Originally Posted by
criscoloo
I spoke with a sales rep in PR at the gas company today (not the specific gas station). He said it is virtually impossible to fill the gas tank with diesel because the diesel nozzle is larger than the gasoline nozzle and doesn't fit into the gas tank. He also said that the diesel pump is always located far away from the gas pumps and never under a canopy because trucks, which use diesel, don't fit under the canopy. He also said that diesel is way more expensive than regular gas. And, no, I did not try to put in $10 of regular gas after I supposedly put in diesel. The only fuel I put in the car was the $10 of regular gas. I only added fuel to the car that one time. I'm not sure why one person above thinks something doesn't add up in my story. We started experiencing the scraping and noise problems and inability to get uphill easily (the car would slow down to a crawl every time we had to go up an incline) as soon as we hit the highway, about 30 minutes before we added gas that one time.
The reason I said something doesn't add up wasn't meant to be an insult, but to figure out what's missing with this story. I'm not sure who you spoke with, but they're misspoken. As someone who regularly travels to PR, I'm familiar with their gas stations. Here's what the Puma pumps look like:
Left to right: Diesel, Regular and Super. Every time I've gone to PR, diesel was cheaper than regular unleaded. The pumps are also covered. I'll see if I can get a picture of the actual nozzles, but outside the US many stations have the same size/same type of nozzle for diesel and gas UNLESS you pull up to a diesel truck pump, which has the larger nozzle. In the US, it's common for diesel pump nozzles to be larger to prevent this problem from occurring.
What concerns me is that you said your husband picked the cheapest, lowest octane fuel. That would be diesel.
How much driving did you do before you experienced the problem? Is the only gas you put in the car the $10 once you were on your way back to San Juan?