Now that the vacation is over, it’s back to work with the cars and the problems and such. The first problem I encounter? A lady who called and told me that her vehicle was being towed in. A green, 2000 Ford Escort eventually rolled off the flatbed and onto our lot.
At first it didn’t seem too bad, usually these things can be solved with a new battery or starter, but this wasn’t a simple thing. So we got into testing this car. It had power, it would crank, it would run for a couple seconds then shut off. The fuel pump was functional, the filter was not clogged, we got good pressure up to the injectors.
The mechanic bled off some of the fuel in the fuel rail and let it spill onto the floor. Now, in Vegas, it’s hot and it takes no time at all for gasoline to evaporate. In ten minutes, all that remained was oil on the ground.
DIESEL OIL!
It all made sense. The mechanic had thought this might be the cause, but he could only smell the gasoline so he ruled it out. I happen to have a really good sense of smell, and after smelling the residue from the fuel, i knew what had happened.
I called the customer up and questioned her about her activities before her car quit running. She told me that she gt off of work, went to the store, got gas, then went home. When her ca wouldn’t start again before work the next day, she called he tow truck.
I asked her abut the as that she got, it if had a green handle. She said that it did have a green handle and it was difficult to get the nozzle into the filler neck of the car, but it cost less than the other gas did.
After telling her what we found with her car I explained that we had to change the fuel filter, change the spark plugs, drain the fuel tank, clean the fuel rail and injectors, put new gas into the vehicle and properly test the fuel pump for damage she was floored.
“It was just $15 worth of gas,” she lamented.
“No, it was $15 worth of diesel,” I said.
She was unhappy with the $480 bill, which if you factor in that about $150 was towing and diagnostic wasn’t so bad. She told me that she was more unhappy with herself because really she didn’t end up saving anything at all.
I don’t even think I have to say what the moral of this story is.
