Pretty wild

bullitt5897

so your saying by me running my car while filling up is going to blow my car up and kill innocent bystanders? yeah that comment has 0 evidence to back it up. I have been doing that for over a decade with countless vehicles on countless occasions and NOT one Instance of a problem has ever occurred!!! The only reason you see those advisory stickers is because lawyers sat down and said "hey, if we tell them they cant use cell phones they may use something else that has an electrical charge so lets reccomend no electrical devices including the cars be on while filling up." They were covering their A$$E$ its even been scientifically proven that a cell phone cannot blow you up while filling up! This whole hoopla about your going to kill yourself and innocent others is just that HOOPLA it dont mean $hit. Granted smoking is a definite NO NO! I dont smoke so I am fine. If your gonna make comments like this at least back it up! Back on to topic...

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Blown32

Deep southern mentality!Must be the corn liquor?

HT Rambler

Dang bunch of responses since i was here last. I usually don't run the car while filling up but since my wife was in there i just decided to do so. Lesson learned. Also my wife suggested taking the clothes off, only problem is where to put them?? gas was only on the front side of me "as someone stated keep the gas off the balls".
Lots of interesting comments, just wanted to share to help others be more careful and use my laps of judgment to help.
I still thought the gas was supposed to shutoff, that vapor lock thing won't work if you don't have it set correct.

VCuomo

Again, you're yelling at the wrong guy. Feel free to risk splashing gas on a hot running exhaust if you wish - a friend of mine calls this "evolution in action". But please make sure your next of kin know that you do not want them to sue if something bad happens.

Oh, and BTW, those "Stop Engine/No Smoking" signs have been up in gas stations for many, many years - long before cell phones were invented and long before lawyers got as litigious as they are today. But I'm sure there is no reason for those signs, it must just be "tradition", right?

polarity

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didnt think the exhaust cooled fast enough to really make a difference in the 2 - 3 min it takes you to fill up.

-William

JoeD

Ahh, of course...because we all know that a car's exhaust-pipe is significantly cooler 30 seconds after shutting off the engine than it is while idling, thus making it safer in the event of "splashing gas."

Since that one's moot, can you think of another reason? As 300ShooTTer mentioned, gone are the days of where it was possible for a spark to travel back up the fuel-system while the engine was running. But guess what...if that were to happen, you're screwed anyway, pumping gas or not.

I will note that I do not condone leaving your car running while pumping gas, nor do I regularly. I just mentioned that I have done it a few times in the past when I knew I would be stopped for less than a minute.

BTW...quit splashing gas everywhere when you fill up.

bullitt5897

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polarity

"The Autoignition Temperature of a standard unleaded gasoline can be anywhere from 260 to 460 degrees C (or 500 to 860 deg F) as quoted on the FAQ: Automotive Gasoline Web Page by Bruce Hamilton"

Anyone know the temp of the exhaust pipes while the car is running, and when turned off the rate at which they cool?

For the record, I shut my car off when fueling, but honestly I'm trying to think of a reason. Aside from the static charge causing the fuel to ignite anyone else know of a realistic scenario where a running car would ignite the vapor? It seems to me that if a running car were going to ignite the vapors it would happen anyway as one of the 1000 cars that pull in/out of the gas stations daily would trigger it. If nothing else, it's at least interesting to think about.

-William

Blown32

It only takes one!

Hi-TecDesigns

A loose connection sparking (though that could happen with or without the engine running) might be one way. If oil dripping on a hot header can start a fire, well... the flash point of gas is certainly lower than oil, you make the call. Sure, the chances are extremely low of a running engine lighting a fire, but if costs you little to nothing to turn the engine off, you really can't blame anyone who does so. The pump warning may have been around from a time when loose spark plug wires and sparking condensor points were the norm, but I'm not 100% certain all of the dangers have disappeared.

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USNA94

The autoignition temperature of gasoline is ~475 degrees F
Exhaust temps can vary between 300 and 600 degrees F but are typically found to be around 500 degrees F when running.
So, it is possible that if gasoline spilled on the hot exhaust pipe it could autoignite. It is also likely that turning off your engine would allow the exhaust pipe to cool the 25-50 degrees below the autoignite temperature fairly rapidly.

FuszNissan

I have this metal image of Chris Farley doing Maniac at the gas station. Don't know why

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polarity

For what it's worth, I just posted the question to mythbusters to see if they care to tackle that question. I've been doing some searches and so far I haven't found a case where a running car caused an explosion. The #1 cause of gas station fires is static electricity, which can come from any car running or not.

Anyone out there got some facts to back up either side of the debate?

-William

USNA94

Looks like you have proven that the guidance to turn off your engine while refueling has been effective! QED

polarity

Damn fine point there.

and



From what I read the reason for the varied temperature of autoignition has to do with many variables. The temp of the gas, how much gas is there (thin film vs someone pouring a bucket of it) so I'm still not sure that gas hitting the tailpipe would cause it to ignite. That being said, I'm still going to turn my car off when fueling, this just seems like a really interesting topic.

It's been my experience that typically a rule is set because of an incident. Like when you see the warning label on a hair dryer telling you not to use it in the bath tub, some idiot actually did that and now they have a label, which leads me to believe that something cause this rule to be born. I'm just curious what it was and how it holds true today. All the same thanks for the info about exhaust temps.

-William