My 2001 explorer sport (63k) had about 1/8th of a tank of gas and I filled it up. The automatic shutoff did not trigger and I accidently topped the tank off. A few minutes after driving away from the gas station the car started shaking at idle and at low speeds. It feels like it wants to stall but it does not stall. I pulled over retightened the fuel cap (i think it was a little loose) and it still shakes. After starting the car again and driving for a few minutes the check engine light popped on. The car is still running very rough. Any ideas? Bad gas? Checked my receipt and I did put in regular unleaded (thought I may have put diesel in). Could topping off the tank have this effect? The car was running great before pulling into the gas station.

I got the error code read on the way home and it showed a P0301 or cylinder 1 misfire. Which I am having trouble believing. Reset the code and did not come back on until I took the car out again this evening. Can this error refer to something besides the cylinder? I saw there was a TSB for P0300 and P0301 for my engine.

Also starting to notice a sulfur smell coming from the car.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Sounds like bad gas. Have you tried running it with the cap off/loose to make sure you don't have some sort of pressure problem due to the overfill? It's worth a try. I'd also go back to the station and talk to the manager to see if they have had other reports.

 

It seems I recall that when a tank is filled to extreme, gas can get into the vacuum line(s) that are supposed to suck fumes, not gas. I would drive it and see if it improves with time.

 

I did ask the gas station and of course they said no problems. He said it sounds like I have moisture in my tank and it is impossible it came from them.

Also to add to the suspicion when I filled up I noticed half of the pumps had bags over the nozzles (usually when they are empty). Maybe I got some muck from the bottom of their fuel tank. Plus when I passed the gas station in the afternoon they had some tech working on one the the pumps. I think I got screwed. I hope the problem goes away after the gas is gone.

Thanks for the input.

 

Once you finish this tank i would run a bottle or two of Chevron Techron through it to help clean up anything that may be left behind

 

You may also want to try and siphon out as much of the gas as possible and fill up with fresh gas to dilute the possible contamination.

Mason

 

get a new gas station.

put drygas in.

i bought bad gas at a marathon station 3 years ago and have never bought from them again.

it took 3 months before the vehicle started running right again.

at least 4 tanks of fuel and many additives later, plus new plugs and fuel filter.

 

First of all it's highly unlikely that you got "crud" from the gas station tank. I'm assuming that you run regular and if you do then those tanks are emptied and filled far too often for something like that. If you have a cylinder misfire then you need to look at that cylinder. I'd start with some seafoam in the tank incase it's the injector and then I'd swap out the plug on it. I'm betting more then anything you could call this one a coincidence and the problem is most likely a plug or wire.