She called me because she couldn't get her car started after work. We had to get it towed out of the underground parking which is quite a pain in the ass apparently.

I spent a couple hours troubleshooting the issue (smoky exhaust, barely started, ran like shit) and I burned out the starter in the process and had to put a new one in. Starters in these little 3.7L engines are pretty pathetic.

At some point in all this she mentioned she had filled up before driving to work, so I figured out how to jumper the fuel pump and pumped out this piss-colored junk. Feels oily like diesel, doesn't burn explosively like you'd expect with straight gas.

Fresh fuel and some Seafoam snake oil to maybe clean injectors. Since I didn't drop the tank to clean it perfectly, she's going to put small amounts in for a few fills and burn it off completely between fills because the solution to pollution is dilution.

Her receipt showed she uses the gas pump, not the diesel, so I'm wondering how many people got to deal with this bullshit since I'm guessing the station got an entire compartment contaminated. Haven't bothered to talk to the company, since I did the work myself and they certainly aren't going to reimburse me for my time.

Ah well, it's an excuse to do a pile of other maintenance I'd planned anyway and had parts for.

Wife is happy she isn't buying a new car. Happy wife, happy life.

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[–] 128 points 2 months ago (7 children)

these little 3.7L engines

Are 3.7L engines really called little in America or are you being sarcastic? 😳

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  • [–] 21 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I'd guess this is a mustang and that would make it the "small" engine (~305hp) for that car, the other option being a 5.0L.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I guess when compared to a small 1.2l motorcycle engine

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  • [–] 38 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Calling a 1200cc motorcycle engine small is like calling a 3.7l car engine small lol

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    I suppose it is, when compared to a tiny 1.1l lawnmower engine. Heck - my power wheelchair has a 1.2, and I bought the smallest one.

    When I'm cruising the frozen freedom fries lane at the Super WAL*MART Pro Plus Platinum Extreme™️ at 2AM on a Tuesday and I roll coal onto a couple of the local crackheads (they're on so much adulterated crack, they always seem to forget their power wheelchairs at home, it's hilarious!)

    Hang on, it says I have to do something, one sec.

    cracks verification can

    .. uhh, where was I ? Oh yeah...uh, pro extreme wally world™️.... freedom lane.... in muh wheelchair... grab some fries... crackheads.....

    Oh, that's right! Haha!

    When I roll coal...

    at those funny crackheads on legs...

    my chair only produces a tiny little cloud of black diesel exhaust smoke!

    Isn't that the darndest thing?

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    FWIW my last two four door cars were 1.6 and 2.0, and I'm in the US. (Although they were both kias.)

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  • [+] -14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

    And how exciting was it getting on the throughway?

    Edit: whys everyone butthurt? My Subaru makes maybe 150hp these days and merging in is terrifying. I didn't think kias were so well known for their acceleration.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago

    The fastest car I have owned was a 2.0T. The slowest was a 7.2 L V8. The 2.0T had over 200 Hp in a smaller car and the V8 had all of 290Hp in a land Yacht. I swear displacement has north america drunk with stupid. And I had no issues with 1.6L cars on any Canadian highway.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I've never owned a car over 150hp, and I've never felt like I lacked the power to get onto the interstate.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    My 1.6L engine had around 200HP when it was new. It's now a bit older so it's probably lost a bit. And the tyres I have aren't really optimized for acceleration. But it's more than fast enough to get around any public roads. It also helps a lot when the car only weighs 1400kg and not over 2000kg like most American cars.

    Just making everything bigger does not make it better, in fact it often makes it worse in many if not all ways. But this is a lesson Americans have yet to learn.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    They're not little, but they're super commonplace. It's kind of standard for V6 Trucks and SUV's.

    Our more powerfull stuff is V8 closer to 5.5L or 6.2L

    Until recently fuel was very very cheap.

    Laws were put in place to make passenger cars get at least 38mpg (16.15 km/L) All of a sudden Sport Utility Vehicles and Light Trucks became a thing to get around the limits.

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