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Who is stealing my gas ?

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#21 ·
How much gas are we talking. I figure it can’t be more than 12 gallon.

Does the loss seem consistent with time frame?

If my mind is wondering through the math at 12 gallon in 3 months then it is roughly a gallon a week. A gallon a week would be roughly a pint a day, which falls close to an oz an hour.

I don’t know are there 60 drops in an ox. Just thinking would you notice a drop a minute?
 
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#22 ·
A combustible gas leak detector will go off on gasoline like crazy so if it is leaking you can use that to find it.
 
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#23 ·
I learned a lesson a few years ago with my wife's 2013 Nissan Altima. I used to pull the fuel pump fuse to prevent the kids from taking it if wife and I were to leave for a few days. I never drove it much, but the wife did. She paid more attention to the analog fuel gauge, whereas I paid closer attention to the digital display of "miles left until empty". Analog auge is small and in the low right where you really have to look up over the column to see it, digital display is staring right at you.

We had just come home from a few days of visiting her family. I needed to run to town really quick so threw the fuse in and started it up. Display said I have 90 miles until empty and headed off. About halfway to town the car died, and I pulled over. Could not get it to start and ran the battery near dead trying many different things. I never looked at the gauge once, just assumed I had plenty of miles from the digital display, and thinking it was something else. Called a tow truck and the guy sat in it for a second and said, "you ran out of gas", he pointed at the gauge and it was below E?? But the display was saying something different? Learned that day that when I was pulling the fuse for the fuel pump, it was also killing power to the fuel management module. The ECU was then not displaying the proper "estimated" fuel left in tank.

Guy put some fuel in it and gave me a jump and started right up.

It is a mystery if your physically loosing fuel, but it could just be the ECU/ECM giving bad data after the battery was disconnected and setting powered off?
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
But all these things involve fairly clever and elaborate operations in a small neighborhood and in plain view of the street and multiple neighbors either in daylight or under motion activated security lights.

Plus; a reverse-out procedure to disguise the entry-in actions. Nobody except maybe James Bond is going to steal something and then lock the door on their way out. <g>

It just seems likelier to me that the answer is simpler - I just can't figure out what it is yet. Leaking seems unlikely. At one drop per minute it would take almost two years to lose fifteen gallons. Plus the area would smell like gas all the time.

I just remembered - one time I saw a conical spring thing that got wound into the filler neck - to prevent ever inserting a hose. I wonder if they are still available?

I have a flight in a few hours so there's nothing but the empirical-method left for now. I did not fill the tank again and it's maybe down to 1/4 by now. Still; if the level stays the same it proves nothing definitively - and if the level drops is proves nothing definitively. <g>

I only flew up here for a dinner reservation in Philly on Saturday and then there was an Italian-Style family get together on Sunday. I had promised that I would do whatever it took to make the reservation but I gotta tell ya; it felt kind of stupid when it came time to make good on it. <g> I did get to sit next to Jose Ferer' on the plane - which was very cool - he was on his way to ride Monmouth. And then the Sunday thing ended up being an engagement-party for my youngest daughter - so it all worked out nicely.

PHM
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VTP99 said:
Or you could hot wire the pump a drain it from the fuel rail test port.
Click to expand...
 
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Discussion starter · #25 ·
It's a good idea Rex and my former habit is just a left over from owning antique cars and motorcycles. Direct vented tanks can get warm, exhale fumes, get cold, and then inhale high RH% air. The water condenses and accumulates in the tank with bad results.

With today's 'sealed tanks' / vapor recovery / vapor loss prevention devices the need to leave the tank full doesn't exist. But the habit lives on and plus; who wants to get somewhere, need a vehicle, and find the friggin tank is on E when you jump in? <g>

And also; it's easy to leave a full tank - it's harder to work it out so a tank is empty at exactly the right time. <g>

PHM
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rexp said:
Why not leave it empty when you park it prior to a trip?
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Discussion starter · #26 ·
I think I remember that there are 70,000 drops in a gallon. But maybe that is for water and gasoline is thinner and drips

No; drops are all pretty much the same physical size as the weigh of the fluids is so close. It's weight versus surface tension.

But to your point: six-seven weeks gone left 1/4 tank remaining and three-four weeks gone left 3/8 tank remaining so the math doesn't really correlate. I was thinking that the 1/4 / 3/8 point was where a hose in the tank sucked air. <g>

21 gallon tank, assuming a linear gauge reading of contents, so 1/4 tank is about 5 gallons.

15 gallons is a drop per minute for about two years (I think <g>) - so the leakage would be noticeable even to the very casual.

PHM
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BNME8EZ said:
How much gas are we talking. I figure it can’t be more than 12 gallon.

Does the loss seem consistent with time frame?

If my mind is wondering through the math at 12 gallon in 3 months then it is roughly a gallon a week. A gallon a week would be roughly a pint a day, which falls close to an oz an hour.

I don’t know are there 60 drops in an ox. Just thinking would you notice a drop a minute?
Click to expand...
 
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Discussion starter · #27 ·
Oh great! So, like pretty much everything else, it's My Fault! <g>


BNME8EZ said:
When all other possiblities have been properly discounted the one that's left must be it, or so the saying goes. So the logical conclusion is . . .

The Twilight zone.
Click to expand...
 
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#29 ·
Don't know anything about a check valve in the fill line, but the locks are similar to garage door locks. One key will fit MANY.

Then they make 'jiggler' keys, that will open your gas cap in a couple of seconds when in an experienced hand.
 
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#31 ·
Poodle Head Mikey said:
But all these things involve fairly clever and elaborate operations in a small neighborhood and in plain view of the street and multiple neighbors either in daylight or under motion activated security lights.

Plus; a reverse-out procedure to disguise the entry-in actions. Nobody except maybe James Bond is going to steal something and then lock the door on their way out. <g>

It just seems likelier to me that the answer is simpler - I just can't figure out what it is yet. Leaking seems unlikely. At one drop per minute it would take almost two years to lose fifteen gallons. Plus the area would smell like gas all the time.

I just remembered - one time I saw a conical spring thing that got wound into the filler neck - to prevent ever inserting a hose. I wonder if they are still available?

I have a flight in a few hours so there's nothing but the empirical-method left for now. I did not fill the tank again and it's maybe down to 1/4 by now. Still; if the level stays the same it proves nothing definitively - and if the level drops is proves nothing definitively. <g>

I only flew up here for a dinner reservation in Philly on Saturday and then there was an Italian-Style family get together on Sunday. I had promised that I would do whatever it took to make the reservation but I gotta tell ya; it felt kind of stupid when it came time to make good on it. <g> I did get to sit next to Jose Ferer' on the plane - which was very cool - he was on his way to ride Monmouth. And then the Sunday thing ended up being an engagement-party for my youngest daughter - so it all worked out nicely.

PHM
------
Click to expand...
Yeah that was a response to the second paragraph of post #14
 
#34 ·
I hear tell those coily spring things you just take a half inch black sprinkler line (or other stiff hose) cut it at a 45° angle and shove it through and it goes right through them.
 
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#35 ·
szw21 said:
Did you verify the gauge or the sender itself is not faulty. When you refilled did the refilled amount match what you expected based on the gauge readings?
Click to expand...
I’m going to put my eggs in this basket.

Your symptoms are typical of a failing fuel sending unit - just do an internet search on this issue for your vehicle.
 
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#36 ·
My 55 Chevy pickup used to get a few gallons of gas, 5 at most as it was only used to haul leaves to the compost center, never had a problem running out of gas. Then one day I took leaves out and ran out of gas, when I opened the filler I heard a hiss, added gas, the truck took off. Having experienced that before on a different car I checked the the vent hose was plugged. Problem solved.

After talking the truck a couple more times, same problem, but the vent was still open. Next time I used it out of gas again. Thought it was getting taking. Then one day I saw where it had a 3" rubber hose in the fuel line just off the tank. It appeared a drop every second or 2. Well there was my gas thief. I never did smell gas around the truck even when it was in the garage. But I did notice it on the cardboard that was catching all the other leaks off that old truck.
 
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#37 ·
Took the company flatbed to fill it as the tank was reading empty. As I was adding gas, it was dribbling out under the bed. Took a look and found that the gas thieves had cut the rubber connector hose to put the siphon hose into the tanks and steal the gas! Locking cap was of no use in this instance. I suppose that if the cut had been on the top of the rubber connector, I might not have noticed the leak.

Some gas thieves just pop a hole in the bottom of the tank and collect the gas that way.
 
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#38 ·
Blaming a thief is not as likely as something technical. Disconnecting the battery might be throwing
something off.
Curious problems always have a logical answer unless the problem is mystical. I've haven't had one
of those since dropping 800 mics of lysergic acid.
 
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#39 ·
By the way in response to the title of this thread it wasn't me I took out a 30-year mortgage and bought my own tank of gas fair and square.
 
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