Petrol station pump wrong? What to do?

Hintza

forgotmyname wrote: »

Filling it right upto the filler neck could be wasting fuel when it expands a bit.

Not when you are only getting 21 mpg . The neck is empty before I get home :rotfl:

KTF

If the car was empty and the pump was slow then you could have managed to get more compared to a 'fast' pump as the fuel wasnt sloshing round, etc. as it went in so there might not be anything wrong with the pump.

maninthestreet

KTF wrote: »

If the car was empty and the pump was slow then you could have managed to get more compared to a 'fast' pump as the fuel wasnt sloshing round, etc. as it went in so there might not be anything wrong with the pump.

Eh? So please explain how you get 52.64 litres into a tank with a capacity of only 45 litres (which was not completely empty to start with) ??? Even allowing for a couple of litres in the filler neck, the figures just don't stack up.

colino

Just about possible to get that amount of fuel into a dry car with the pipework to take account of, but if your suspicious, get on to local trading standards. Doctoring fuel meters makes garages literally thousands of pounds of free profit and is about the only thing my TS does properly. (It spends the rest of the time flogging membership of their good trader scheme for a mere, introductory offer of £200/year).

Premier_2

maninthestreet wrote: »

Eh? So please explain how you get 52.64 litres into a tank with a capacity of only 45 litres (which was not completely empty to start with) ??? Even allowing for a couple of litres in the filler neck, the figures just don't stack up.

Don't put too much credence to the stated capacity of the fuel tank.

The stated capacity is really only there to enable the manufacturer to state a vehicle range, so as long as it is at least that stated, then everything is ok.

People don't usually go to a filling station completely empty (because then they would have to have been towed there!) but customer complaints come flooding in if the fuel gauge shows empty and the customer cannot get their 'stated capacity' into the tank.

Manufacturing tolerances also need to be taken into account by the OEM (because the complaining customer won't do so).

Furthermore, the capacity stated is that of 'usable fuel'. So it's not just the overfilling right up the filler neck, but an 'unusable' content can easily be 4-8 litres.
The problem is, the 'unusable' content may infact be usable in certain conditions/orientations.

So a declared 45 litre production tank could easily have a capacity of 55+ litres if accurately measured.

On the other hand, fuel pumps are extremely accurate (-0.5%, +1.0% I think are the limits) and regularly tested to ensure they are. If they are not correctly calibrated, they are closed down until they are corrected and proven to be accurate.

maninthestreet

You would need a lot of pipework to contain 7 litres of fuel. Let's assume the OP's car had only 2 litres left in the tank, then the pipework would need to contain 9 litres, or 2 gallons. The figures just don't stack up.

Premier_2

colino wrote: »

Just about possible to get that amount of fuel into a dry car with the pipework to take account of, but if your suspicious, get on to local trading standards. Doctoring fuel meters makes garages literally thousands of pounds of free profit and is about the only thing my TS does properly. (It spends the rest of the time flogging membership of their good trader scheme for a mere, introductory offer of £200/year).

Fuel pumps are sealed to prevent doctoring. Of course a criminal could break the seal but TS would instantly spot this on their next visit.

There was a high level case in Wales a few years back where Tesco got caught for offences under the Weights & Measures Act - cost them almost £25k in fines & costs and they repaid double the 'short-change' to affected customers/charity costing them another £150,000. (so £300,000 repaid in total)

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/03/31/tesco-fined-18-000-for-petrol-overcharging-91466-23276506/

Edit: I should point out that this was not a deliberate act by Tesco to 'short change' their customers, but were still found at fault for not taking the necessary actions to ensure the dispensing/charge was accurate.

Premier_2

maninthestreet wrote: »

You would need a lot of pipework to contain 7 litres of fuel. Let's assume the OP's car had only 2 litres left in the tank, then the pipework would need to contain 9 litres, or 2 gallons. The figures just don't stack up.

Did you read my post?
I tried to explain it's not about pipework.

vax2002

You should not have tipped the garage off.
You should have gone straight to trading standards.
There is a known way of electronically altering the pump without anything touching using radio frequencies.
Most likely they have a "box" in the pump casing and are in on the fiddle.

colino

Premier, while I find your faith touching, you do know it takes about 30 seconds to recalibrate each pump don't you, it's incredibly easy to do and a lot of garages are still independent businesses, outwith the supermarket network, that while displaying multi-national logos, are locally managed businesses.