Just received my copy of C&M, No.153 and in the letter, section I read and interesting letter from Nancy Chapman. In it she writes that they filled up a 20 litre drum of fuel at a certain garage but somehow they crammed in 26 litres, thinking the container might have been incorrectly marked they refilled it when arriving at their next fuel stop they again filled it and this time it only took 20 litres.

I have a similar incidents happen and I am very suspicious of service station operators now.

In my particular case, I have an 03 Mazda Bravo ute which, the handbook says holds 58 litres when empty but I have manged to squeeze in 64 litres and another time 63 litres. Even accounting for filling up to the top, I dont believe that the difference could be that much.

I believe that she is right on the ball, there are some unscupulous (crooks) out there that have obviously tampered with their meters, the Weights and Measures people number about 2 throughout the country, so there is little chance of them being caught, and they did they would just act stupid and get away with a warning anyway, where I believe severe penalties should apply

Service stations serve hundreds of customers per day and even if they were only ripped off for a litre each, it still mounts up to a tidy sum.

So not only are we being ripped off with the normal price of fuel, there are times when we obviously dont get the right measurements.


Hank

Interesting. For a little while now at a certain local servo, I check the pump has reset to zero $ BEFORE I start filling, because a month or so ago I noticed that it would register anything from 12+ cents before I started (LPG). If it does, I simply replace the nozzle and reach across for the nozzle on the other side, and explain to the girl at the register why I did that. Does not happen all the time, but has happened a few times.

My way of thinking is that it's just 12 or more cents, but it was the principle of the thing, and kinda got me narky. I will note it the next time and call weights and measures.

Also, I am also amazed at the difference that my LPG tank can hold, but just put that down to expansion or whatever. I irregularly run the LPG dry and run on petrol for awhile, as advised by my mechanic a long time ago.

G'day,
I've had the same thing happen on the LPG pump, I just replace it. go in tell them what happened and go and try again, I have had a pump jump to $1.12.
As for running some petrol through, our mechanic suggested to switch over in the evenig as we approach home and drive about 1/2 a km in the morning, that way there is fuel in the syatem overnight.

If I had been at the servo and got a 6lt discrepancy I would have called the manager and compained before even paying, and if he didn't want to do anything call the police and make a fuss right there and then in front of all the customers. NO way can you fit 6lt more in a 20lt gerrycan.
Frank

We have a patrol with 95l main tank and a 30l sub tank. I always fill the 30l tank first and if it takes more than 30 litres I move onto another fuel station. 33 litres is the highest so far.

Two couples we are friends with went thru the Flinders Ranges a couple of years ago in their cars; one diesel, the other LPG/petrol. One day the LPG/petrol car ran on petrol till it went dry and then the driver switched over to LPG, and not long after they camped for the night. They were stumped as to why the car would not start the next day, and the diesel driver had to travel about 100 kms return to get some cans of petrol. Only afterwards did they know the reason, and also that they could have got it started by judicious spraying of a combustible gas into the intake (last resort of course). The best to use is called (believe it or not) Start Ya Bastard.

We were only taking about this situation (again) while having dinner with the diesel couple last Saturday.

Same happened to us at the servo opposite the Katherine Tourist Info Centre. I complained, filled out a form and never heard anything back. The bloke behind the counter said they had the pumps recently calibrated and they should have been right. After filling up our jerry cans right around Australia we never had such a significant difference in the amount we put in. Needless to say we didn't fill up there again when we journeyed back south.