[dadu]

Put in your complaint here

[pypkmsrikanth]

I have once filled 37 litres in my Wagon R which has a listed capacity of 35 litres. This was done at the Shell Ambattur pump, does it mean that Shell also tinker with measures..No. I was running on gas and with a practically empty fuel tank hence the reason for filling more than the listed capacity. If I was in your case I would be more careful next time around not to leave until so late to fill my tank. Cheers

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Huh? Srikanth? What type of WagonR is this? (One with indicator lamps inside top of the head light? Or the older type, with front number plates on a side?

[pypkmsrikanth]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Huh? Srikanth? What type of WagonR is this? (One with indicator lamps inside top of the head light? Or the older type, with front number plates on a side?

The one which comes with clear lens headlamp, not the older type, also to clarify not the latest avatar which was launched as the Duo one

[iwant2go]

I owe answers to some of your questions.

1. I had driven for about 20 kms or so after the low fuel indicator light came up. Normally the car goes for atleast 40 kms after the light comes up. (I know this for sure because the light came up when I was driving home from office, the distance from office to home is 22 kms). So there was still petrol in the tank. Atleast couple of liters of petrol.

2. On the night of the incident itself, I called BP call center number, the "we are listening" number advertised on their web site immediately. The operator was patient, listened my complaint, thanked me and said someone will get back to me within 24 hours.

3. When I called the number printed on he receipt, an employee gave me the number of the owner. A little later owner called me, I also spoke to the owner of the petrol bunk, recorded the phone conversations. He says his pump is calibrated, invited me to go and check it for myself. He suggested to recheck my tank size with Honda. I said I would not go to his bunk ever. Surprisingly, he was polite too.

--
iwg.

[null]

As far as I have heard, the pump's outflow cannot be manipulated to vary the quantity soo much. These machines are under regular monitoring, at least within the city limits, by the oil company officials. With these new age pumps - with hi-fi controls - I would assume that there are adequate mechanisms to prevent any misuse. The only practical means of cheating is with quality (adultrate the fuel) and not with quantity. The new bunks have live monitoring of the density which should give a good indication of the quality of the fuel.

Even on my old wagonr, It fills up to 30 lts sometimes till cut-off which psyches me up. Unfortunately, there is no practical way of confirming whether our cars got the right quantity / quality or not.

[dadu]

there is if they comply, ask them to fill a 1 ltr Bisleri bottle, using a funnel, that should suffice as proof.

[mmmjgm]

Take a 20 litre jerry can, fill it up, then see what quantity you get. This is the best way, In all possibilities the overrun of the meter (difference between actual dispensed and the meter reading) would have shown up this number.

[VEA]

Originally Posted by mmmjgm

Take a 20 litre jerry can, fill it up, then see what quantity you get. This is the best way, In all possibilities the overrun of the meter (difference between actual dispensed and the meter reading) would have shown up this number.

Most petrol station doing tricks has a way to deal with can sales. A station will have more than one dispensers. At anytime a few of them will dispense correctly. If you go with a can or bottle you will be led to a particular dispenser which will give you correct volume. I live in Pollachi in Tamil Nadu and is fed up of this. My innova which has a 55L tank as per the company manual, will accept more than 55 L from most Pollachi pumps.( it has never accepted more than 50L when I fill from Cochin,my native) And that too, when the car already has atleast 5 Litres in the tank. May be the vehicle manufacturer is not giving exact details in the owners manual, or you are being cheated at the pump. Moreover, the diesel is mixed with some chemicals, as i found when my generator was serviced. The generator pump was corroded inside due to some chemicals present in the fuel, according to the MICO people!

[Ravveendrra]

Something like this happened to us in Tirupathy many years ago. We pulled into the petrol bunk with a tank that was almost dry and asked him to fill in 10lts. The attendant started filling our car after filling in 5 in the earlier customer (did not reset to 0) and then insisted that he had filled in 15lts by mistake and wanted us to pay for the extra 5lts. or he will remove 5 lts.

We challenged him to drain out the tank and measure the contents. Seeing he was beaten, he beat a quick retreat.

It helps to remember that all petrol bunks are required to keep measuring cans, filter paper etc. for use by customers.

Cheers and happy motoring.

[pnredkar]

Hi folks,

It seems that my fuel tank has expanded due to Bangalore summer from 46 litres to more than 50 litres. Or atleast one petrol pump in Bangalore wants me to believe this.

Background:
I have been driving an Opel Corsa 1.4 GSI for more than 6 years now. It has a fuel tank capacity of 46 litres. It is my habit of over 6 years to always full-tank it till auto-cutoff. My low fuel warning lamp comes on when there is about 6 litres petrol still left. In my experience, the tank takes about 40 litres in such condition. Even driving for some distance after the low fuel warning, I have never required to fill more than 42 litres in the life span of this car.

About yesterday:
I generally fill petrol at Shell petrol bunks. However, due to the increase in Shell fuel prices, I decided to go back to one of our national petrol bunks. If had asked the person to fill fuel till auto-cutoff.

To my surprise, the fuel did not auto-cutoff even when the counter showed 47 litres. So according to the numbers shown, my tank would have to have about 53 litres of fuel then. I raised a hue-and-cry about the whole episode. The manager of the petrol pump came to the scene.

To his credit, he was calm and courteous during this whole episode and assured me that he will check the matter in detail. He offered me to perform some (density and other) tests in front of me. He also informed that they perform detailed checks about the fuel disposed in the day. He would present me the detailed reports if I come on Monday.

Finally, he asked me how much would I like to pay for the petrol already dispensed. I was with my wife and kid then and did not want to prolongate the matter then. Due to his courteous manners, I decided to pay the entire amount subject to the conditions that he show me the reports on Monday and refund me in case of any anomalies.

Questions:
This has raised some questions which I thought would be wise to raise on this forum:
(1) Do you see any better way in which I could have handled this situation?
(2) If I do not get a good response on Monday, how can I proceed in this matter?
(3) It there any reliable way in which I can find out how much fuel is actually present in my fuel tank?
(4) What are the nature and significance of the tests done at petrol pump?


As you can see that I have refrained from mentioning the name of the petrol bunk till now. However, if I do not get adequate follow up from the manager, I will release the details of the petrol bunk atleast on this forum.

On the positive side, I found one more advantage of filling petrol full-tank each time

Regards,
Prasad.

[tanwaramit]

if the fuel tank capacity is 46 liters then putting in 47 liters is very fishy.

Did you see the meter turned to zero before they started filling petrol in your car ? Some of the bunk owners are known to cheat on this matter.

[gaddiwale]

Fuel tank expansion due to summer and engulfed 4 lits extra - quite unusual. Take a one lit bottle (measuring cylinder would be ideal, but difficult proposition for obvious reason) and check the calibration of the fuel dispensing machine. Keep us updated.

[clevermax]

Its a clear case of cheating at the petrol bunk. When their meter shows 50L, it is actually less than that.

[DRIV3R]

Dont tell me that this is the Advaita fuel station , located at BTM.