Bad Gas

CAtaylor · May 30, 2014

Any body got bad gas in their 5.3 yet? I am about 99% sure I picked some up on the way to Houston day before yesterday and if not I have issues. About 10 miles after leaving the station my mileage dropped by 7 mpgs but no other symptoms. Made it to my hotel and had the truck valet parked. Got it pulled up today after setting since Tues night so I could go to a vendors place for a meeting and shortly after I merged on I-10 I got a check engine light, only other issue was the mileage. On the way back to the hotel the check engine light started flashing and the truck would barely idle when I stopped at a light. Pulled over and checked the codes;p0300 random missfire; p219a and p219b; these refer to the afr between the banks being out of sync. I checked the LTFT's and the we're running around +27 at idle; horribly lean. I cleared the codes and about 2 miles later the P219b reappeared but no more miss or horrible mileage so I finished the drive; actually it was the best mileage I have ever got and the fuel trims were spot on. My question is if you have bad gas in one of the 14's before what did you do. Just run it out? Add some Heet and try to run it or just tow the Damn thing and have the tank dropped? If I were home I would flush the tank but being 250 miles down the road and tomorrow being Friday I really don't have that option. Plus the hotel would probably be pissed if I cut their water hose up and dropped 20 gals in there parking garage.

Silverado-Hareek · May 30, 2014

I wouldn't worry too much. If it's still in your tank, just dilute it with good gas as soon as possible to help flush it out. After that I would stick to quality gasoline. I buy only top tier gas now for both my truck and my wife's car. Specifically Shell gasoline. But any of the other top tier gas companies are fine. Go to http://www.toptiergas.com/ for a list of vendors.

CAtaylor · May 30, 2014

I wouldn't worry too much. If it's still in your tank, just dilute it with good gas as soon as possible to help flush it out. After that I would stick to quality gasoline. I buy only top tier gas now for both my truck and my wife's car. Specifically Shell gasoline. But any of the other top tier gas companies are fine. Go to http://www.toptiergas.com/ for a list of vendors.

I normally do. I stopped at 2 shell stations but their network was down nation wide I was told and they could not take a card, this was tuesday around 1pm, so I filled up at the Valero next door to the shell. Valero is big down south and has good gas as well. The issue I am concerned with is destroying a cat, injector or o2 sensor before I get the tank low enough to dilute it. I still have about 20 gals of the gas in my tank.

Silverado-Hareek · May 30, 2014

One tank of Valero gas won't harm anything. If you're concerned about the o2 sensor run a bottle of Techron through your next tank of gas to help clean things up. I used kroger gas exclusively in my 2007 silverado and never had a problem so I don't think one tank of Valero will hurt anything.

CAtaylor · May 30, 2014

10-4. If I can make it out of the downtown freeway area without it dying I will stop and try to get some additive. It is really just luck of the draw on the gas. I bought the wife a new car 4 years ago and the dealership pulled it next door to top it off at a shell station. Car made it home but barely. Had the dealership come pick it up and swap us out with another car.

fondupot · May 30, 2014

Do you know which gas station you filled up that had the bad gas? if you're back around that way go see if they had other reports from people.

pm26 · May 31, 2014

Possibly water in the fuel. The level of gas in their tanks was probably very low.

Colossus · June 2, 2014

Valero fuels are decent. They may not be rated top tier but they are still good fuels. Water can get into fuel any number of ways, and will usually be a result of underground tank contamination from water leaking in from the top, or a comprimised underground storage tank at the gas station. Very rarely will you get water in the fuel from the terminal (where all the tanker trucks get the fuel from and adds the additives for that specific brand of gasoline before taking it out to that branded station.)

CAtaylor · June 7, 2014

FYI. I finally got the bad gas run out and everything seems to be ok. I added a bottle of HEET when I filled up to help get the rest of the water out. All of the sensors appear to be reading ok so no long term effects as far as I can tell.