Petrol station pump wrong? What to do?

Goldenyears

Make your own mark. Fill with 4.99 kg tap water at 20 deg - simples.

forgotmyname

Plastic cans flex though.

Wonder how many miles the OP covers before the gauge drops off the full mark.

I know people have filled a 58L mondeo fuel tank with 65litres. And not to the top of the filler cap either.

When the manufacturers fill them they dont fill them that far. Its pointless and would probably make it hard for them to make secure if an accident where the fuel needs to be sealed from leakage.

There is probably 3ft of 2.5 - 3" pipework between the cap and tak then the tanks outlet. And then the space the manufacturer leaves for expansion.

etc etc etc...

KierNet

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).

You have any idea how quickly we would get shut down if we did that? Not saying that there isn't some that do/have done, but I would say 99% of them are honest, just like all other companies.

I had someone with a similar query recently, they got their manual out, turned out their tank was 45 litres, and 5 or 6 litres in reserve (when the light came on I believe), they thought it was just 45 litres. Could it be this?

If you haven't already, speak to the manager, they'll be able to do a pump test, although I would think if its that much of a difference, loads of people would be complaining about it. Ask them to check the stock reconciliation books (not sure if they all do it, we do though), if you still aren't happy, give trading standards a ring. They'll come out...we get them coming out when people moan about the penny.

TrickyWicky

Goldenyears wrote: »

Make your own mark. Fill with 4.99 kg tap water at 20 deg - simples.

4.99Kg.. whats that in Litres?

Wig

4.99kg of water will be 5 litres, he should have said 5kg but I'm sure he has some clever reason why he chose 4.99.

If you do this you would have to leave the top off the can to dry out the water and if it doesn't all go you may have to stick it open on top of your boiler, central heating or airing cupboard until it does all evaporate.

BlueC

OP here. Some interesting dicussions which I will comment on later but just to update on the original case:

I spoke with the manager on Thursday morning and told him what had happened. He said pump 6 had recently been serviced as there had been complaints about it being slow (as I had also found). This is the same thing the night attendent had told me. He was very polite and asked for the receipt details so he could ensure I wasn't mistaken etc etc.

He called me back later in the day to tell me they'd had the engineer out again and that they had replaced a part and confirmed that pump was accurate. I questioned whether they had confirmed the accuracy before and after replacing the part but he didn't seem to know - just said that they confirmed it is now accurate. He then basically said it must have been a genuine reading and therefore I guess implying that either I am stupid or that something odd happened that allowed an extra ~10 litres of fuel to disappear into the tank.

No offer of refunding the difference or any good will gesture - although I didn't ask as I'm not that bothered.

He did say that if I fill up again while he is there then he'll come out and make sure I'm not doing something wrong. Hahaha!! The patronising idiot. I told him its fine I'll just get my petrol from Sainsbury's in future. The cheeky sod even suggested I might have had a hole in the tank that I didn't notice.

So what went on here? My most likely scenarios:

1) Given the pump has a recent history of problems I think its still most likely the pump was out.

2) The slowness of the pump meant the petrol was settling better in the tank - no air blocks or anything so I managed to get more in before the pump cut out.

3) The tank was *really* empty despite the mileage and digital gauge being the same as usual.

4) Some combination of each of the above.

5) I somehow managed to pour 10 litres of petrol all over the floor as I am incapable of filling up my car properly. It all evaporated immediately though so I didn't notice.

Anyway, I'm going to report to TS. Mainly because I'm annoyed at his patronising suggestion that he could help me to fill the car up next time!!

TrickyWicky

Well seeing as your a mug and not really asserting your rights would you come and buy my car? - Nothing wrong with it and if it stalls on the way home then you clearly didn't use enough gas :P

Seriously, you've just been walked over. I've had people try to do the same thing with me and convince me they know my car better than me (despite it being rare they still think they know better).

Go and call trading standards under the weights and measures act. They'll soon go and ruffle the managers feathers.

CKhalvashi

My tank is officially 70l (2011 Ford S-Max TDCi), however one thing I have noticed when filling up (and will post the receipt from Tesco’s a few weeks back) is that I can get between 75 and 85l depending on what I’ve done with the car on that day. The most I’ve managed to squeeze in was 86.14l after a 3h motorway run (this was a 2009 model)

The 75-85l is based on between 50 and 75 miles left in the tank on the computer.

CK

Wig

Do you reset your mileage every time you fill up?
Also ....what model and year is the car? Maybe then we can get some facts onto the thread from other owners.

I bet if you take a full 5 litre can with you everywhere and let the car run out of fuel you will have driven over 55litres worth of miles and then when you fill up you will get 55+ litres into the car. This will then set your own mind at rest that you did genuinely get 52 litres into your tank......this is a simple way of proving to yourself and us here on the thread who is right.....the question is will you do it?

As said you missed your opportunity by driving away and not asking for an immediate calibration check - takes only 5 minutes -