Internal Memo re - Filling stations

Hi Guys,

I discovered something interesting last week when I filled up my car at the petrol station. Perhaps you all know about this already but just in case you don’t. After we had filled up with petrol my husband commented that he was sure that we only have a 51 liter tank but the pump showed that 53 liters had been pumped into the car and the car still had a quarter tank of petrol in it when we started which means that there was a discrepancy of about 14 liters. I checked our car manual and sure enough we have a 51 liter tank.

I contacted the garage and the owner is waiting to get the pump checked. Apparently the pumps are only checked once a year.

I was so shocked by this discovery that I went back and checked the rest of my Autocard statements and sure enough I discovered a few more cases like this but at different petrol stations. The one even showed that they put in 62 litres of petrol which we now know is impossible but because these all happened some time ago I have no idea how much petrol there was in the car at the time and just how much I was ripped off.

Petrol stations can in fact be ripping us off all the time but you will only realize it if you have an idea of how much you have left in your tank when you fill up and if you know the size of your tank to start off with. How would we know if a pump is faulty or perhaps garage owners can manipulate their pumps so that they can make more money. This little episode has cost the bank +- R140.00 . How many more cases are there like this?

I would suggest that we inform as many people about this as possible and make sure that we check how many liters go into our cars in future.

Regards

True - keep stats of your petrol usage and how much you put in. Keep it on a loggsheet in your car - that you can prove your point. A while ago same happened to me - filled up Elsabe's kar and was presented with a slip for 61 liters - and her kar only has a 55 liter tank.
Proved it to the owner and paid only for the 48 liters i knew i then had to have put in as the reserve fuel light had just come on - normally does when having used 48 liters.
Principle here is get out and look what is being done - handy empty can out of sight is normally the recipient of the extra gas you pay for.

Thanx for the warning, even though I have not encountered this yet.

Agree, something to look out for. But on the other hand, the 800GS has a 16 liter tank and I regularly put in 17 liter plus, the most being 17,99 l once!

Other topic, the computer measurement that says how far you can go is something to watch out for. I think it was Wahl and Dave/Dot who mentioned they went down to 0 kays to go? I've managed to stretch mine to 2 kays to go - but then I also ran out of fuel twice! Once at 7 to go and another at 21... I also ran out one time with an RT saying 74 to go - was not impressed...

On my previous GS I did the accuracy test.
With a 10 lt can of motion lotion on the back, I rode until the display said 0 kms to go and reset the trip meter.
0,4kms later the engine spluttered out!
I stopped and eased the bike over onto the left cylinder pot.
After minute or so I picked it up again and it started again.
I rode off and I reached 8,6km marks before it spluttered and died again.
I trusted that display from then on...!

Got stuck when odometer said 13 km more. Didn't enjoy that a bike does not push nice on dirt. Then my book says 16 litre tank and usualy I can put more. So somebody has their calculations wrong, but then I am sure there is some left in the pipes and filter , but 2 litres??

LT has 24 liter tank - very eratic below 30kms - flatlines at 17 km to go - then i have basically 1 liter to go. Would then normally add 23 odd liters when filling up. Tend to get fidgetty when the level goes below 40kms - especially in town. Odd traffic jam can bugger up the whole issue.