Dealer said - bad fuel. Need to hear your thoughts...

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'14.5 CX-5 Touring AWD, Soul Red | '14 CX-5 Touring AWD White
Wife's car got 'check engine' light. I've checked it and it was 'mixture too lean' - It could be many things.

Since it is still under warranty, we took it to the dealer. Dealer calls with info that it has bad fuel in it - 80%-90% ethanol !!!

They need to pump it out and advisor said they will provide gas analysis results of some sort.

80-90% ethanol! Can this even be true? If so, just WOW for the gas station.

$310 bucks lost so far as per dealer no warranty cover this. In any case, can I have gas station pay for my expenses?

Please share your thoughts.
 
Wife's car got 'check engine' light. I've checked it and it was 'mixture too lean' - It could be many things.

Since it is still under warranty, we took it to the dealer. Dealer calls with info that it has bad fuel in it - 80%-90% ethanol !!!

They need to pump it out and advisor said they will provide gas analysis results of some sort.

80-90% ethanol! Can this even be true? If so, just WOW for the gas station.

$310 bucks lost so far as per dealer no warranty cover this. In any case, can I have gas station pay for my expenses?

Please share your thoughts.

That sucks!
Any chance it was accidentally filled with E85?

If you have your receipt and it shows that you filled regular fuel the gas station should definitely be on the hook for fixing this.
 
I filled my CX-5 with E85. (Mistake) I got the check engine light. Plugged in my Xtool iOBD2 sender and got the same thing you did. I called the dealer and he told me to top off the tank with no ethanol fuel and keep doing it every time I was down a 1/4 tank until the light went out. That was almost a year ago. No ill effects.
 
I agree with the other guy. My first thought was that your wife accidentally filled it with E85. Depending how full your tank is you could try siphoning the gas out as much as possible and refilling with zero ethonal gas or the lowest ethonal you could find. I don't know what running E85 in and engine not designed for it would do
 
You Could Attempt This...

Wife's car got 'check engine' light. I've checked it and it was 'mixture too lean' - It could be many things.

Since it is still under warranty, we took it to the dealer. Dealer calls with info that it has bad fuel in it - 80%-90% ethanol !!!

They need to pump it out and advisor said they will provide gas analysis results of some sort.

80-90% ethanol! Can this even be true? If so, just WOW for the gas station.

$310 bucks lost so far as per dealer no warranty cover this. In any case, can I have gas station pay for my expenses?

Please share your thoughts.

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV... so my post, as such, is NOT legal advice.

To me it would seem difficult to do so. How are you going to prove the gas in your vehicles tank was really pumped from the underground tanks located at the specified station? A gas receipt doesn't prove the above... only that a unspecified vehicle was fueled up with "X" (?) amount of gas at a specific time and date. I'm not saying it can't be done, but what I think could be done.

Get all documented information from the dealership as to problem, gas analysis % Ethanol content of gas, cost of repairs, plus your costs incurred so far, etc., etc. Take copies of the same to the gas station manager (which I know won't do any good, but at least follow the upward "chain of command/ownership), asking how (s)he wants to resolve the problem of cost reimbursement.

At this point they'll probably tell you it's out of their hands and they'll have to contact the _________. (Fill in blank with next upward responsible person.) I would let them know of a time limit expected on their reply to the above. If after "X" (?) number of days you hadn't received a response, then I would send a registered return receipt requested letter to the owner/company indicating that you would like to resolve this situation amicably... and you would hate to see this go into legal proceedings. (At this point lawyers {yours} still aren't involved.)

If you get resistance back from the owner/company you could then mention to ________ (here's that fill the name in the blank again), that you're going to not only go to your local newspapers "We're On Your Side" investigative reporter, but also the local TV station too.

I would think that the station/company (no matter what brand gas we're talking about), wouldn't want any type of negativity being brought forth to light before the general public. That alone, in a lot of cases, has resolved situations like the above.

If nothing else you can always spend a extra $30 (?) and bring a small claims court action against them. The cost alone of having one of their high priced lawyers (plus the inconvenience it involves), costs more than what it would be to resolve (or have resolved) the situation in the first place.

CX5T Lover
 
$310 bucks lost so far as per dealer no warranty cover this. In any case, can I have gas station pay for my expenses?

Please share your thoughts.

Yes, if they have a gasoline tank that was accidentally filled with E85, they are liable and this should be a fairly straight-forward case.

No, if your wife filled it from a pump labeled E85, then the repair bill is on you.

Does anyone know if an E85 pump will fill (physically fit) a filler neck designed for regular?
 
A lot of posts on other forums about accidentally filling with E85 state that it's ok to run it for just the one tank. Again this is just per the general consensus after a Google search.
 
The filler neck diameter in my flex fuel Tahoe is no different from CX-5, so clearly, one has to watch out.
 
Yes, if they have a gasoline tank that was accidentally filled with E85, they are liable and this should be a fairly straight-forward case.

No, if your wife filled it from a pump labeled E85, then the repair bill is on you.

Does anyone know if an E85 pump will fill (physically fit) a filler neck designed for regular?

It's the same exact nozzle .
 
Unless you take it to court (which I don't know if you can prove your case) there is not much else you can do . What will really help is if you get some 3rd party organization to do a fuel analysis from that gas station or pump then you got a serious weight to your case .

I had a situation with a car wash once before. The rail guides that your driver side tires move into had some sharp edges that tore a small chunk off my cars tire off and damaged the rim. (Deep scratches) I talk to the manager/supervisor he said the owner would call me and never did . I filed a complaint with BBB which is a joke . BBB is like paypal they let you argue via email and document the conversation and then after all the pictures of their defective rails that I took as proof, BBB did nothing .

So if you can prove it by getting that gas test done , hire a good lawyer and in the suite have the gas station pay the court and lawyer fees on top , then it may be worth it . Otherwise I don't know what to say other than cause them 310 dollars worth of damage without getting caught to make it even ? Lol
 
Unless you take it to court (which I don't know if you can prove your case) there is not much else you can do . What will really help is if you get some 3rd party organization to do a fuel analysis from that gas station or pump then you got a serious weight to your case .

I had a situation with a car wash once before. The rail guides that your driver side tires move into had some sharp edges that tore a small chunk off my cars tire off and damaged the rim. (Deep scratches) I talk to the manager/supervisor he said the owner would call me and never did . I filed a complaint with BBB which is a joke . BBB is like paypal they let you argue via email and document the conversation and then after all the pictures of their defective rails that I took as proof, BBB did nothing .

So if you can prove it by getting that gas test done , hire a good lawyer and in the suite have the gas station pay the court and lawyer fees on top , then it may be worth it . Otherwise I don't know what to say other than cause them 310 dollars worth of damage without getting caught to make it even ? Lol

Small claims court is good fun!
A receipt showing the date/time and fuel grade that was pumped along with the "repair" bill from the dealer should be enough of evidence to get a judgement in small claims.
 
Most stations (around here) would just pay the repair bill if you show them the receipt from a day that they knew they had gasoline tanks accidentally filled with E85. Alternatively, they might refer you to the fuel supplier (if it was their mistake).

Correct me if I'm wrong but we still don't know if the fuel was mislabeled or if Gova's wife filled the tank from the wrong pump. If the receipt was saved, this will be the definitive proof of which scenario it was.
 
Small claims court is good fun!
A receipt showing the date/time and fuel grade that was pumped along with the "repair" bill from the dealer should be enough of evidence to get a judgement in small claims.

The hard part is to serve the court papers to the defendant. It costs a lot of money and if the defendant doesn't want to be found the papers will never get served. You will spend more money than your damages. Our legal system is a joke. Been there and done that.
 
Thanks Goodness it is not Petrol into Diesel as the result would be catastrophic (full engine rebuild usually). Even Diesel into Petrol is usually pretty bad.
 
In addition; If you don't purchase your fuel at this station regularly on a credit card then the gas station will not do a "good faith" accept blame. I'd just syphon as much out into a 5 gallon jug, refill with good gas every time it is down to 1/4 and let it go. JMO. Ed
 
I work in supply and distribution - believe me, it's commonality to get end consumers and even retailers and wholesalers making accusations about quality control.

Most typically, E10 is blended by distributors. This product is splash or ratio blended in bulk, usually 5000 to 8000 gallons into fuel transports at any given time, which are then dropped into the retail stations tanks by TRUCK DRIVERS. It's very, very uncommon for distribution terminals to send any out of specification product, to allow it to leave their facilities. Too many control measures in place.

If indeed the OP wasn't at fault, it's worth reaching out to the retail station owner. There's a 5K gallon regular tank there - you'd obviously be one of many who'd have experienced a problem with the fuel. If you're the only one, however, best of luck. Ha.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
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A lot of posts on other forums about accidentally filling with E85 state that it's ok to run it for just the one tank. Again this is just per the general consensus after a Google search.

And that's very important: \ if there there truely is no harm in running a single tank through then the gas station could argue the expense the owner incurred was unnecessary and therefore they are not liable for any damages since there were none.

I'm thinking of as an example the many 'quicky lube' places: they routinely fill the oil with the plug missing and let the customer go. The customer notices it (the oil light illuminated) before they leave the parking lot and check their oil and/or find the oil plug missing. They will (for the people I've known this to happen to) simply replacee the plug, filled with oil and if the car runs OK they give the owner a notice and tell them if the engine fails IN THE FUTURE (because of this) bring it in and they'll fix it at their expense.

I believe this would be gas station's response (essentially, and with a ton of extra legalese): "you didn't have to do what you did as there is no harm so we're not legally liable but if anything DOES happen in the future bring it in and we'll assess our liability and come to terms AT THAT TIME". The best you can hope for is they play the 'good neighbor' part and give you some coupons for a free fill up or two for the inconvenience. I just don't think they'll accept they caused harm even if they accept it was their fault.
 
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