# Gas guy put regular in my car.



## gosee (May 27, 2009)

> get the gas drained just to be on the safer side


just wow, you are freaking out dude.....

you can pump your BMW all on regular and nothing will happen.


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## thebmw (Oct 19, 2006)

jah rastafari said:


> :dunno:
> 
> Are you serious with this thread?
> 
> ...


+1


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## dannyc9997 (May 15, 2008)

akhbhaat said:


> I need to interject here, because these myths need to stop perpetuating themselves.


Say what you want, however I wouldnt go to any gas station where the owner clearly does not take care of the place. There are many stations out there with pumps that need replacing and owners who are too cheap to do so. There are filters inside the pumps that ought to be replaced once in awhile too, and im sure the stations who are too cheap to even clean up inside the store are not spending money to maintain the pumps :dunno:


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## thebmw (Oct 19, 2006)

dannyc9997 said:


> Say what you want, however I wouldnt go to any gas station where the owner clearly does not take care of the place. There are many stations out there with pumps that need replacing and owners who are too cheap to do so. There are filters inside the pumps that ought to be replaced once in awhile too, and im sure the stations who are too cheap to even clean up inside the store are not spending money to maintain the pumps :dunno:


May be true, but that has nothing to do with the original post and octane issue. The original poster is truly OCD, and I mean that with no offense. But I do like his sig!


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## Kamdog (Apr 15, 2007)

X3-terrestrial said:


> Don't worry about that, the 'puter will retard/advance timing and compensate for octane variances.


I don't think you are allowed to say that anymore. You should go back and say 'the 'puter will _mentally challenged_/advance timing....'

Just trying to be helpful here.


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## dannyc9997 (May 15, 2008)

stockmd said:


> May be true, but that has nothing to do with the original post and octane issue. The original poster is truly OCD, and I mean that with no offense. But I do like his sig!


It has to do with people confusing low octane fuel with low quality fuel.


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## Killjoy (May 13, 2009)

Kamdog said:


> I don't think you are allowed to say that anymore. You should go back and say 'the 'puter will _mentally challenged_/advance timing....'
> 
> Just trying to be helpful here.


Haha, very nice one...we ALLL have to do our part in making sure our society is a poilitically correct one


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## X3-terrestrial (Aug 27, 2008)

Kamdog said:


> I don't think you are allowed to say that anymore. You should go back and say 'the 'puter will _mentally challenged_/advance timing....'
> 
> Just trying to be helpful here.


Sorry....I was thinking a little "stupidly"....:angel:


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## Phil75070 (May 14, 2008)

I started pumping regular gas into my '05 545i by mistake at a Shell station in Missouri. I didn't even look, just went to the last grade on the right assuming it was Premium. I am trying to recall, but I don't think I can ever remember another gas station where the grade of gasoline did not go from the lowest octane to the highest from left to right.


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## 77vetteguy (Jan 26, 2007)

]

jeeze.......i'm sure you have been ripped on enough or being so ignorant (i didn't read all the posts). Therefore I'm not going to say much on that subject. even a full tank of any other kind of gas (except leaded thats bad) will not even cause so much as a hiccup. however different types of gas may make your car perform better. Also even though you were acting like an ass the gas guy had no rite to be rude. If I were that guy I would have apologized and offered some way to make it up to you. For future reference don't act like an ass for that kind of stuff. Your giving bmw owners a bad name. were not all over reactive jerks.


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## 6 Brit (Jan 19, 2009)

enamoured said:


> My first post in General, so hello everyone here! Most of the gas stations here are out of premier gas because of a breakdown in a nearby refinery so I went to co-op gas station today, which is a full service one. I told the guy to fill it up with premier and he instead started regular on it. Fortunately, I wasn't sitting inside the car and saw it almost as soon as he turned away and stopped the pump right away but by that time 3.78 liters of gas was already in. I called the guy back and he tried to shrug it away saying "oh ya you asked for premium" and started the premium back again. The car was low on gas so it took about 56 liters of premium. I went inside the gas shop and told them what happened, got the two receipts -for regular and premium both- and asked them to write on the receipt that I asked for premium and received 3.7 ltr of regular instead. The shop guy did that and I told them that if my car gives me any issues because of low grade gas, I will be back. Now when I came back, the pump guy was incredibly rude to me, I was not even talking to him and went straight to my car but he started shouting at me like its just 3 liters of gas, what's the big deal etc. I told him that there is no need to shout and if it does not give me any trouble, no issues but I wanted to report it in case there is some trouble. He went on saying ya go inside and report to my manager, you are making me shout. I wasn't planning on making a complain to managers but all this rudeness and shouting ticked me off and I parked the car and went inside to complain about him. The manager was really nice, and assured me that if it does make my car finicky, they are prepared to meet the cost. I told the manager that I think it was a genuine mistake by the pump guy but his behavior was not very nice either.
> 
> Now, my question to you is, has that sort of thing happened to any of you? How did your car behave after that? The amount of regular was very low 3.78 ltr against the rest of gas (67-3.78=63.22) which was all premium, can it still cause any issues with BMW engine? I drove the car for about 5 kms after getting the gas and it did not throw any lights or stuff. Should I take it to dealership and get the gas drained just to be on the safer side or am I just being a bit of paranoid here? Thanks in advance for your replies.


pump your own gas and you will not have to worry about this stuff...I think you are overreacting, go get some octane booster at auto zone and stop trippin on the poor gas station attendants :thumbup:


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## ceb1 (Jul 31, 2009)

*This whole thread is ridiculous....*



6 Brit said:


> pump your own gas and you will not have to worry about this stuff...I think you are overreacting, go get some octane booster at auto zone and stop trippin on the poor gas station attendants :thumbup:


...as there is no way in hell that any driver with the minimal intelligence to know that he needs a driver's license to legally operate a motor vehicle (much less the intelligence to actually pass the test) would believe that a couple of gallons of normal gas would harm his engine - especially since he probably had it filled with 92 or 93.

NJ and some other areas have laws that mandate that a pump jockey must pump your gas, so he's not guilty of being lazy.

The reason I posted, however, was to clear up a popular misconception about octane boosters.

Octane boosters do nothing except lighten your wallet. They boost octane by 4 or 5 points. What they don't tell you is that those 4 or 5 points will boost your overall octane rating by .4 or .5 - not 4 or 5 whole numbers. Accordingly, if you had 87 octane in your car and added octane boost then you would end up with 87.4 octane - that tiny boost will have cost you several dollars....


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## ricocervesa (Jul 18, 2007)

First post here. I just couldn't resist jumping in. Not that I want to bash this dude anymore, just provide some info to lessen his concern. I have been putting 87 octane exclusively in my 2002 525 and never had an issue. Why? Because I'm frugal! And by the way, thanks for making my day. I thought I had issues!


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## thebmw (Oct 19, 2006)

I bet this is the OP's first BMW. He thinks it's gold. Couple that with a true OCD and mis-education on gas.


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## enamoured (Aug 24, 2008)

stockmd said:


> I bet this is the OP's first BMW. He thinks it's gold. Couple that with a true OCD and mis-education on gas.


Yes it is my first. No, I don't think it's gold. OCD... well, I don't see the need to defend myself. Mis-education is not the correct term, lesser information is perhaps appropriate and that's the reason I posted here, to get more information on it. Go easy.


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## octopump (Apr 26, 2008)

Jah Rastafari said:


> :dunno:
> 
> Are you serious with this thread?
> 
> ...


What's with the tone? That's abrasive and very annoying. It doesn't even make-up for your attempt to "help him" by reassuring him at the end.


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## thebmw (Oct 19, 2006)

enamoured said:


> Yes it is my first. No, I don't think it's gold. OCD... well, I don't see the need to defend myself. Mis-education is not the correct term, lesser information is perhaps appropriate and that's the reason I posted here, to get more information on it. Go easy.


Okay...I think we were all getting a bit carried away:angel: But you set it up so well! I did give you a compliment on you sig before


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## minicrazy592 (Sep 12, 2008)

dsxmachina said:


> ditto.
> Saved me from posting petty much the same.
> I'd rather walk than pump from a no-name station. Shell 93 for me! (now with nitrogen! Hey wait a second, nitrogen is inert, i'm paying for something which doesn't burn? Wtf?)


+1


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## Bethesda E39 (Sep 23, 2008)

This happened to me a couple of years ago.
I didn't think it was a big deal at first (I filled my tank with regular once because I was at a gas station that was out of Premium).

Then, about 3-4 weeks later, my engine started behaving poorly and the SES light came on.
I thought it needed spark plugs or a fuel filter so I took it to my BMW dealer to have them check things out.

Anyways, turns out I needed a new engine.
The whole thing was blown. Repair estimate: $9,500. for a new engine.
The FIRST thing my service advisor asked me was: "Have you ever put regular gas in this car?"
I told him what happened, and that confirmed it for him.

He basically told me that if you put even the SMALLEST AMOUNT of regular gas in a BMW, it's about 90% likely the engine will sustain severe damage. There's really nothing you can do about it if it gets into the fuel system and combustion chambers.
He told me I was lucky it didn't explode.
Most people who make the same mistake you and I made don't live to tell the story.
It's like a ticking time bomb once the engine gets a taste of regular.

Anyways.....lessons learned, I guess.

I'm sorry to hear about this.
Keep us all posted on how the engine rebuild goes!


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## ceb1 (Jul 31, 2009)

*Horsemanure....*



Bethesda E39 said:


> This happened to me a couple of years ago.
> I didn't think it was a big deal at first (I filled my tank with regular once because I was at a gas station that was out of Premium).
> 
> Then, about 3-4 weeks later, my engine started behaving poorly and the SES light came on.
> ...


...you don't really expect us to believe that, do you?


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