Fueling up one’s vehicle is typically an uneventful activity — but that isn’t the case for a handful of auto owners who recently bought gas at a southeast Edmonton station.
Several drivers had their vehicles die — some, within minutes of stopping at a gas station in the Summerside area.
They all fueled up at the Esso gas station and Circle K convenience store at the corner of Ellerslie Road and Summerside Drive over the past 24 hours, and said shortly afterwards, their vehicles stopped running.
Global News spoke to four owners on Wednesday and as of publishing, had received messages from more with similar stories.
“I’m so pissed off right now,” said Almira Acla, whose son’s car stopped working shortly after he fueled up at the gas station at 8403 Ellerslie Rd.
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He managed to limp the car to a parking lot where Acla said her son encountered another driver in the same situation.
“They were thinking there’s water in the fuel or something like that,” she said, explaining the car would run for a bit, and then die. “We don’t know what really happened but they were thinking something (was) wrong, because it’s the same issue. It’s just stopped right away.”
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Drivers wondered if it was bad gas and word quickly spread in a Summerside community Facebook group. That’s where resident Emily Kucher first heard about the issues.
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“Cars isn’t starting, cars shuddering when starting, lots of people like, dead on the drive coming home, lots of people filled up last night and are now dead this morning,” Kucher said.
She was at home scrolling her phone Wednesday morning when she came across the post and saw comments from several people she knew, indicating the issue began Tuesday night.
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“An acquaintance filled up last night and her husband’s car didn’t start this morning,” Kucher said. “They went to their mechanic and it looks like the gas is cut with water somehow — so whether it was contaminated, we don’t know.”
Kucher texted her husband, warning not to fuel up at the neighbourhood Esso on the way home — but was too late.
“He responded, ‘Well, what do you mean? Cause I just left there.’ And I was, like, ‘Well that’s not good.’”
Their car broke down a block from home.
“He stopped at the stop sign and tried to move forward and the whole thing just kind of shuddered and gave up.”
Kucher said it’s thrown a frustrating wrench in their lives and calls to the gas station has not yielded any answers so far.
“It’s not going to be cheap to get this fixed. We have a baby, we’re very busy, we need the second car for my husband’s work and stuff like that, so yeah — super inconvenient, super frustrating.”
A service manager at Kross Mitsubishi in south Edmonton said as of Wednesday afternoon, five vehicles whose drivers say they fueled up at the Esso were brought to the dealership to be fixed, and two more were on the way.
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The dealership said it took fuel samples from the gas tanks and all showed clear signs of separation. The dealership said there appeared to be a significant amount of water in the mix, making up as much as half of the sample.
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One of the customers who had their vehicle towed to the dealership told Global News his repair quote is about $2,000.
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Water in a gas tank is a serious problem, according to auto experts. It disrupts the internal combustion process and when mixed with gasoline, can create a corrosive mixture damaging to various components of the fuel system, resulting in poor engine performance, reduced fuel efficiency, and even engine failure.
Global News reached out to Couche-Tard, which owns Circle K, who said it was “aware of a small number of customer concerns” related to the Summerside Esso location and the retailer was taking the matter seriously.
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“We have not identified any confirmed issues with the fuel supply. That said, we are continuing to review the situation and are working with the appropriate partners to ensure everything meets our quality and safety standards,” said a statement from Couche-Tard media relations.
Global News reached out to Imperial Oil about the situation. The oil corporation said it sold of all its retail sites in 2016 to third-party companies like Couche-Tard, 7-Eleven and other retailers and now only sells fuel (branded and unbranded) to wholesalers across the country.
The pumps at the gas station were closed Wednesday afternoon and a fuel pump maintenance company was on site.
A manager at the Esso station wouldn’t give an interview but told Global News off-camera the station monitors for water in their fuel tanks and no alarms have gone off recently.
“As part of our standard procedures, fuel quality is closely monitored, and we have initiated additional checks at the site to verify the integrity of the fuel system,” Couche-Tard said.
Couche-Tard said affected customers should contact its customer service team.
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