You still have to have the car running to pull into the station and to pull out of the station. So if safety issue if there is one must have to due with increased fumes during the actual fueling process.
Even though I turn my engine off when I pump the gas, I would have to count myself in with the skeptics who doubt that there is a significant risk in leaving it running. After all, even if my car is turned off, other cars are pulling in and out, turning off and starting up. Seems like if there was a risk of explosion, it could just as easily come from the car pulling in next to me.
Perhaps my question was not explicit enough: I meant, in light of the links already provided, is there not a reasonable enough doubt that a running engine is a) potential dangerous, b) nasty, unwarranted and irresponsible pollution? I’d like to think that anyone capable of critical thinking would dismiss the nonsense about cell phones being a risk. A car, however, does have a very hot catalytic convertor underneath the car where fumes might accumulate when you’re filling (fumes are pushed out of the tank as you fill it with gas), and an ignition coil tossing 40,000 volt sparks a couple of dozen of times a second, etc., etc… An entirely different situation than the few milliwatts of power that a cell phone is using to anyone who ever stopped to consider the issue.
How much CO do newer cars put out?
When fully warm, damn near zero.
The last smog test on my daughter’s 89 came back with 0.01% CO at idle, and 10 PPM HC
YMMV
Just a data point: I delivered pizzas for about 5 years and I habitually left the car running during fill up on delivery. I didn’t blow up once.
13 years of leaving my car running at the pump and no fires.
if you like to leave your engine running while fueling, buy a diesel.
diesel engined vehicles are both legal and safe to fuel while running, due to the lack of a spark ignition system.
The reason you should stop your engine while fueling is because the spark ignition system, if it is in poor repair, can cause open sparks in the engine bay. If fuel vapors happen to travel there, kaboom.
True that this doesn’t seem to happen often, true that gas station flunkies don’t seem to care, true that modern fueling equipment contains and removes most escaping fuel vapors, but none of those points negate the theoretical danger presented by vehicle ignition sparks and fuel vapors in the same location.
Really?
So I should give up my plan of killing myself by running the car in a closed garage?
Okay, I’m not really planning on killing myself, but I always thought that running the car with the garage door closed was a sure-fire way to off one’s self. Does that lan not work any more?
Actually some brand new cars run even cleaner than that.
If you want to off yourself, find an old car with a carb that doesn’t run well. The new ones will take too long. :smack:
A number of posters added one-off anecdotal evidence that in their years of filling the tank with the engine running, nothing has happened to them. It’s the same fallacy that wanna-be lottery winners use to justify every spin of the wheel is somehow connected to the previous spin.
In the case of playing the lottery, the only loss is monetary. However, a single failure in pumping gas while the engine running is severe burns, if not death.
FWIW, when it comes down to brass tacks, is it really worth the risk? What about those who may be in your car at the time? Other motorists at the station? And even if no one can readily find a cite on the web, would you like to be the first cite referenced?
:smack:
The other day I was somewhat put off by the woman who was smoking at the pumps.
I guess it was okay, though. She was in the front passenger seat with the window mostly rolled up. Yep, no-one was affected except her and her baby in the back seat.
Haven’t looked for a real cite, so this could well be UL, but someone I worked with used to give speeches mentioning environmental improvements, and used as one example that the Hemlock Society (society about right to choose your own death time) does not recommend using auto exhaust as a suicide method, as new cars are too clean.
I feel like I’ve wandered into some alternative universe in this thread. In 35 years of living in the United States (Ohio and Virginia) during which I’ve travelled to probably about two-thirds to three-quarters of all the states, and 20 years of filling my own gas, I have never, never, seen anyone pumping gas with the engine running. Doing so has never even crossed my mind. Have I just been shockingly unaware of my surroundings?
But nobody has answered the OP’s question, which was whether this “theoretical danger” was in fact hogwash. I think the failure to produce a single citation of an explosion being caused by an engine running during fueling is pretty telling. In the absence of any other evidence, I’m inclined to conclude that it has never happened. If that’s true, then I would further suggest that the theoretical danger is based on a misunderstanding of the science involved.
If their are gasoline vapors in the air, it is just as dangerous for the engines to be running when the cars pull in and out than when they are being fueled. Wouldn’t the biggest danger be re-starting your engine after fueling?
I’m guessing that unless you live in NJ, Oregon or NYC, most people would turn off their engines. This is probably to prevent their cars from getting stolen. But since you never even have to take your seatbelt off in NJ, I’m guessing that more people leave the car running around here. I briefly lived in Texas where I would turn off the car even when paying by credit card just because of potential theft.
I don’t think the flammability of gasoline is in question. The capability of electrical sparks to ignite fuel and/or vapors is established. There’s no misunderstanding of the science involved. The only question is whether anyone has ever been dumb enough to bring the two in close proximity to each other.
No. The biggest danger would be when a running car is being fueled, and it manages to ignite some spilled or leaked fuel. You are then pumping large amounts of fuel into the middle of a fire.
If you were to ignite spilled fuel when re-starting the engine, you could simply drive away from the fire and the station attendant could put it out with an extinguisher. Not nearly as serious a situation as when the fire is being actively fed by the pump.
On a related note, the gas station fires that seem to actually happen are ones ignited by static electricity. The static seems to be generated by getting in and out of the car while it’s fueling. So, if you go back into your car while fueling, be sure to ground yourself to the car chassis before touching the fuel nozzle. And if it does catch fire, DON’T pull it out of the tank… that will just give you a nice fireball in the face. Find the emergency pump shutoff switch and an extinguisher.
Actually it happened inthe Albany NY area about 2 weeks ago (you find the cite!!!), it was reported in the news, the fire dept members were actually taken back that a cell phone could actually cause a fire/explosion.
Anyway I feel that if your car is going to have some trouble it will more likely happen if you are going to start the car then keep it running. I would rather get to my destination then be unable to start the car at a gas station.
It has most definitely happened: it was caught live on TV. I forget who the driver was but it was a Formula 1 Grand Prix, the guy pumping the fuel didn’t close the valve quickly enough, and the fuel ignited and flashed over the car.
One point that hasn’t been raised has more to do with the design of the gas pump than the car. You know those little mechanisms on the trigger that allow you to lock the pump in the ON position and then take your hand off or even walk away, and the mechanism will automatically shut off the pump when your tank is full? Well, sometimes those mechanisms fail - it’s happened to me twice, and gas gushes out of the already-full tank onto the ground. If there had been an ignition source closeby, I’m sure it would’ve caught. Those mechanisms see a lot of punishment and are not always reliable. Turn off your car when refueling.