She called me because she couldn’t get her car started after work. We had to get it towed out of the underground parking which is quite a pain in the ass apparently.

I spent a couple hours troubleshooting the issue (smoky exhaust, barely started, ran like shit) and I burned out the starter in the process and had to put a new one in. Starters in these little 3.7L engines are pretty pathetic.

At some point in all this she mentioned she had filled up before driving to work, so I figured out how to jumper the fuel pump and pumped out this piss-colored junk. Feels oily like diesel, doesn’t burn explosively like you’d expect with straight gas.

Fresh fuel and some Seafoam snake oil to maybe clean injectors. Since I didn’t drop the tank to clean it perfectly, she’s going to put small amounts in for a few fills and burn it off completely between fills because the solution to pollution is dilution.

Her receipt showed she uses the gas pump, not the diesel, so I’m wondering how many people got to deal with this bullshit since I’m guessing the station got an entire compartment contaminated. Haven’t bothered to talk to the company, since I did the work myself and they certainly aren’t going to reimburse me for my time.

Ah well, it’s an excuse to do a pile of other maintenance I’d planned anyway and had parts for.

Wife is happy she isn’t buying a new car. Happy wife, happy life.

  • CMDR_Horn@lemmy.world
    31·
    1 day ago

    Form a small business and write up an invoice to yourself for your work. See how far that goes.

    *Edit not legal advice

    • ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
      381·
      1 day ago

      I do have a corporation but sounds like more work than it’s worth in order to maybe get in a pissing match with an oil company.

      Fuck em, they’re on the shit list now anyway. Not like I’d redeem a free tank of gas from them for obvious reasons.

      Shell, just to name and shame.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        9·
        1 day ago

        Assuming their gas indeed is contaminated, go buy 1 gallon of gas, in a spare gas jug, and check it out yourself to confirm. If it’s contaminated, well there’s your proof. If it doesn’t look contaminated, but perhaps you don’t trust it anyways, well run it through a lawnmower…

        • ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
          8·
          1 day ago

          Honestly, this happened a week ago, I only got around to looking at it this weekend since we finished up seeding and I haven’t been dropping into bed after 16 hours straight of sitting in a tractor or pulling wrenches on way heavier equipment.

          So I’m sure it’s long sorted out now.

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
            6·
            1 day ago

            Lawnmowers, especially simple basic push mowers, are much cheaper and simpler than vehicles. No fuel injectors (carburetor), no oxygen sensors, hell most don’t even have a fuel line, the carb pulls gas straight out of the tank.

            If the gas actually is contaminated with diesel or oil, it wouldn’t actually damage the engine, it would just run like shit and blow out more smoke than usual, until the gas tank is drained and fresh gas put in.

            Now on the hypothetical other hand, if the gas was contaminated with something way more flammable than gasoline, such as acetone, then yeah that engine is probably gonna go BOOM!