I AM LIVID: Bad gas & $400+ repair/tow/rental bill

I don't visit this forum as often as I would like but I really need to blow off some steam here.



I just got a 2004 Prius about a month ago. I had an oil change on 4/15, and on 4/16, I drove to work from home. I was down to two pips when I filled my tank and as I was driving home, not a mile from the station, my engine started chugging a little. I was caught off guard, but babied the accelerator to see if that was the issue. I could glide fine, but accelerating was bad. So bad that I decided to pull off at the next ramp. A mile later (no ramp yet) the engine light was blinking. Then it was steady on. By the time I parked at a different gas station my car was hurting bad =(

So I call a tow truck. Truck comes to get me. I turn the car on and backed it out of the spot then pull forward (it really didn't want to) and something flashes on the screen (probably a complaint about being driven in the current state but I didn't read it). Had it towed to a Toyota dealer. I wrote a good long letter to drop it with the key in the night box. My husband was pretty mad he had to come get me. I had a spate of car issues before I bought my Prius, and he thought I was being careless with the car. I mentioned to him I thought it might be the gas, he said I should fill up more often to counteract any bad gas (Wth? lol). I said that was ridiculous and he reluctantly agreed.

Anyway, I get a call just before noon today. He's not 100% sure, but it appears to be *drumroll* bad gas.

I have the receipt from the station (I track my miles at CleanMPG.com so I always print one). I called weights and measures (the state department at the dept of ag where you can complain about this stuff). They said they'd check it out.

Just wondering if anyone has had to deal with this before? Thanks for letting me vent. :mmph:

 

Good to know, because the server rep asked me if I had accidentally put diesel in the tank. Good thing I saved all of my receipts. It's got to be the gas, because nothing was wrong with this car before this.

 

Now they are saying they drained the tank and put a tiny bit of their fuel in it and it worked fine. Then the tank was almost out, they filled with more gas and they said it was chugging again Now they have to keep it overnight and try again in the morning. Apparently the problem is so hard that they are calling some Toyota place in California to talk them through the issue. Now he's not as sure that it's bad gas anymore.

They said they would keep a sample of the gas. Hopefully the weights and measures guy will call me and I can give him the sample to test.

 

Re: Overfilling tank: I only fill to the click, then I stop. I don't try to squeeze out more gas. Why bother?

Come to think of it, the Toyota guy said something about replacing the spark plugs. And this is western Washington so it rains a heck of a lot this time of year. However, it was not raining the day this happened.

Would the misfire all of a sudden happen like that or would it be progressively worse over time? Because this didn't happen until right after I filled up. I drove to work (<1/4 mile from station), car sat for a few hours, then I drove to get on the Interstate where it started acting up.

Come to think of it, I thought as I pulled out of work that the car was acting peculiar... You know how you come to a stop and it stalls on purpose? Well it seemed to have a hard time getting out of stall or going into stall. Then as I was driving along the road from work to the interstate (~1/2 mile) it was kind of pulsing, but I thought that might have been normal because it occasionally shuts the engine off to conserve gas.

I've owned this car since 3/25 so I'm not 100% totally familiar with it yet. Man and I was just getting into the zone

 

This sounds like what they did.

Well, long story short, unfortunately it appears that it was just a wild coincidence. I swear it acted up right after I got gas, not even 2 miles later! I asked if it was something that was detectable 2,000 miles ago (when I bought this car) and they said no. I asked if there was anything I was doing wrong, they said no. I had no warranty because I tend to see them as a waste of money. Every car I've had before this I got the warranty and nothing bad happened in the two or three years I had it. Figures. $1000 in repairs

I did save the gas sample they reserved from my tank and the weights and measures guy still wants to test it on the off chance that there was something wrong. But I think if it was widespread I would've heard of it by now.

How frustrating

 

Meh, I'll talk to my husband about the warranty. You're probably right on that. Wish I had thought of that earlier.

I swear to god, it wasn't doing this even a week ago. It just started right after I got gas. It was a totally smooth and pleasant ride before this.