5 notes for drivers when refueling cars

When refueling a car, drivers need to pay attention to ensure safety.

To maintain its performance, every car always needs to be refueled after each trip. This seems simple to many drivers, who think that they just need to bring the car to the gas station, leave the fuel pumping to the sales staff, and then monitor the meter on the gas station to pay for the fuel.

However, negligence, subjectivity and the habit of leaving the car fueling to the gas station staff... can make you waste a lot of time, easily make mistakes leading to damage to the car engine and even unsafe operations causing fire and explosion. Below are some notes for drivers when bringing their car to a gas station to refuel:

Choose the right fuel for your vehicle

To avoid confusion, drivers should first know the type of fuel the car is using to operate. Currently, most cars in Vietnam use gasoline or diesel engines. Therefore, if you are new to owning a car or renting a car to drive yourself or borrowing a car from friends or relatives... before refueling the car, you should know whether the car is running on gasoline or diesel. In addition, when entering a gas station, you should inform the sales staff about whether the car uses gasoline or diesel to avoid pumping the wrong fuel.

In reality, the oil pump and the gasoline pump are often different, but there have been many cases of diesel motorbikes being pumped with the wrong gasoline when refueling. In this case, if the driver does not detect it in time and continues to start the vehicle, it will affect the fuel system components such as the high-pressure pump and injectors, which can lead to engine overheating and severe damage to the pistons, piston rings, etc.

In addition to clearly telling the gas station staff, some drivers using diesel cars are more careful by adding decorative accessories to the fuel tank cap or sticking a sticker with the word "Diesel" printed on it to remind them when refueling their cars.

Locate the gas cap to park the car.

In order to not "make things difficult" for the gas and oil pump staff and to not have to move the vehicle too much at the fuel pump station, drivers should determine whether the gas tank cap is on the left or right side of the vehicle.

To determine the location of the fuel tank cap, the driver should pay attention to the dashboard and pay attention to the arrow that comes with the fuel tank symbol (as shown in the photo above). If the angle of this arrow is facing in which direction, the fuel tank position on the car body will be located in that direction. Determining the location of the gas and oil tank cap will help the driver be proactive and save time in parking to refuel. In addition, you should pay attention to how to open the fuel tank cap, because each car model is often designed with a different fuel cap opening mechanism. Some cars are often designed by the manufacturer with a fuel tank cap opening button integrated at the foot of the driver's seat or below the dashboard in the driver's position. Some other cars just need to press the cap to open.

Turn off the engine before refueling.

Some drivers have the habit of leaving the car engine running while refueling. This is considered one of the causes of the risk of fire and explosion.

During the process of refueling the car, the amount of gasoline and oil from the pump will displace the gasoline vapor in the tank, so the gasoline vapor can easily escape. If the car engine is still running at this time, it will continue to generate heat (due to the combustion of the fuel and air mixture), which can easily lead to fire and explosion. Therefore, according to the recommendations of some car manufacturers, before refueling, the driver should turn off the engine to avoid the risk of fire and explosion.

Do not use mobile phones

Gas stations often have signs prohibiting open flames. Therefore, in addition to not smoking, drivers should not use mobile phones while refueling their vehicles. This has been warned, but in reality, in Vietnam, some drivers still subjectively sit in their cars and use their phones while the vehicle is being refueled.

This action always poses a high risk of fire or explosion because when using a mobile phone, strong phone waves can easily emit sparks that cause fires.

Do not overfill the fuel tank.

Some car owners when “filling the tank” often let the fuel spill out the top of the tank. This is not only unsafe, easily causing fire or explosion, but also affects the paint of the car. In fact, some cars often have yellow paint right under the fuel tank due to the effect of letting gasoline and oil spill out the top of the tank when pumping.