Bad fuel ??
 

My responsible daughter put some bad gas in her car. It is a 2004 C230 Kompressor,130,000 miles. The car has not had any major problems. She called home for help thinking she had run out of fuel. She said she did not understand as she had just filled up the tank. She went to a gas station that we warned her about not ever buying their gas. The car runs sluggish,sputters , then falls dead. Changed the fuel filter. That's all I did. No improvement. We try to drive it but its very frustrating. This car does not behave like this. Sputtering,putt-putting along. If you press on the gas pedal >20 miles there is a loss of power and it falls dead.Trying to get help or is it in the dealers hand ?

all gas is the same. im tired of people saying some places have "bad" gasoline. there are legal standards. all gas comes from the same refinery. the difference is the additives that certain brands put, like techron.

sounds like your daughter put something less than 91 octane. youll be fine, just dont do it again.

ill admit i made the same mistake many times when i was younger to my poor maxima. i had no idea what octane meant or why it mattered.

Check fuel pumps. I had similar issue in my W203--turned out it was the fuel pumps. Both needed to be replaced. I hoped it was "bad gas" at the time as well, but as mentioned by SemperFudge, that is so rare it's probably a mythology.

I dont think it was relevant to the octane rating because putting a lower octane in your car once shouldn't make it act like that. I used to always put 87 octane gas in my car before I new the importance in putting in higher octane gas and it never really preformed any less then how it does now with 91. Also agree about it probably not being "bad gas". Sounds like something else went wrong and it was just a coincidence that she had just filled up at the "bad" gas station.
Hope you get it figured out soon
Good luck!

Few things to check; throttle position sensor (you gonna feel lack of power or rpm spike), cam position sensor ( if broken, it'll think the timing is off, it will run rough and the car will protect the engine if you force gas into the chamber and shut the engine off), fuel pump (less likely because you are able to start the car, if the pump is at fault you will have hard time to even start the car), worst scenerio is she put diesel in the tank.

Go get a code reader that gives you the code and the description first.

Check Fuel pressure at the Schrader valve on the fuel rail that connects all injectors. S/b > 3.8 bar or 55 psi while cranking. You need fuel pressure correct, air & spark at the right time so plugs, coils, CPS, aircleaner & fuel are the first checks required.

You might have picked up a load of contaminated fuel with dirt, water or diesel in it. It happens more than those of us in the oil industry care to admit. Never refuel while a tanker is dischaging fuel into a dealer's tanks. It stirs up all the crud.

Good luck!

I'm pretty tired of people saying that less than 91 octane will cause this type of engine problems. :p:

But no, seriously, it won't.

Well. I have seen the results of the gas that was put in......I believe that she put the 93 octane in the car as we have trained her well. Full of sand/sedimentation. I just need to learn how to load the pics on here. I have the gas in plastic bottle and paint bucket. If not bad gas myth, Idk but something is bad at that location.

you can either attach the image by hitting the go advanced and attach the image or load it on a site like flickr and hit the yellow picture icon right above the message box and paste the link there.

You will probably find the tanks have not been cleaned for years & they recently had a fuel delivery! :smash:

The gas station should be responsible for any repairs the car now needs. Definitely want to change the fuel filter, drain the tank, etc.

Hi All !!!


Had a busy day yesterday. Car is in shop. Visited the location where the bad gas was purchased. Owner informed me that he had another complaint for the same gas(pump). He also told me that he would cover any charges up to 100.00. If the bill is greater than 100.00 I would need to have the car repaired at his shop. Is he crazy. He stated yesterday that if I took my car to the MB dealer, it would cost me an arm and a leg. He must be out of his mind. Please !!... ....Oh thanks to the person who informed me on how to upload pics. Pic on bottom is that of an empty bucket that was used on the first drain attempt. Notice all the sand/sedimentation(dirt) . I knew that I was in for an uphill battle. The pic with the two bottles shows the one on the right with the gas that was drained from the tank post visit to the bad location. Bottle on the left is Post fuel filter change and refill of tank with VPower 93. Still car < optimal performance. Waiting on word/bill from the dealer.


Thanks all

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Ouch - Typical tank bottom crap from the dealer. With that mess he must have had other complaints as you say he had. The dealer should be liable for all your costs which can be considerable with modern fuel systems.

$100? Up to $100? :rolf:

Yes he will be responsible. There's no way out for him.

thats why I never let my gauge go past 1/4 of a tank before refilling. i get paranoid of sucking all the debris and stuff that can settle in the gas tank. My dad always told me to fill up at 1/4 because you never know what can happen on the road.

i'm assuming this might be a independent gas station?

never had issue with large gas company such as mobil, chevron, shell, 76 etc. even tho they are all independently owned.

Daughter knows the 1/2 mark rule as well. I don't know what made her go to that gas station. Well I do know. She was obeying the 1/2 mark rule. (Lol). The independent owner has agreed to cover the cost of repair. I took my laptop and the bottle demo to show him what came out of his pump. I also found out via WOM that the other person with a MB had similar experience and threatened legal action. The pump is closed off now.

All the big guys have a regular tank cleaning regime.

The car has a 16.4 gallon tank. The whole idea of only using a portion of this seems absurd, but we've all had that debate before. At the point the needle is on E and the range is listed as 0 - as it will on 05s at least - there is still over a gallon left. It's never entirely empty. I've been exploiting this on my car since 25k miles (now at 143k) and it is not an issue. Just use top tier fuels.