I am so sad. When I got of work yesterday morning, after a night of terrible storms in our area, I went to my usual gas station to fill up my hummer. I got 62.01 and about 17.5 gallons of "gas."

So I drive away and less than a half my later all "you know what" broke out. My engine light was flashing so I turned off the road at a tractor dealorship. As I was turning in my perfectly good SUV DIED!

So I push the Onstar button and they tell me a bunch of things that included a misfire has occurred. Then I call my hubby so he can come get me, call my insurance lady to ask about towing, call the tow truck.

So my baby is on its way to the shop. I go to bed (work 3rd shift). I wake up n listen to my voicemail. Ed ( the dealorship) is quite upset and says that I have a WHOLE TANK OF WATER! And he can't believe this has happened! He also says "I think we can save it. "

Sooooooo, I call the gas station and stopped by this morning to get their insurance info. Carlos gets my info and says he will get the info and let me know.

There is a pit in my stomach. Something is telling me not to trust him. But I know that I have to give him a chance.

My dealorship is awesome! They always can fix anything. But I am still scared. I will get a lawyer if I have to. But I sure hope it doesn't come to that.

Thanks for listening and if anyone else has had the same thing happen, I sure would like to hear abiut it.

*sniffle sniffle*

OMG I would be more then PI**ED. I hope that all works out for you. I could not imagine what your going through. Good luck. How did you end up with water instead of gas? Do you pump your own gas? Here in Oregon its illegal for us to pump our own gas.

Unfortunately water in the underground gas tanks isn't all that uncommon after heavy rains. I don't know how it gets in there but it happened at a few stations in the Indy area earlier this year. I do know that the stations' insurance did cover damages--so have faith in Carlos! I'm sure you are NOT the only person who experienced this at that station, so numbers will be on your side.

I hope it all works out and that they can fix your car!

Oh no. I hope your usual gas station is a name brand, like Mobil, Sunoco, Shell, Gulf, etc. Even if the owner is an independent franchise they have to meet corporate standards to maintain their franchise. So if you get no satisfaction from the gas station owner who you don't seem to trust go right to corporate.

You may also wish to contact your state's environmental authorities as it sounds like his underground gas tanks have a leak and water is getting in from the thunderstorms. If water can get in, gas can get out! Which means groundwater and soil contamination. Also how many other people who stopped for gas at this station the same morning you did got water instead of gas and ruined their engines!? The owner of the gas station is going to have a lot more problems on his hands then your claim. I am sure there will be many claims, plus he lost a whole shipment of gas as anything in the tanks was ruined AND he may have a whole environmental clean up on his hands. Hope he had good insurance and it was paid in full. A catastrophe like this could easily put him out of business. Get your claim in FAST!

So it looks like my hummer will be fixable. Just talked to the mechanic.

And yes, it was a Phillips 66. So it is a big company.

But I hadn't thought about the EPA point of it. Thanks for the feedback. Makes me feel a tiny bit better. Sort of. :(

Stuck driving my daughters tiny, itty bitty cavalier. Lol. Big difference.

So sorry bout this. Best of luck!!!! I'm sure it will work out

You are probably not the only one that got "gas" there that day. Hopefully it will all work out for you.

Hopefully it is fixable and you can get the problem solved.

think how much money you will save driving the Cavalier in the mean time!! More money for fabric!!

How awful!! Dh and I were just talking about flooding and gas stations - wondering if water could get into the tanks. I guess it is possible. Not good though!!! Hope it all gets resolved easily and quickly for you.

beyond p*ssed I would have been.... ah really water?!?!?

I work for a gas station. Every am, our tank reader prints out # of gallons by grade in the ground & also any water percentage in the tank. We are allowed 0%. If there is water, have to get techs out to pump it out--the whole tank, gas & water.

Oh MY! I'm so sorry that happend. Make sure you contact your states department of weights and measures to let them know about what happend. They need to come check this guys tanks. I hope Carlos is honest and does come through for you. I know this is a real pain. Was this you usual station? Maybe he is as much a victim as you are.

We used to have a station in Albany where this was a common occurance. After a while it became common knowledge that your taking a risk filling up there. They would "fix" the problem then bang, it would happen again. After a few years the state shut them down. Sure the gas was cheap but it wasn't worth the risk for me.

that is terrible, please stay in contact with that gas station and their Insurance Company

be sure to report this to the police and also your car Insurance so they are all aware of the situation

Good Luck!

what is h3?

Hope your vehicle gets fixed.

Hope the station gets their stuff righted, too.

It's a Hummer 3. More SUV-like and less military vehicle-like. I wonder if whoever sold Carlos the "gas" actually stole it and replaced it with water? Or someone else. People are getting devious in these hard times.

Here's a pic of my H3. It is from deer season last fall. One of my fave pics. And yes, that is me all camo'd up n ready to go. And for those who don't like hunting, we are not trophy hunters and what we don't eat, we donate to others. :)

It may be ready tomorrow! :)

And yes, my DD car is good on gas. Lol.

Be sure to let us know the outcome.

I know just what you went through.
I filled up my VW Rabbit Diesel that was almost empty at (BP) with 9 gallons of Diesel fuel. Less than 2 miles down the road it starts Bucking missing badly, My son is a diesel mechanic. He checked out the rabbit right away and the fuel. Took fuel out of the fuel line tested for water. More that 50% water. Called (BP) right away, Response (NO ONE ELSE COMPLAINED) Called and wrote to (BP) repeatly NOT OUR PROBLEM NO ONE ELSE COMPLAINED. BP has always said the guarentee there fuel. What they guarentee is the will DO NOTHING. $2000 to buy new fuel injectors and clean out all damage BP did to my VW because of the water in the fuel system.
IF YOU WANT TO RUIN YOUR CAR BY (BP) FUEL. THEY GUARENTEE TO NOT REPAIR THE DAMAGE THEY DO.

Just talked to mechanic, they have put 5 gallons of GAS in and are going to run it and check the injectors. Then a fresh oil change. Hopefully done today.

This happens quite often during floods and storms here.I am always very careful now, as one of my cars many years ago was wrecked for the same reason. Hope you are successful.

I had this happen to me about 2-3 weeks ago. Except we only got out of the Flying Js parking lot and the Tundra stopped. We got pulled over out of traffic before it quit totally. We tried about 20 minutes to start it again, called road-side assistance and arranged for towing. Then the station attendant came out and told us that the $80+ unleaded that we pumped was really diesel. Apparently Dixon Trucking put the diesel in the gas tanks. Thankfully they paid for the towing, the truck repair ($594) and a room for us for the weekend (since this happened about 1:00 on a Saturday and the Toyota place closed at 4:00). We spent the weekend in Billings, Montana. We were only 3 hours from home and on our way home from a two-week vacation. I told my husband that for some reason the Lord didn't want us to go on down the road that day. We sat back and watched TV the whole weekend (we don't have one at home - our choice). The Tundra runs just as good as before.

Sit down right now and document every darn thing that happened, from the time you stopped for gas, any paperwork (cash? Credit Card/ATM, etc) and did you keep the paper that slid out of the machine? What time did it die, what time did you go see Carlos and precisely what did he say.
Write it down as soon as possible so you can remember everything. This might become very helpful if it comes to a law suit, or even with the insurance company. Also, make copies and never give out your only copy.

work for a convenience store and we had something similar happen. The wierd part was it affected about 5 vehicles (don't get me wrong me that is terrible) but when you think of the number of vehicles that get gas in a day. Most were minor fixes.

Thanks for posting this - I had never heard of anything like this before! Of course, growing up in northern Nevada and now living in eastern Washington...too much rain is rarely a problem! However, I am in Florida for their rainy season...4" in a day is not unusual!! :shock: I will be careful when and from whom I buy my gas!

Please keep us informed as to the resolution of your problem, the gas station's response and what the state departments do to address the problem.

wow! in N.E. ohio I don't remember the last time; seriously, it has been YEARS since I've seen a full service gas station. We always have to pump our gas.

Back in the early 70's I was travelling and stopped for gasoline for my pickup. I went about 80 miles and broke down. The repairman said I purchased almost all water. He got the engine going again and I stopped at the nearest auto dealership and traded it in.

I am so sorry this happened to you. He must have known, if he checked in the heavy rain.

UPDATE

Got her back this afternoon. Purrs like a kitten again. Drain fuel from whole system, concentrateD injector cleaner, full tank of new gas, oil change. Just under $600 for repairs and $164 for towing.

The gas station told me to bring bills in Monday. They had other people also. There were also other stations in town.

I will update after Monday.

So happy she's better!!

Glad it all worked out for you.

Just a quick note for everyone.....the gas station personnel is supposed to check each tank twice a day for water....there is a paste that they put on the end of a very long wooden stick and "stick" the tank....if there is water, it will change color. If you ever have problems like that, make them check each tank for water to prove there is no problem. Trust me, I worked at a gas station and checking the tanks was a twice daily chore (no fun in winter).

Called (BP) right away, Response (NO ONE ELSE COMPLAINED) Called and wrote to (BP) repeatly NOT OUR PROBLEM NO ONE ELSE COMPLAINED. BP has always said the guarentee there fuel. What they guarentee is the will DO NOTHING. $2000 to buy new fuel injectors and clean out all damage BP did to my VW because of the water in the fuel system.
IF YOU WANT TO RUIN YOUR CAR BY (BP) FUEL. THEY GUARENTEE TO NOT REPAIR THE DAMAGE THEY DO.[/quote]
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Go right then to the nearest newspaper AND a TV station. Ask friends who is a hard driving news reporter who loves to dig out the dirt. When this is published, I'll bet others come out of the woodwork, saying they were told THEY the only ones who reported it, etc. Then start threatening to go to a lawyer and the newspaper again and a TV station, etc.

This leads me to believe the supplier either was trying to cheat people, or one of their employees was selling the gas out from under them and replacing it with water. Hopefully they will catch and prosecute the jerk. That happened out here where I live a couple of years ago.

i Hate to say it, but it sounds like it. The other gas stations thay it happened to all got a shipment on Sunday/ Monday ( night time) from same oil company. I will update as more news comes along.

I hope that this will help someone who has the same problem.

So glad your baby got better! She's a beauty!