Bad Fuel Scare Likely Over, Heights Mechanic Says

A Chicago Heights auto shop owner said residents who have used one of are probably out of the danger zone.

Most of those fuel issues are over. Because the majority of the bad fuel has been gone from the stations since Aug. 18, the mechanic, who declined to be named, said it is highly unlikely that there will be anymore problems.

"If they did buy gas before that and it was from the bad batch, they would most likely have had issues the very next day," the mechanic said.

The mechanic also explained how the bad fuel affected people's cars, noting that it separates after sitting for about 12 hours, causing the bad fuel to make its way to the bottom of the gas tank. "When you restart your car, the fuel is pulled from the bottom so the car is hard starting and runs poorly for the first few minutes until the bad mixes with the good," he said. "Then the car generally runs better."

Because cars pull fuel from the bottom, anyone who filled up their whole tank with the bad fuel was more likely to run into car trouble than people who only bought a few gallons at a time, the mechanic said.

"Now almost two weeks later most of the bad stuff has been used up so unless they bought a tank of gas and parked the car for two weeks, it is unlikely there will be many more issues," he added.

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