BP, or British Petroleum, might as well rename their company to Big Problems. The Britain-based multinational oil and gas company has issued an extraordinarily rare recall after it identified contamination in its gasoline after numerous reports of drivability issues from customer vehicles in the northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois areas.
The recall applies to regular grade gasoline that has originated from the Whiting, Indiana, BP storage facility last week. BP gas stations and even the regional Costco, Meijer, Thorntons, and Luke Oil gas stations are affected.
BP's statement advised all customers who had problems between August 13 through 17 to call the BP customer hot-line at 1-800-333-3991 for further instructions. In fact, the contamination has been so severe that one customer had to bring his vehicle back to a dealership to perform full purge on the gas tank, flush the fuel lines, and replacement every spark plug. The particular procedure equaled an $1,200 repair bill.
Because the defect isn't exclusive to any car in particular, and because each vehicle has its own set of nuances, it is difficult to determine exactly what the majority of affected customers are experiencing. The total amount of affected customers have yet to be determined and BP has yet to come forward and elaborate on the source of the contamination .
For now, here's the intentionally vague official press release from BP below. What do you guys think?
The company believes that fuel stored in a tank at the storage depot could cause hard starting, stalling and other drivability issues. The fuel may have been purchased by motorists patronizing BP and other retail outlets in Northwest Indiana during the past seven days.
BP is committed to fuel quality and guarantees every gallon of gasoline we sell. Any customer who's vehicle has experienced these symptoms during this period should contact BP's customer hotline at 1-800-333-3991.
The company is going through its shipping records and contacting Northwest Indiana customers who may have loaded tanker trucks at the storage terminal during this period and is replacing the contaminated fuel with fresh product.
We would like to apologize for the inconvenience this has caused some of our customers.
