[kmberie]

I recall some poeple here or on Vortex complaining about running out of gas in their Touareg. Maybe this is your problem or you have a similar situation: Shell Oil has stopped the sale of gasoline at more than 500 of its stations in the South because of high levels of sulfur that can damage vehicle fuel gauges and make an empty tank appear full.

We have the problem in our city as well, we have a population of about 150,000 here in erie county and there have been nearly 300 reported cases of bad fuel sensors needing replaced, it has been so bad that the dealers are telling people not to have them fixed for a while because they have seen the same cars back as many as 3 times. In our area it seems to be with the low octane 86/87 grades. Since I run premium in both of my VWs I have not seem the problem. Most of our fuel up here comes from one refinery, and I say most. We have BP, Sunoco, Citgo, Shell, and Exxon in our area as well as a few of the locals which most of the fuel comes from United Refining in Warren, PA.

Our DA is currently doing an investigation as to the source. There has been a lot of finger pointing going around. Just glad I have not had to deal with it. Our local police and municipal cars have even had many problems with it. It would see pretty easy to pinpoint who they get their fuel from.

Oh well, higher prices, lower quality. Seems like the norm nowdays.
:neutral:

 

[kmberie]

It was announced today by a local refining company that it has setup a hotline for people who had gas sensor problems. It has been reported that fuel sold through several local retailers between the dates of May 4th and May 20th had a high sulfur content due to an unknown reason at this time. The company has offered to compensate people who have proper documentaion and receipts for the fuel and repairs. The hotline has recieved 800 calls so far.

The company claims the problems caused by the sulfur may reversed by three or more consecutive fillups of un-contaminated fuel. I guess the theory is that it will clean the sensor.