Posted on 9/23/2012
I have worked as a drivability technician in a dealer ship and the private shops for close to 30 years. One thing that I have faced in my career which can be a difficult variable to quantify in engine operation is bad gas. No one that I have ever seen examines their gas before or during filling their vehicle except people putting gas in cans. Yet it causes untold problems that manifest themselves in pretty bizarre ways. A random hard start, stumble, hiccup, stall or sputtering are all symptoms of contaminated fuel as well as poor mileage and often a foul smell to boot. It can cause misfires and even check engine lights. There can be 2 kinds of bad gas. Gas that is old and has lost most of its volatile components through evaporation and has thickened to varnish or contaminated gas which has had water, dirt or some kind of other thing put in it that shouldn’t be there. Old bad gas is rare from a filling station but contaminated fuel happens all of the time. Just because gas compan ... read more