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Watered-Down Gas Causes Costly Repairs For Minnesota Drivers
Watered-Down Gas Causes Costly Repairs For Minnesota Drivers-August 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:56

zoom in on gas station pump and handles. Diesel pump is safe, while gas pump is covered with a yellow "sorry out of service" bag

There’s a new thing for people in to worry about other than what’s at the bottom of all those . that the Department of Commerce is putting out a warning to , saying there have been a number of reports of at a handful of stations .

This isn’t just a little bit of water mixed in either – it’s mostly water being pumped into tanks. One driver found out her 's had been filled with a “mixture” that was nearly 90 percent water. (If you’re wondering… that’s too much water.)

CBS News reports that the BMW X3's owner filled up with gas at a station about a mile from home. The driver was able to get her car home, where it sat for an hour. Things got catastrophically bad when her husband went to run some errands. about 100 yards away from their home after it was “violently shaking.”

When mechanics took a look at the X3, they sent the driver a photo of a small bottle showing what they had found in the . The vast majority of the bottle was filled with water, and only a thin layer of fuel floated at the top. This, as you may have guessed, caused some pretty serious problems for the car. $844 and two weeks at the dealership later, the car is finally good to go.

Yeah, uh, that’s not a great gas-to-water ratio right there. No, sir.

The X3 driver reported the finding water in her tank to the Department of Commerce. From there, the Dept. tested the, found water in their premium fuel holding tanks and shut it down.

Unsparingly, the onus of making sure there isn’t water in fuel is being put on drivers. The DOC is reportedly telling folks to pay attention to stickers on pumps that display the year of the most recent test of gas quantity and quality. If it were me, I’d probably make it the gas station owner’s responsibility to do such checks, but who am I?

According to CBS News, every station in the state of is tested within three year cycles. If the sticker is within a year-ish of that test, drivers should feel confident that the gas is safe to use. Then again, I guess it’s just easier to just push the responsibility on to the next person.

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