Florida issues storm evacuations while drivers are warned not to start cars after fuel mix-up

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Originally published at: Florida issues storm evacuations while drivers are warned not to start cars after fuel mix-up | Boing Boing

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“Don’t start your engine”?
How did these people fill up their cars? Did they push them to the station and then push them back home after filling them?

I know Florida is odd but I’m pretty sure people DROVE to the Gas Station, turned off their cars (maybe), then when filled up, STARTED THE ENGINE and drove home or wherever they were going.

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Call me silly, but I start and drive my car every single time I add gas, just to get out of the gas station. And, I’m no mechanic, but aren’t folks who bought that gas already screwed, unless they are still at the gas pump?

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or they might be a few blocks away where their car conked out.

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I smell a class action suit coming on…

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pobably takes time for the gas previously in your tank to mix with the gas you just put in? the longer it sits the more uniform the mixture gets?

the op doesn’t say how the contamination was detected. i’d guess some peoples cars died already…

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Yeah, someone’s gunna have to be on the hook for this. Especially if the fuel mix-up fucked up someone’s car. More so if it prevented someone from evacuating and endangered them and their family.

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To your point, diesel is heavier than regular unleaded and will sink in the tank, but the lack of homogeneity causes its own problems:

  • Because diesel fuel is heavier than gasoline, it can sink to the bottom of your gas tank, resulting in the injection of both gas and diesel into the intake manifold or the cylinder. Depending on the mix, you can get partially-burned diesel fuel which leaves bigtime deposits on pistons, valves and spark plugs. You get a car or truck that runs terrible, and if you keep driving it, you can cause serious damage
  • If enough diesel fuel gets in the cylinder, you can hydro-lock the cylinders, resulting in a blown head gasket, cracked cylinder head or other serious problems that can lead your vehicle down the road to a quick and final death. This diesel fuel in the cylinder can also seep past the piston rings into the oil crankcase, diluting the lubricating oil. This can damage all internal engine lubricated parts resulting in major engine failure from rapid wear.
  • If unburned diesel fuel makes its way into the exhaust system, it will ignite in the catalytic convertor. The fire will plug the holes in the catalyst, destroying it and leaving you with a repair job well into the four-figures.

From:

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Is anyone else starting to feel like Florida is the hapless-loser accident-prone comic relief character in a very bad sitcom? Like, are we all suppose to shake our heads and quote the catchphrase “Oh Florida… what did you do now?”

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The guv is doing the bidding of the petroscrewup that caused this. If someone ditches their car during the evacuation to save the engine and is killed, it’s no sweat off their back. But if someone survives evacuation while ruining their car, that’s corporate death.

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I’ve done this (may have been petrol in a diesel rather than diesel in a petrol) and when the engine spluttered a mile or two from the service station and I realised what I’d done I turned it off. Called the RAC and they sent a mobile tank-flushing service and after a while I was on my way, no harm done.

But I think diesel in a petrol engine may be a worse situation, than mine.

They’ve killed Kenny?

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Another plus of having an electric car is you can’t put the wrong type of electricity into it

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Could find out your car needs those little button cells instead of AAAs, I suppose?

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Oh, they make very sure that that cannot happen!

evplugs
evplugs1500×1000 99.4 KB

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More like an inflamed appendix.

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That supercharger plug has seen some things - some things that cannot be unseen. It’s like staring up the bill of a haunted platypus.

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That crew has a future in 21st Century Tiki decor!

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Why doesn’t the Citgo know exactly to whom it sold the contaminated gasoline? They have the credit card number and the pump information for everyone that bought their gas. Maybe a few stragglers paid cash, but I bet they have video of those cars that includes the license plates.

This is like when the police release the license plate of a car from a hit-and-run but never seem to know who owns it… I know they actually know and just don’t release that information to the press, but …

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Ahhhh,
so they were told to both
Sit
and
Go

Truly a mixup of floridian proportions.

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