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Comment by oregano | Hacker News Reader

My family drove to Crater Lake in Oregon last summer. We stopped for gas in a tiny one road town near the park. Due to it being tourist season, we needed to wait around 20 minutes to get ‘service’ at the gas pump. The station only had one person pumping gas. This person was completely overwhelmed. I gave her my credit card and she started to fill up our tank. 5 minutes after driving away from the station I realized the fuel gauge was still indicating close to empty. I turned around and waited another 15 minutes just to tell her she had apparently forgotten to fill my tank. She was incredibly embarrassed (rightly so!). She then told me to LEAVE MY CAR RUNNING while she pumped gas so I could watch the gauge move “just to make sure it was working”. LOL! I still smdh thinking about this experience.

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> LEAVE MY CAR RUNNING

AFAIR it was a problem almost a century ago, not now. It's still a thing I can't get comfortable with, but there is no chance of going wrong of a car just running while it's being fueled up.

Some fuel systems are pressurized these days, running cars with such a system opened up to the air will cause warnings to be displayed on the dash. Probably fine but may cause confusion/unneeded mechanic visits.

I personally will continue to religiously minimize spark and heat sources while fueling. I've seen damaged spark plugs complete their circuit by sparking through the air (and apparently keep running the engine just fine). Best to eliminate a class of problems entirely.

It's an engine and the brakes are friction. Parts of it get very hot. The whole thing is a huge heat source. Cars get hot enough to light dried grass on fire. The risk is inherent in the platform.

Outside of not fueling near an open flame, the more moderate strategy is to always plan your exits and know where that fire suppression button is relative to where you are.

Outside of not fueling near an open flame, the more moderate strategy is to always plan your exits and know where that fire suppression button is relative to where you are.

My car doesn't have a "fire suppression button", nor does my gas station, the closest they have is an emergency fuel cutoff switch that stops the pumps, but it doesn't do any active fire suppression.

Then your state almost certainly requires them to have extinguishers, or they have an automatically activating system. Not all states require an automatic system, but there is definitely fire specific equipment at the place where you are fueling your vehicle.

Familiarity with your surroundings is far more valuable than superstitious behavior.

In my state, there's no requirement for an automatic system, and no requirement for a fire extinguisher at the pumps, just that they have to have an approved 20BC extinguisher no more than 75 feet from the pumps.

My mother-in-law once attempted to turn on the ignition while my father-in-law was pumping gas. She was hot and wanted the A/C back on.

My wife and I were in the back seat and not pleased by that action. I would think a modern car can handle that without exploding but why risk it? Just deal with the heat for, oh, another 30 seconds. We were filling up a Honda Accord, not some camper van with a giant tank.

>My family drove to Crater Lake in Oregon last summer. We stopped for gas in a tiny one road town near the park.

Shady Cove? Chevron next to a fire station? If so, I stop by there whenever I go out that way. Really conveniently sited, honestly.

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