the carbs to show me what Ethanol gas does to rubber parts. The fuel pump diaphrams were stiff as a board.

 

[Traumahawk]

Yuck!!!!

 

[jfeagins]

I think I saw some of those white blobs on an Alien movie back in the 80's. I wonder if that is what sugar looks like when it mixes with gas? Any chance your bike was sabatoged before you left to get gas?

And..........why on earth would you put some of the bad gas in your mower?

 

[Rollie]

I'm a regular customer of the gas station close to a marina. They keep non-E at every one of their 8 pumps @ 90 octane . Carbs on boat motors deterioate very quickly due to lack of use , weather conditions , etc. I usually buy 5 gallons in a container for all my carb mounted motors. unk:

 

[woodsman30]

Last time I got bad bad gas it cost me dearly. New fuel pump had to clean all the fuel injectors and throttle body with new filter. I got that gas at a reservation. Never again will I buy from them anywhere.

 

[Biker Dash]

Here in Maine, all road legal gasoline comes 10% booze. This is not a good thing, cause alcohol is hydroscopic, and a lot of people are complaining about it. There is a STRONG movement here in this state to go back to MTBE gas, instead of the current E10.

 

[RaWarrior]

These days gas quality can be iffy. The ethanol bonds to water contamination, the same effect as "drygas" products. Which in a way is good, since small amounts of water contamination don't really matter and the ethanol holds it in suspension.

The problems occur when the ethanol becomes saturated and can't absorb any more water. When this happens, you get "phase separation", and the water/ethanol mix precipitates out into this whitish nasty layer that doesn't burn.

The best tip I have for avoiding this is to fill up at large, high volume gas stations when possible. They turn over gas quickly, so it's a lot more likely to be fresh than the little 2 hose joint by your house. Also, use 87 rather than the premium 91/93...if for no other reason they sell 15-20x as much regular, so it turns over much much faster than premium.

Avoid filling up when the refill tanker is there. Filling the tanks stirs up the shit at the bottom and many stations are less than diligent about changing the filters in the pumps.

It'd be nice to have a fuel/water separator, but finding somewhere to put/hide one is virtually impossible on a bike.

 

[johnblaid]

you can't trust anything or anybody where commerce is concerned.

 

[jagco1]

I think I saw some of those white blobs on an Alien movie back in the 80's. I wonder if that is what sugar looks like when it mixes with gas? Any chance your bike was sabatoged before you left to get gas?

And..........why on earth would you put some of the bad gas in your mower?

I tried in the lawn mower to see if would run with it. I flash it out - tank and carbs.

The manager at Crown is a biker so when I pull up he may have came out to look at the bike. I no there was few people standing around my bike.

He was really a nice guy, he told me if there's any damage to the motor Crown will take care of it - I did record the phone call just in case . The gas looks orange. Me and wifie will going up to Crown in morning.

"O" the guy said to he had a truck come in at 5:00 am that morning to full up the tank - The 1 was pulling full from.

Have any of you guy seen anything like this gas - this orange, all so what's in the gas filter. Man what a Father's day hot out side to.

 

[jagco1]

We drop the gas off at Crown the manager was real cool about it. He give me my money back plus gift certificate of $100.00 in gas and another $100.00 for driving time and to eat. He shut down the tank, I got gas from for testing. :eusa_dance:

 

[RaWarrior]

You got lucky with the station then, glad it worked out.

I knew a lady a while ago that got a bad load of diesel from a station that totally fucked up her little VW diesel. It ran worse and worse and eventually wouldn't start at all. Brought to the dealer and rang up like a $3000 repair bill, apparently it ruined seals in the injection pump or something. The gas station wouldn't hear anything of it and offered zero compensation, said she couldn't prove it was THEIR fuel that caused the problems. Which was true, there was no hard evidence other than the experience. I'm fairly sure she just ended up eating the repair bill, though I bet the station has lost far more than that bill in lost business since word got around pretty quickly.

 

[jagco1]

You got lucky with the station then, glad it worked out.

I knew a lady a while ago that got a bad load of diesel from a station that totally fucked up her little VW diesel. It ran worse and worse and eventually wouldn't start at all. Brought to the dealer and rang up like a $3000 repair bill, apparently it ruined seals in the injection pump or something. The gas station wouldn't hear anything of it and offered zero compensation, said she couldn't prove it was THEIR fuel that caused the problems. Which was true, there was no hard evidence other than the experience. I'm fairly sure she just ended up eating the repair bill, though I bet the station has lost far more than that bill in lost business since word got around pretty quickly.

The manage it seem he really cared about the gas and other people cars running bad. To shut down that tank cost him a lot of money...

Man - yesterday there was a biker on the side of the I stop to help him. This was a holly bike. He side - I been on the road for about 2 hours he got gas about 2 to 3 miles back at the 7/11 store his bike back fire and shut off could not get it back started and drain the battery down. I told him, I will run down the road to Pete Cycles about 8 miles. I talk to the manager about the guy's bike the manager give me bottle of Star Tron enzyme to use it his bike. He side drain his carbs if we can 1st and then install 1/2 the bottle and try to start the bike off of my bike he even let me use some small jump cables. We was able to get it running and follow Mick the holly guy to Pete's he had them drain his tank and install new gas.

The manager side about 68% of there service work is gas - that sat for few months gumming the carbs and bad gas.

What is the best places to look for gas that runs better in the vmax?

 

[El Canadiense]

Down here in Mexico, they only have one brand of gas station called Pemex. They are robbing people blind by misadjusting the pumps and it happens everywhere. We are all aware of the small 15 liter tanks on the VMax but magically I have driven up to pumps and regular put in 15.6 or 15.7 liters when I probably still have a bit left in the tank also. When I drive in Canada or United States, I always get much better mileage too and seems to more powerful.

 

[jagco1]

Down here in Mexico, they only have one brand of gas station called Pemex. They are robbing people blind by misadjusting the pumps and it happens everywhere. We are all aware of the small 15 liter tanks on the VMax but magically I have driven up to pumps and regular put in 15.6 or 15.7 liters when I probably still have a bit left in the tank also. When I drive in Canada or United States, I always get much better mileage too and seems to more powerful.

Wow this is the 1st time I herd about that type of gas.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

99 percent of the time, my guess is fucked up gas happens after it leaves the delivery tanker.

 

[Jefft1969]

Mobil gas station is the only place i have found where i live that doesnt have ethanol in it. You can buy ethanol neutralizers at auto stores, this works well to. Star Tron Enzyme Fuel Treatment treats 48 gallons and is fairly cheap.