ALERT: AVOID Shell gas stations in South USA for week

Sulfur Content Could Cause Fuel Gauges to Fail

By ALAN SAYRE, AP

NEW ORLEANS (May 29) - Just before the heavy-driving Memorial Day weekend, more than 500 Shell and Texaco stations in the South have stopped selling gasoline because of high sulfur levels that can ruin vehicle fuel gauges and make an empty tank appear full.

The damage done by the bad gasoline could cause some drivers to run out of gas unexpectedly. Also, car owners may have to replace their fuel gauges - a repair job that can easily cost $400 to $600.

The tainted gasoline originated at the Motiva Enterprises refinery in Norco, La., according to Shell Oil Co. Motiva is the refining arm of Shell in the East and South. Motiva supplied the gasoline to both Shell and Texaco.

The refinery said it is investigating how the high sulfur levels occurred. Sulfur is naturally present in crude oil; some of it is supposed to be removed during refining.

As of Friday, 119 Shell and Texaco stations were closed in the New Orleans area, and 400 were not selling fuel in Florida, said Shell spokeswoman Helen Bow.

The problem occurred at an especially bad time for gasoline stations, which had been expecting brisk sales, at high prices, ahead of the holiday weekend.

"The pumps have been off since Wednesday,'' said Sri Guntaka, a cashier at a Shell station in New Orleans. "We've lost a lot of customers, hundreds of them. It's very bad.''

Gas tanks have a float ball that rises and falls with the fuel level. An electrical system reads the float ball's level and transmits the information to the dashboard fuel gauge. The system uses silver electrical contacts, which can be quickly corroded by sulfur.

The problem came to light this week after drivers began complaining about inaccurate fuel gauge readings.

Besides the New Orleans area, problem fuel turned up in shipments to Miami, Tampa, Sarasota and Fort Lauderdale, Shell said.

Shell is replacing the gasoline at its stations. But Bow did not have an estimate of when all the stations would be pumping again.

Don Redman, a spokesman for Louisiana AAA, said that before the shutdown was announced, he fielded several calls from the auto club's members complaining that their gas readings were way off.

"People have been looking at their odometers because of the high prices and saying, 'Hey, wait a minute,''' Redman said.

Shell said it had received 1,800 queries and 825 claims from people who said their fuel gauges had been affected.

Mark Hebert, who lives in Luling, said he filled up at a Shell station on Monday, and 200 miles of driving later, the gauge on his

2002 Impala still read full.

"I just know it has to be between a quarter and a half full at this point,'' said Hebert, who submitted a claim to Shell and planned to take his car in next week for a replacement gauge.

Guy Valvis, owner of an auto repair shop in Metairie, said he normally handles about two gauge replacements a year. "I've fixed three or four here in the last week, and I've got two in here right now,'' he said Friday.

Valvis said the repair job entails draining the fuel and removing the gas tank.

05/28/04 22:54 EDT

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon
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I am one of those victims in South Florida. Filed my claim online with Shell so we will see what happens.

Reply to
Arthur

This is Turtle.

This has to be funny here. i have not bought Shell gas in over 5 years or more and last week the Shell station in Alexandria , Louisiana had gas cheaper than anybody else at the time. I said well hell I'll use shell. Now I think I got in to it by buying the cheapest gas. I have a 33 gal. tank and a penny on a gal. is saving 33 cents + 1% back by using my Discover card.

Now that Norco Refinerey supplies a lot of other brands too. There is going to be more to the story here that what is said. I do know Norco supplies Cheveron and Fina .

TURTLE

Reply to
TURTLE

I was thinking Turtle. He's in that area. I'm sad to hear that you had trouble with thier gas. Hope it works out well for you.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

All I use is Exxon/Mobil, and BP/Amoco...strictly because of their environmental practices During my 22 years in the US Coast Guard, I did 4 years as a Pollution Investigator out of the New Orleans Marine Safety Office. Of all the oil spill and chemical release civil and criminal cases I processed, Exxon/Mobil and BP/Amoco had the least number of cases, they were all extremely pro-active in spill/release prevention, and had outstanding environmental protection policies.

Shell, Texaco, Chevron, and Marathon on the other hand......welll.......I won't go there.

Reply to
Noon-Air

Someone named "Noon-Air" snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net Proclaimed on Sun, 30 May 2004 22:27:48 -0500,

Yeah. That whole Exxon Valdez thing was outstanding.

Reply to
G. Morgan

The Exxon Valdez comes to mind........

Reply to
Putyourspamhere

And to think I was kicking myself the other day for accidentally filling my tank with midgrade instead of premium. It was Shell, BTW. (So far - so good. But I will be going back to Hi-Test next fill up)

It was also the first time I ever fit $60 worth of gas into the tank. UNBELIEVABLE !

Reply to
Bob DeWeese, CML

Bob:

Is it absolutey required that you use premium fuel in your vehicle ??? Most cars don't need it...

If your car does need almost $3 a gallon gas (in some places) then it is time to park it in the garage for the summer and lease/rent a chevy crap box (a.k.a. Cavalier) for the summer...

BTW, I used to complain about my $200 a month commuter rail pass until recently someone brought up in conversation that he was spending about $450 a month on gas lately... And that didn't include the parking garage space he pays for in the garage down the street from the building he works at each month...

Evan the Maintenance Man

Reply to
Evan

What good would that do? $2.50 a gallon gas is here to stay. The Bush/Halliburton War will see to that.

Reply to
Oscar_Lives

Let's not have that left wing political bullshit here, OK ?

Paul ( pjm @ pobox . com ) - remove spaces to email me 'Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the restraints.'

HVAC/R program for Palm PDA's Free demo now available online

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Reply to
pjm

Oh don't worry. I strongly believe that the democrats will f*ck it up worse.

This country and its political parties needs an enema!

(Tubgirl for president!!!)

Reply to
Oscar_Lives

Required or not, I run premium gas in everything I own. Always have, always will. I get better gas mileage, and better performance, but more importantly it burns much cleaner making the engine last longer. I can also go further between oil changes.

I even run premium in my lawn mower.

Incidentally, premium is going for about $2.15/gal. About $ .10/gal more than regular. 30 gallon tank times $.10. That's only $3 per tank full. From my experience over the years, (and as an ex-motorhead) it's worth the small difference in cost.

Bobby

Reply to
Bob DeWeese, CML

Funny. In ANY vehicle that requires a lower octane fuel, like 89, you are not helping the engine, nor are you keeping it cleaner. You are actually causing on a newer computer controlled vehicle to adjust the timing in a manner that is not helping your cause...and yes, I do know what I am talking about since for years thats what I did...automotive work, and today my hobby is 700HP+ Hemi engines, that CAN and DO run on regular pump gas..normally 89 octane. The higher the octane, the slower the burn of the fuel. In a vehicle that does not require it, you are wasting fuel. Period. Your PCM can overcome it to a degree, but now that you have run the higher overpriced fuel, its going to take a tank about, for the PCM to adapt to the lower octane fuel.

On a wager one time, with a helper I had that thought the same thing that was pumping premium on every tank on one of my service trucks, I bet him a weeks pay, that with the higher octane that the van would get 2-6 miles a gallon...NOT a tank, but a gallon LESS. The idea behind the bet was to show him that he was costing us more in fuel costs than he thought he was gaining. The ONLY thing I stipulated was that he :

Ride with me 3 weeks, in the van I had alloted to him...the same van he had been driving for 2 years... We would run the local and LD calls and we figured we would burn at least 4 tanks. We filled up with premium, ran it out, recorded the miles, filled with premium again, recorded the miles....then, filled with regular, recorded the miles, and ran that tank out, filled the 4th time with regular, ended up running that tank out, and filled again with reg...since thats all he was gonna put in again from that day forward anyway, and it allowed us to see if the computer had indeed compensated... His figures with premium were not bad...10 miles to the gallon, hiway miles mainly as it turned out. With the 2nd tank of regular, it went up to 13, and that was around town, with a trailer for 4 days...with a slight load.

As far as the farther between oil changes...you do what you want...oil changes are a pay me now, or pay me later item. I have yet to have a single vehicle in service go less than 300,000 (thats about a 4 year old van) miles. I have one down now that has 378,000+ on it, that has a blown head gasket...and thats my fault as well, as I didnt flush out the coolant on time, and I figured it was gonna get traded this year anyway...no synths...just good old factory filters and dino oil every 3000...

Bought a new Dodge, last of the 03s, about 34 days ago, with 244 miles on it. Today, it went for its 2nd oil change...7400 miles..little late...oh..and its getting about 15 miles per gallon on regular, and its a

2500 Maxivan, loaded, with the 3:88 Dana, not the Chrysler rear...and a 5.2L(318).

Total waste...lacking of power too, since there is no way for it to compensate the timing to make up for the slower burn.

Premium here is going for $2.00 a gallon...regular is now back down to $1.60. I have two vehicles that take premium, and I dont care if it goes to $4 a gallon, since I was paying more than that for a gallon in Germany a few years back. If you are an ex-motorhead, you would understand that the higher octane burns slower, tends to create more carbon fouling in engines that do not need it, and would have seen the results of this, particularly in the older smog 350s that always had the carbon fouled A.I.R tubes, fouled crossover in the intakes, and EGR valves that would stick open due to carbon fouling. The ONLY reason I am running premium in the Cuda, is that a 426H with a non factory ratio of 11:1 kinda needs it, along with some creative timing. The BMW calls for it as well...and the PCM wont adapt far enough to retard for anything but...but here again....with some creative PROM changes...:)

No flame...just pointing out the obvious...at least to me.

Reply to
sales

Reminder: This kind of warning is often bogus, in an attempt to damage a company that someone's angry with. Check serious news sources, and internet scam/myth sites like Snopes, before taking it seriously.

When there's news you haven't heard... sometimes that's because it isn't true.

Reply to
Joe Kesselman (yclept Keshlam

This is Turtle.

I too have seen less miles per gal. out of 93 oct. verses the 89 stuff but I have seem my GMC truck 350 ci. in. when pulling a 10 ton load on my trailor and the truck bed full too. I see where it has more power to get up and go but if you take the load off it. It will be no different from the 89 stuff in it. The only time I see better power is when it is pulling it's guts out and also at lower speeds and take off's. I will have it all the way on the floor with gas petal but going 20 miles a hour. Does this slow burn something do this ?

TURTLE

Reply to
TURTLE

I did check Snopes, and found no mention of the article. But on other email lists, I heard from people who had personally had problems with their own gas gages.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Your paranoia is showing. Gas prices will fall with increased supply and lesssened demand like they always do. Also it can be had for less than $1.90 where I am.

Reply to
Putyourspamhere

I can't debate the specific benefits you see or maybe think you see with premium in your specific vehicle however in general there is no evidence to suggest that running premium provides any real world benefits unless the design of an engine mandates it. The only real difference is in octane which makes a difference only to engines designed to run a higher compression ratio, more aggressive timing or both.

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The results of these kinds of tests are the same everytime they are conducted.

Reply to
Putyourspamhere

-snip-

True.

Frequently not true. With many engine management systems as long as there is no knock signal the ECM will usually not make any timing changes directly related to octane. ...and yes, I do know

The hemi is an ideal design for this. With most other engines it will be more difficult though not impossible.

Interesting.

Agreed. There is typically no real benfit in substituting premium for regular. Most people just don't understand what premium is or what the difference is.

Reply to
Putyourspamhere

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