Gasoline smells like it has a little Kerosene or Diesel in it...??

[lght1]

Hi I have been gasing up 5 nights a week at the same station for years. But recently, I've noticed that there is a relatively strong smell of diesel or kerosene coming from the gas tank when pumping. At about the time I noticed it, my mpg as begun tanking, sometimes as much as 3-4 mpg per tank. Could some "contaminated" fuel have made its way to my car?

 

[bruce381]

yes in the fuel loading or unloading step try a diferent gas station or brand and see if it goes back to normal. bruce

 

[Ramblin Fever]

Just went through this myself not too long ago. Throw in a bottle of Chevron Techron fuel cleaner, and visit a different gas station and see what happens.

 

[BigAl]

Does the station sell reformulated gasoline? Are you smelling MTBE?

 

[lght1]

Hi Illegal here. Its not reformulated as MTBE is illegal. In fact, there are no oxygenates in the fuel.

 

[Eddie]

Maybe the tanker driver put some diesel in the regular fuel tank. I would top off at another gas station asap.

 

[hk33ka1]

On occasion mix ups occur at the terminal/refinery and sometimes even when loading fuel from the tanker into the gas station. I would try another type of fuel, and possibly suggest (not accuse) to the station that they could have a problem.

 

[Touring5]

It's interesting that you mention this. A month ago I filled up at a Kroger gas station and had the same experience. Smelled a lot like Kero. I didn't notice any problems with performance or economy, but I don't plan on buying gas there again. BTW - I did run a bottle of Techron concentrate after that fill.

 

[ekpolk]

Citgo 93, at least the Citgo 93 I get aboard Naval bases in the Southeast US has a strong "Kero/diesel" odor about it. It still runs fine, though. I drive a G35 sedan, and with this car's performance characteristics, it's very apparent when I feed it less than premium gas (the VQ35 V-6 is one of those engines programmed to produce higher output on premium, while still running safely, but at lower output as a result of retarded ignition timing, on 87 octane gas). On the other hand, neither Shell nor Chevron 93 in the same area has the odor. I've concluded that one of the major refiners is making 93 that has a pretty twangy odor, but it's still 93 (or thereabouts), so I'm not worried about it hurting anything.

 

[MolaKule]

What you're smelling is the benzene or methyl benzene in the fuel, one of the components of both gasoline and diesel fuel.

 

[MNgopher]

Could be a little contamination or it could be just a different refinery source of gasoline that is formulated differently. There is one refinery in this area that refines gasoline that absolutely stinks and almost smells like diesel. Many of the gasoline pumps that regularly pump this gasoline are labeled to say: yes, this is gasoline, particularly the brands that use green handles on the regular gasoline (Mobil and BP come to mind).