Posted on 05/15/2014 2:13:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Bergen County gas station is under investigation for allegedly selling contaminated fuel. As CBS 2′s Hazel Sanchez reported, a woman said that her gas tank was filled with water, and now she wants the station owner to pay.
Adrienne Roetman said that her nightmare began when she filled her car’s nearly empty tank with contaminated gas from a Citgo station in Midland Park, New Jersey. It didn’t take long for the car to die.
“It just died. I mean, it wouldn’t start.” she said.
Roetman was driving a one-year-old Mazda3. A Mazda dealership mechanic said that the engine died because the gas tank had been filled with water.
Midland Park police have had to rescue more than a dozen stranded drivers, but gas station management blamed the problem on a bad fuel delivery.
Mechanics said that Roetman’s car needed new fuel pumps and injectors. The repairs cost more than $3,000.
Station owner Mohit Chopra took responsibility for the damage, but told Roetman, via email, that he would not pay her bill.
“We cannot issue a check for an unreasonable bill. Any auto expert can explain that in a case of bad gas replacement of parts is not required,” the note read.
Roetman said that Chopra initially agreed to pay the bill and then rescinded his offer. Station management said that the owner paid for the damage to all other affected cars.
“I do not have the money to put out to pay for all these expenses that your gas station has incurred on me,” Roetman said.
The Bergen County Division of Weights and Measures inspected the station and confirmed that it had sold contaminated gas, but had since been cleaned.
They said that the owner was not issued a violation, but could be if it is found out that he did not properly reimburse affected customers.
3k in repairs seems rather steep for legitimate repairs.
FWIW, This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of problems with CITGO gas.
All filling station gasoline storage tanks have water at the bottom from condensation. It doesn’t hurt anything as long as it is at the bottom. Problem is, when they get a delivery and a tanker truck fills the storage tank, the water at the bottom gets all stirred up. If you pump gas while a station is getting its tanks filled, you are asking for trouble.
I know all this first hand because I got gas in my motorcycle once when they were getting a delivery. Made it about half a mile before the bike sputtered to a halt. After about a half hour of fiddling I took off the bike’s gas cap and could see the water sloshing around the bottom. I took off the tank and dumped it all out, then pushed the bike to another station and filled up there. Started right up.
Isn’t Citgo the Hugo Chavez gas company?
Maybe we should close them down; maybe it’s not the station’s fault.
Could you have siphoned the liquid from the bottom of the tank and kept the lighter stuff on top?
I once got gas from a gas station that filled their tanks with diesel fuel back accident! My car was puttering smoke and would kill all day.
I wondered how many other cars got filled with diesel that day.
You’re probably correct, but maybe at dealer list prices for parts and New York labor rates they could approach that.
I looked up on Rockauto, the pump was $300 and the injectors $100 x 4.
I know all the experts have all the answers, but I suspect, IF the Mazda techs at the Mazda dealership say the one (1) year old Mazda needed new injectors and a new fuel pump and the bill came to $3,000.00 or $10,000.00 station owner Mohit Chopra is liable. Hell, if that Mazda is a rotary, Chopra is getting off cheap.
ALL tanks should have a water meter to detect water in the tank . If there were multiple problems at once I’d say its the tanker trucks delivery.
When I was in high school back in the 60s I worked at a filling station weekends. When we got a gas delivery, I had to do two things. One was to examine the tanks on the truck to make sure it was full and after delivery, I took a wooden stick and smeared something on it which would react if there was water in the mixture.
There never was.
Thats the Mazda dealer covering there a$$ til its out of the warr.
Try getting water in a tank of Jet-A in your helicopter. Then go fly to lift a wrecked Cessna as sling load out of a ravine on the side of an old volcano at 6,000 ft elevation.
I got a few yaw kicks so I set down, shut down and started looking for the problem. The fuel filter housing was half full of water. I had to drain, disassemble and dry the fuel tank & system, then truck in a new drum of fuel before I fly out of there. Bell Helicopter says a tablespoon of water past the filter can flame out the engine.
Two other fixed wing aircraft that had refuels at that same airport pump also got water in their fuel.
Water in fuel can happen even in the most careful of environments.
The labor to install is usually 3x to 4x the cost of parts. This would total $2800 to $3500. Gas Station owner should pay up.
Small Claims Court is frequently a reasonable way to pursue this type of claim.
3k in repairs seems rather steep for legitimate repairs.
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The gas station owner is correct , no repairs are needed ,, drain and replace the bad fuel and drive away ... maybe $100 plus some cash for the inconvenience.
One injector is over $175. Pump, regulator etc I can easily see $3k.
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/mazda-3-injectors
Ayup. Maybe a new fuel filter, just in case. But there's no way it needed a new pump and injectors.
I guess you don’t turn wrenches for a living.
One word: Ethanol
Why if we only had more everywhere this would not happen at all....
BTW If that were the case then we would have a million cars a day with this problem.
I concur, it isn’t like the water was in the system long.
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