What bad things can happen if you leave your car running when u pump gas?

You are missing a major point here, the rules we speak of are almost certainly mandated by his insurance company, insurance companys frequently send out inspecters unannounced to check that these rules are being followed. If he gets caught in non compliance he can be canceled on the spot. It's hard to find an insurance Co. that wants to touch a gas facility in the first place, and if your safety record is bad forget it. So this guy is just protecting his livelyhood, even if he doesn't own the place he would probably be out a job he needs. To me your being chilly for a few minutes kinda pales in comparison.

 

Its the law. If the kid lets you do it, he will get his ass fired. There have been istances before of very bad fires and explosions, with people killed. Don't believe everything you see on 'myth busters"

 

Fireout
I had a neighbor smoking while she was filling here car at the station down the street, it didn't blow up but caught on fire. They shut the pumps off and pushed the car down the slope across the street into the ditch where it burned to the ground before the fire department got there. If anybody is smoking while they pump gas by me you can count on being injured, most likely from a tire iron!

 

"its 6 degrees out side right now"

Move to NJ. They still pump gas for you here, and you don't have to get out of the car. You do, however, have to turn the car off.

 

Jimv, You HAVE to be freakin' kidding - right?? I've literally met DOZENS of people who have had their eye "shot" out with BB guns.

BTW the #1 way to lose an eye is pounding nails without safety glasses. Ever had a nail go shooting off on that first mis-hit?? I work with a guy who did - nail went in an inch and a half. Doctor didn't believe him - thought he was hysterical - sent him home - result was blindness - could have been avoided in his case.

My neighbor lost his due to high speed grinding (he actually WAS wearing a face shield)- the velocity was so fast it literally split his eye in half - it's like jello though it fits right back together - he didn't know it was that bad till the Dr. looked at it - he was temporarily blinded - got partial vision back.

How about the last guy I met at the eye doctors - he's "lost an eye" as a result of a WIRE wheel - while using it a wire broke off and pierced his eye.

Well I guess you'll have to take my word on all these other guys but as for your origional question - YOU JUST DID MEET SOMEONE WHO LOST AN EYE via a BB gun - ME.

Next!

 

There's a lot of dangerous things you can do for years and probably never be injured. Years a go a farmer near where I live blew himself up with butane. This was "back in the day" when butane cost about 10 cents per gallon. He used a couple cents worth of butane to blow the dust of his tractor.

He had done this for probably 30 years before he got a spark. Luckily he survived.

So... I suppose Myth busters could prove that butane (propane these days) won't explode by using using it for compressed air. I bet they could make it through a show without an explosion.

 

When I was a kid we had a gang war, and one of the kids was in a washing machine and looked out of the drain hole. Another kid shot him in the eye through that drain hole. Lost sight in that eye and he was forever known as "Popeye".
Having said that, I hate these threads where the answer is obvious, but the need for Macho rebellion is so great that it must be posted.

 

This is why I use the remote start on my car after gettin the gas. However I often leave it running on cold mornings when I'm late and only have time for a few bucks to get me there. Guilty as charged, along with over half of the other customers at my regular stop. I think the catalytic convertor is the most dangerous source. I've seen them glow at idle on hi-mile cars. Most owners manuals cite this with regard to parking over flammable shit like grass or leaves.

 

Bryan- A lot depends on whaT YOU ARE WEARING.......
A lady stopped at a local Casey's and was fillin her minivan...she was wearing a sweater and nylon jacket over it....her two kids buckled in safety seats too.. it exploded in flames when she inserted the nozzle... she actually pulled the pump gun out and stuck it back in the pump...ran around and got both kids out and THEN the van burnt to the ground right there under the canopy.....
If she had touched the van first with her hand to release the static she would have not had any problem,but she touched the gun to the tank first-so......

 

OK so i'm wrong, my mother was right!!I stand corrected.
How about someone who burped , sneezed & farted at the same time & died!!lol
Jim( looking foolish) V

 

I must be superman. i have pumped gas with the car running and burped farted and sneezed at the same time. and have lived to tell about it! How mochou rebelias is that eh

 

your the best dude, throw a BB gun into the equation & you would be the anti-christ!!
JimV

 

Hmmm...so we're worried about a stray spark setting off low-lying gasoline fumes.

Ever see the sparks thrown off by a starter motor???? (That's why a lot of big-rig trucks hauling fuel tankers in and out of refineries have compressed air starters (or at least they used to)

So we shut off the car motor so a random spark from the ignition or some other source doesn't ignite any stray fumes, then we hop in the car and hit the starter.................I guess all the fumes are gone by then (of course there are no other cars still filling-up, are there?)

 

So if I'm standing there filling my truck and I've turned the engine off and I have a ground strap running from my person to the truck body and nobdy is getting in or out of my truck and then some goofball drives in with a ratty old piece throwing sparks all over the place and smoking a Havana I could get my eye put out? BUMMER!

 

no only if you fart and sneez at that same moment then your eye would fly out!

 

Static discharge is the biggest potential threat when fueling a car. With the newer low-rolling resistance tires cars are not as well "grounded" as in the past. I know in my daily driver during the winter months I will get "shocked" quite a bit from getting in and out of the car. That is why they say you should touch the car and ground yourself before you open the gas cap or grab the pump. Yeah starters and all the stuff under the hood can cause sparks, but the vapors are dissipated (sp) before they get up that far generally speaking. One other big threat which has not been mentioned is the heat from catalytic converters. These bad boys are around 1000-1500 degrees at operating temperatures. If you were to be over a large enough spill then I could see a problem. Of course the problem I saw most of the time working in a station when I was a kid was dumb-asses driving off with the nozzel still in the car!

Bill

 

************************************************
I'll concede your point on this. He is, as an employee, the owner's representative, so......

When ya take a man's money, ya carry his brand.

Roger

 

There's only one gas station near me that I know of where they'll bitch at ya for leaving your car running...but this is the same station that raises it's prices by 25 cents or more on Monday mornings to nail all the Ford employees on their way to work. By Tuesday or Wednesday, they're back down to what other stations in the area are charging because they've made their profits for the week already!

I normally go to a local BP, and the pumps are a good distance from the store where the barely-speaking-English counter jockey resides. He can't even SEE the pumps from his vantage point most times...let alone know if a car is running by them or not, so obviously he never says a word about it.

Fire and explosions never concerned me...with some OTHER cars I've driven, there has been the risk of some asswipe driving off with it while I run in to pay or something, so I'd normally lock the door to avert that possibility.

Of course, with my current car, I seriously doubt that any crack-head could figure out how to open the unlocked door, and even if they did, they'd never figure out how to put the thing in gear. They'd be busy looking for the shifter when the Mag-Lite met their skull!

People can warn ya of the risks and all...but it's ultimately up to you. If one place won't let ya do it...the next place likely will. So long as there are places that allow it, there will be people doing it.

(Of course, it is technically illeagal to leave your car running at all in Michigan...not just at the gas pump. I left my old Celebrity running with the doors locked while I ran into a local 7-11 and a cop car was parked next to me. The cop came out and says "Hey, Buddy...you know I could cite you for leaving your car running like that?" I looked at his police cruiser (which was also running!) and said "What about the guy driving THIS one?". I didn't get the ticket!!)

It's a long time habit with me I guess...goes back to a crappy Escort wagon I used to drive. The starter on that thing would freeze up in the winter, so I'd just leave it running when it was really cold out. I mean...leave it running all the time! I worked at the Ford dealer then, and I would get to work, lock the door and leave it there with the heater going. I'd come out at lunch and there wouldn't be a spec of snow anywhere on the car and it would be nice and hot inside! I'd drive off, then come back and lock it up again. After work while other guys were shivering and chipping ice and snow off their cars, I'd just jump in and drive away. Dated a gal who lived in Taylor and I'd leave it running in her driveway all night. It ran for three days straight at one point. It ain't gonna overheat, it uses barely any fuel to idle, it was always nice and warm inside, and if someone DID steal it, I would've only been out forty bucks plus however much gas was in the tank. Of course...even in Taylor they have their standards...so nobody ever stole the turd!!!)

 

For what it's worth, Ive developed a habit during the winter of grabbing on to the window frame before I lift my butt off the seat as I get out of my daily. (LOTTA static shocks). I've also developed the habit of rubbing my BARE hand on the side of the gas pump before I reach for the nozzle.
According to the Nat'l Electrical Code, ALL metallic objects on that gas pump "island" are required to be grounded. It's a real good source to discharge yourself before getting too close to that fume-spewing nozzle.

Roger

 

Move to oregon. You can't pump your own gas there. it's illegal!! make that pump jockey freeze his ass off

 

...I'm surprised nobody's brought up the plastic truck bedliner issue!

 

You ever overflow the tank and have gas run down the side, splashing down onto the exhaust pipe? Without hot exhaust running through it, it'll probably cool down quickly enough that by the time your tank is full and overflows, the pipe isn't at a temperature that will flash gas. A car that's out of tune could be running with exhaust temp gasses so hot that the exhaust pipe is hot enough to ignite gas on contact. Could happen I s'pose.

How about some piece of shit that is so out of tune it backfires when it's idling, sending a nice little flame out the tail pipe? All that's got to do is ignite the fumes that are tumbling out of the filler...and gas fumes DO tumble down.

I know, I know...YOUR piece of shit is in perfect tune and it would never happen with anything you drive. I'm a better driver than most other people I know, too, so why the fuck do speed limits have to apply to me?

Just fucking turn your car off when you pump gas! At 52, aren't you a little old to be pissing and moaning about society's "lame rules that shouldn't apply to me"?
-Brad

 

Yes and No, You may pump your own gas legally if you feel that the attendant may do harm to your ride while filling your tank up. Rulewas made up for bikes but applies to all and YES NO pumper ass gets near my paint with that nozzle. Any shit from them and I just whip out copy of statute, never been denied yet....H

 

A lit cigarette will not ignite gasoline. Its Hollywood magic.

 

Backwards...Age 25.. So im still allowed to piss and moan?

I never said it shouldnt apply. i dont think most are reading the whole thread here. All i said was i want to know why the rule exsisted in the first place. I dont care that i have to shut it off but some times its nice to come back to a warm car/truck. But blowing up isnt worth a little less turtle dick

 

You guys are lame - I saw a real rebel at the big box discount gas pumps last summer. 30 something yuppie in a suit, gets out of his running Lexus SUV, starts the gas pumping, climbs back in the seat and lights up a cigarette, all while talking on a cell phone - ignored every sign in the place - my hero!

 

Oh yeah? Well I saw the same thing except the yuppie had flame throwers on his exhaust and had a hot chick with him. And this was during a meteor shower.

 

I work for an oil construction company and after we install a tank, before the station is even built, we have to fill the tanks to about 80% so they do not come out of the ground. Kinda like holding a beachball under the water. Anyway, we run all sorts of equipment and the guys smoke while they work and nothing happens.

The real problem is the likelyhood of static electicity buildup. We install all sorts of grounding equipment to keep that from happening, but if the car is running and the pump is running, there is a optential of spark. That is why the car manufacturers installed that little metal flapper in the gas fill. That serves as a ground from the pump to the car. The probability of the car exploding it little to none, but remeber that at an average gas station, you are sitting on top of 16,000 to 20,000 gallons fo fuel. At a larger station next to an interstate you could be on top of as many as 50,000 to 100,000 gallons of fuel.

Mainly it is liability. If they post that you shouldn't and they say that you shouldn't, you are liable for any mishap. Damn lawyers.

 

Ok, here I come with my retarded shit.

You know how you see McGyver type shit on TV where someone pours a stream of gas on the groung and flicks a cigarette at it to ignite the fuel which is running to something 20 feet away. Its bullshit. We tried to get a puddle of gas to ignite by putting a lit cigarette in it. It just extinguishes the cigarette every time.

 

Lucky BurtonA lit cigarette will not ignite gasoline. Its Hollywood magic.
Nothing ignites gasoline. Gasoline is not flamable. Gasoline vapors are very flamible. You can extinguish a cigarette in a pool of gasoline if you gan get under the vapors in the wind. Not hollywood magic. If the vapor density (ppm of gas vapor in the air) reaches a certain density, the gas vapors will ignite. It also has an upper limit density. At this density the gas vapors are too dense to ignite. Don't try this one at home, but if the vapor density of the gasoline is to great, the gas will not ignite. Once the air thins out, watch out.