BP starting recall of gas sold locally
By Carrie Napoleon Post-Tribune correspondent August 20, 2012 5:28PM
Mechanic Art Jackson of Valparaiso preps to work on a car with bad gas Monday afternoon at UAC Truck and Automotive Service in Schererville. Owner John Foor had three cars come in Monday with symptoms of bad gas. | Jeffrey D. Nicholls~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: August 21, 2012 3:00PM
BP is recalling unleaded regular gasoline that was shipped from the company’s Whiting fuel storage terminal between Aug. 13 and 17 after motorists throughout the region began experiencing problems with hard starting or failure to start.
According to a statement from BP, the company believes that fuel stored in a tank at the storage depot could cause hard starting, stalling and other drivability issues. The fuel may have been purchased by motorists patronizing BP and other retail outlets in Northwest Indiana during the past seven days.
The issue surfaced Monday as dealerships and service shops throughout the region were inundated with motorists having difficulty starting their vehicles.
Tony James, owner of Northwest Indiana Auto Supply in Merrillville, said calls from dealerships and customers began rolling in Monday morning about cars having trouble starting or not starting at all. The business is an AC/Delco and Motorcraft distributor that, along with its retail parts business, supplies parts to a large number of local dealerships.
James said Schepel Buick GMC in Merrillville had 30 service inquiries Monday morning and Mike Anderson Chevrolet had eight vehicles towed in by noon.
“That’s pretty unheard of. It’s pretty widespread,” James said.
Just what is wrong with the gasoline remains unclear. BP did not cite a cause for the troubled gasoline in its statement, and service technicians who are draining gas tanks are unsure of the nature of the problem.
James said the problem could be caused by myriad reasons, from water, too much detergent additive or some other unknown factor. Until the gasoline is tested it will be difficult to determine.
The problem is widespread. BP provides gasoline to a number of stations, though the names of those stations have not been released at this time. It is uncertain how many stations took delivery of the bad gas.
“We are still investigating so it is too soon to pinpoint the exact problem or how many shipments were involved, but we are acting with an abundance of caution and telling our customers to pull any fuel that we suspect to be bad from their gas stations,” BP spokesman Scott Dean said via email Monday.
The company is going through its shipping records and contacting Northwest Indiana customers who may have loaded tanker trucks at the storage terminal during the period and is replacing the contaminated fuel with fresh product, according to the statement.
Motorists from Merrillville, Crown Point, Valparaiso and in at least one case New Buffalo, Mich., have been coming in or calling in with complaints about their cars all day, said Bill Vlietstra, service manager with Schepel.
The dealership had more than 30 vehicles come in with problems Monday morning and at least 70 additional calls. Vlietstra said in the tanks the dealership’s service techs have drained, it appears there may be water in the gasoline.
“It looks like water, but we’re not chemists,” he said. Most of the motorists experiencing problems filled up some time over the weekend, but problems were reported as early as Thursday and Friday.
Dean said the company began investigating the situation Monday after reports of the problem.
“Whenever we get a report like this, we take it very seriously. We are out following up on complaints, checking sites and checking the supply chain,” Dean said.
At Costco in Merrillville complaints about the gasoline prompted the outlet to stop selling its regular unleaded gasoline Monday, according to assistant store manager Dale Robertson.
“We’re not really sure what’s going on just yet. We were advised to just sell our premium,” Robertson said.
Customers who have experienced the problems with their vehicles during this period may contact BP’s customer hotline at (800) 333-3991 or bpconsum@bp.com. “BP is committed to fuel quality and guarantees every gallon of gasoline we sell,” according to the company’s statement.
