{"id":609304,"date":"2026-04-17T02:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609304\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T02:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:23:11","slug":"watery-gas-suspected-dozens-of-vehicles-repaired-after-fuelling-up-at-south-edmonton-esso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609304\/","title":{"rendered":"Watery gas suspected, dozens of vehicles repaired after fuelling up at south Edmonton Esso"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gasoline containing a significant amount of water has been pulled from the fuel tanks of numerous vehicles towed to repair shops all around the Edmonton region, after they broke down shortly upon being fuelled up at the same southside gas station<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat we\u2019ve been finding \u2014 at least from the vehicles that have been towed in \u2014 is water contamination in the fuel,\u201d said Michael Bauman, owner of Mike the Mechanic.<\/p>\n

Water in a gas tank is a serious problem,\u00a0according to auto experts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have moisture in the engine, so it almost works against the ignition side of the engine,\u201d Bauman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fuel does not combust.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to disrupting the internal combustion process, when water is mixed with gasoline it 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.<\/p>\n

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The independent auto shop in south Edmonton said it received many calls on Wednesday and Thursday from drivers whose vehicles were stalling, running rough or not starting at all after stopping for gas in the Summerside area.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:44
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMultiple vehicles break down after fueling up at same south Edmonton gas station\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The drivers fuelled up at the Esso<\/a> gas station and Circle K convenience store at the corner of Ellerslie Road and Summerside Drive between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and said shortly afterwards, their vehicles stopped running.<\/p>\n

Brock Stewart was one of those unfortunate owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife borrowed my car to go to work, she filled up and didn\u2019t make it more than a couple blocks and car stalled and wouldn\u2019t restart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thankfully he\u2019s a motorcycle mechanic and decided to troubleshoot at home after hearing there were issues with fuel from the station in the area.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Stewart said he drained their vehicle\u2019s gas tank and noticed right away something was off with the gas.<\/p>\n

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Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I filled up the buckets and I could see the different colours and textures,\u201d he said. As the fuel was siphoned out, the colours changed from yellow to clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent about three hours last night in the cold snow, draining the tank and putting some fresh fuel in,\u201d\u00a0Stewart said. \u201cStarted right up as soon as I did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGas with suspected water contamination that was syphoned from the fuel tank of Brock Stewart\u2019s vehicle.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy: Brock Stewart\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a common occurrence, according Stewart and Bauman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite rare. This is one of the first times I\u2019ve heard it, actually,\u201d Bauman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a mechanic for over 20 years and I would say maybe a handful of times, maybe three or four,\u201d Stewart said, adding he\u2019s grateful his professional knowledge saved the day.\u00a0\u201cIf we had to take it to a shop, it could\u2019ve been days that she was without a vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Not all were as lucky.\u00a0Global News called around to several different mechanics and auto dealership service departments in the Edmonton area on Thursday to get a sense of how many drivers may have been affected by gas issues.<\/p>\n

All were aware of the issue and most had vehicles in for repairs. Some only had a couple vehicles in the shop but one dealership just off Ellerslie Road said they had nine vehicles.<\/p>\n

The overall number of vehicles affected is not known but of the seven businesses who confirmed they were dealing with vehicles that gassed up at the Summerside Esso, they\u2019ve collectively already repaired or are in the process of fixing over two dozen different vehicles.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Consumer
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

One dealership who took fuel samples from the gas tanks said they showed clear signs of separation, and estimated there was about 20 per cent fuel in the mix, and the remaining 80 per cent was water.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGas with suspected water contamination that was syphoned from the tank of a vehicle that fuelled up at the Summerside Esso.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSupplied to Global News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The fix costs over $1,000, Bauman said, depending on how quickly it is detected after a fuel-up.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGenerally if you catch it quick it enough, you could siphon it out, fill up the tank with premium fuel, cycle it out,\u201d he said. The vehicles at his shop will have their tanks removed, drained, cleaned as much as possible to rinse any contaminants out, and flushed with premium fuel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fix that will run a driver over $1,000.<\/p>\n

As for who pays that bill, the Insurance Bureau Of Canada says it depends on the driver\u2019s policy and if it can be proved there is damage because of fuel contamination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe driver\u2019s insurance might pay the claim and then subrogate against the gas bar,\u201d said Anne Marie Thomas with Insurance Bureau of Canada.<\/p>\n

Word of the bad gas issue has reached the Alberta legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve heard from customers about what\u2019s been going on,\u201d Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The province is directing drivers to report the incidents so it can start an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been encouraging them to reach out to the consumer protection unit<\/a> because that\u2019s the first avenue that they have to go,\u201d Nally said.<\/p>\n

The pumps at the Esso station were shut down Wednesday afternoon and remained closed Thursday, as a Hydrovac truck and fuel pump maintenance company worked on site.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

A manager at the Esso station wouldn\u2019t give an interview but told Global News off-camera on Wednesday the station monitors for water in their fuel tanks and no alarms have gone off recently.<\/p>\n

Couche-Tard, which owns Circle K, did not reply to Global News\u2019 request for an update on Thursday.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Quebec-based multinational convenience store corporation said it was \u201caware of a small number of customer concerns\u201d related to the Summerside Esso location and at that time, it had not identified any confirmed issues with the fuel supply.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gasoline containing a significant amount of water has been pulled from the fuel tanks of numerous vehicles towed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[229115,49,48,1849,229714,23752,229116],"class_list":{"0":"post-609304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-bad-gas","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-consumer","12":"tag-couche-tard","13":"tag-edmonton","14":"tag-esso"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}