Engine off when gassing up?

A self-evident truth, so how does it keep getting missed...

 

ok, when i hear about the first person to blow up a gas station because their prius ICE kicked on while they were fueling up, then I may consider changing my foolish ways.

 

Tell us how that goes.

Unless you're doing it just to be contrary, and are aware that the possibility of problems, the standard safety procedures for all refueling starts with shutting of the engine of whatever you're refueling. Basic common sense.

But if you refuse to abide, well, good luck to you. Be sure to check where the fire extinguishers are when you pull up.

 

After a quadruple fatality gas station fire just a mile from where I lived at that time (the Arco station at the Marysville exit of I-5, about 1984-85), I will not wait for specific examples of specific scenarios with specific models of equipment before applying standard safety precautions.

 

Full service stations, where the attendant can lock the pump flow on, can be a menace. Coquitlam, BC is a bit of an oddity, in that they legislated all gas stations have to be full service. I've never filled up in town, in the 20+ years we've lived here, get gas in nearby community without this nonsense. Anyway, walking by a full serve Esso once, the shut off had failed on a pump: it was merrily pumping gas all over everywhere, just a-gushing out.

 

The ICE WON'T spin up unless it has to. If your traction battery is at 2 bars and it's below freezing it'll spin up. Then yes, shut down. How many of you have experienced the ICE spinning up with 3 or more bars on the battery & coolant temp at 150F?

 

I believe I have, when the catalyst wasn't warm enough.

 

What is the advantage of NOT turning the systems "OFF"? Keeping a 12V accessory plug hot?

 

I was out in Bismarck South Dakota last month and was filling up the RAV4 and watched some hick pull up to the pump and fill up his 4 wheeler and pickup truck while he was smoking. Yea he was an idiot, but MythBusters did a test by dropping a lit cig in raw gas and it put out the cig with no fire or kaboom.

Mike

 

FWIW, I've been to a gas station before where one of its workers was standing outside smoking.

 

Yea that's pretty pathetic in this day & age. They need to go hide out back

Mike

 

In the quadruple fatality incident I mentioned earlier, all the victims were from your area, BC. It was at a self service station, but the last person to touch the malfunctioning pump was a station attendant. A previous customer reported a problem, then the attendant did something to the pump, the witness report on the news wasn't very specific.

Then the BC car pulled up to that pump, both men got out of the front, then the fireball erupted before they touched the pump. Both women were crispified in the back seat, the men succumbed several days later at the Harborview burn unit. I didn't hear a final report of cause before moving away.

It isn't the liquid gasoline that matters. The hazard is in the nearby air-fuel vapor mixture. If the ignition source doesn't coincide with a body of vapor with the right range of fuel concentration, nothing much happens.

 

With the low number of trips we Prius owners make to the gas station... is it so difficult to just push the start button and turn your car off?
I've seen the ICE start when the batt hits 2 bars with the AC or even just the fan on. Why would anyone chance it- just press the start button!

 

And the liquid fuel may get into the evaporative emission system. Turning off the car prepares the valves for fueling.

 

This thread is by far the most unintelligent thing I have read in a long time. As a network engineer I see many idiots on a daily basis but the sheer stupidity in this thread far exceeds that. I am certain that many individuals in this thread would be great candidates of the Darwin Awards.

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Do the NASCAR and F1 engines have some proprietary technology that makes them safer to refuel while the engines are running, and the car manufacturers refuse to put them into our regular daily drivers? That would be odd. As far as I know, they don't shut down their engines when they refuel in a race, yet it doesn't seem to be an issue? Granted, their cars may explode for a variety of other reasons, even during refueling, but the cause of it would not likely be "because the engine was running."

 

NASCAR, F1 and Indy car refueling fires do happen and those cars aren't being refueled by clueless morons. They also have firefighting equipment on standby at the refueling site and emergency medical service onsite.

 

Sure, they take all the safety precautions necessary. But they leave their engines on anyway. And the fires that do start are more often from leaked fuel (which is why F1 squirts with water after refueling) and not so much because the engine is still running?

Of course, if there is no benefit to leave the engine on while refueling, then it makes sense to turn it off. For a regular car, this makes sense, why leave the engine running if you're going to be sitting still? But for a Prius, if you turn it off, you cannot run on pure EV after startup, since the ICE will have to cycle for the first 5 minutes or so. But if you leave it in READY mode, when you're ready to leave the gas station, you can get it to stay running off the battery without having to turn on the ICE.

 

Refueling is considered POTENTIALLY dangerous and for that reason the pit crew is required to wear "fire-resistant multi-layer suits, flame-resistant gloves, long underwear, balaclava, socks and shoes, which have to meet the guidelines set by FIA Drivers' Equipment Regulations. Not only that, they have a fire crew on standby. Please for the love of humanity stop comparing average joes to professional auto racing. The risk is very small if any, but it still does not give you the right to put others at risk because of your ignorance and stupidity.

The Evaporative Emissions System (EVAP) is very effective in removing gasoline vapors out of the tank. On top of that, California and other states forced all gas stations to install new fuel pump nozzles which lower the risk even further. Nevertheless, it does not completely remove all risk.

 

Do you get mad when you're refueling and some ignorant stupid person pulls their car in behind you to pump their own gas, or beside you to pass and exit the gas station? Do you get upset that they dare have their engine running so close to you while you're refueling because of the POTENTIALLY dangerous situation? I mean, their engine is certainly sparking and combusting in an area so full of dangerous vapors as they drive away from you? So them having their engine running (and possibly their engine may even be physically closer to you than the engine in your car) is different than you leaving yours running?