ViperrepiV

I live in manhattan and park my car in a garage. I picked up my car from the garage tonight to drive to upstate CT for the weekend with my gf. When i got in the car, I noticed how the gas was pretty low....like 1/4 a tank or so, maybe a little less. I thought this was a little odd - more of an annoyance than anything - because I never leave it with that little gas - I always fill up on my way back from wherever I go for the weekend. So anyways, halfway up, I need to fill up. So i pull up at a station, swipe my card, and try to begin fueling.

Except I have a problem: the nozzle isn't going in the tank. I take a closer look, and i notice that the little metal flap on the opening to the tank that usually moves out of the way when you put the gas nozzle in is bent....instead of being flush with the tank, it is turned perpendicular - and is stuck like that - so it blocks the nozzle from going in. I try using my finger to move it. It is stuck. the metal piece is bent into that position.

what the fuck! So i start thinking, how could I have done this? Surely I would have remember bending this piece of metal, or having a gas nozzle get stuck. Unable to fill up, i had to try and make it the rest of the way without filling up. I made it, I still have like 30 mi on the tank according to the comp.

But as I was driving up, I started thinking, all the pieces started coming together, and I realized that the garage, or one of its attendants, had siphoned my gas tank! WTF?!?!!. The end of their hose must have gotten caught on the metal flap as they were taking it out, and as they yanked it out, it bent the flap out of place :angryfire :angryfire

I'm so fucking pissed. Now i have to wake up tomorrow morning early and find a mechanic (know of any near Salisbury, CT or Great Barrington, MA? or Cannan CT?). Hopefully he can either bend it back into place or rip the piece off as a temp solution so I can fill my tank up and get it fixed by BMW back in NYC. ugh. I guess $4.25 gasoline is the new price to steal gas

and the garage, I don't even know what to do about them. Clearly find a new one, but what else can I do? I have no proof of them doing anything. They will flat out deny anything. Bastards.

csmeance

I would park back there with a full tank, take a pic before you leave, and also leave a note inside the gas filler door saying "you have been syphoning gas bitches, the popo's coming to get you" and probably they will stuff it back in there leaving their prints, or take it out. And if in the event they don't care, then you check you gas guage when you leave, take a video recording of that and then bust em!

Whiskers

blow up the garage...

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

I'm shocked, something I read on a GM truck forum is actually useful. A member on fullsizechevy.com rigged up his alarm to his fuel door, and suggested 2 ways about doing it, 1 being stealth so it sets of no alarms, lights or sirens, but pages you so you can do some skull bashing. Or 2 and XX DB siren to scare the shit out of anyone in the garage and possibly permanently damage their hearing. Personally I like option 1 but in NYC most people probably have guns or knives so 2 might be safer.

MWalsh9152

youre going to start seeing this alot more now. I was at a friends shop last night and one of his employees just put a new transmission in his truck, it had been sitting for about 2 weeks. The day the tranny blew he had put gas in it, when he pulled it out last night he realized that it was now on empty.

Its been a going on alot with rigs too, if your tanks are full and you get hit you could be out almot a grand

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

get a trunk monkey

TzarChasm

Weld the fuel door shut.

Loseit

iTrader: (1)

Actually, New York is good like that. I was surprised that it wasn't worse. I actually think it's a really safe city esp. in Manhattan.

Loseit

iTrader: (1)

I concur!

Trackruner228

iTrader: (1)

That sucks but maybe you can buy a locking gas cap if your worried about it happening again.

mcflyguy24

That's all you need really, they'll just move onto another car if they see it too. I like that you have to pop the fuel door from inside the car on my Acura.

mclarenf3387

What year BMW is it? If it was made within the last decade your gas door should be locked when you lock the car.

GreenMonster

I thought the same thing... He must be giving them his key ??

Trackruner228

iTrader: (1)

Maybe they broke the lock

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

You can take a pair of needle nose pliers or vise grips & clamp down on the flap & just bend it off.
Locking gas cap will prevent this. Or at least to some degree. I bought them for my cars since gas has shot up so much. You never know.

ViperrepiV

its an '07 328xi, and yeah, it does lock when you lock the door. But its one of those garages where you give it to the attendant and they have to bring it up a lift and park it in some building converted to a garage, so yeah, they need the keys.....that's how it goes here. Either that, or street parking.

I'm gonna tell the manager on duty when i come back that I know someone stole gas out of the cars, it was one of the attendants, and it caused damage to the car. I'll tell him that from now on, i'll take a picture of the fuel gague with my cell every time I park so I know if someone has taken any. And if I find that it happened again, I'm calling the cops. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I probably wouldn't have put 2 and 2 together if it wasn't for the damage to the gas tank.

Luckily I brought it to a mechanic this morning, and despite the fact that he thought I woudl need a new neck for the tank, he was able to somehow pop it back into place, so I'm all good. And he didn't charge for it, which was really nice of him.

Plus i'm gonna just leave it with 1/4 tank from now on - and just fuel up one my way to my destination. If there's no gas in there, they won't steal it (they probably turn it on beforehand to see how full it is. If its near empty, hopefully they'll just move on).

Apparently this happened a lot during the last energy crisis too, in the late 70s.

and its probably worth looking into an aftermarket cap with a lock....although I know the one in there has sensors and shit, so I dunno if that'll work out.

Loseit

iTrader: (1)

be careful ... the manager could very easily be in on it.

Crazy Bimmer

Fill up the tank.

Take a pic of it showing the mileage and the gas needle at full.

That way if they take the gas out and the mileage stays the same... you got proof.

Worth a shot

Sarlacc

An internal locking cap, and leave a note inside the fuel door. "THE INS IS ON TO YOU"

ViperrepiV

alright well when we dropped off the car on sunday night, the manager was off duty, so we told the guy in charge, and the manager will supposedly call me back when he gets into work. I also need to call the management company. I searched around on the 'net for other incidences of this, and siphoning gas is sometimes referred to as the "alabama credit card"

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

Trunk monkey or locking gas cap. Choose one.

JediMindTricks

sucks to hear that...hope everything gets sorted out.

iTimmy

When I had my shop it happened about 2 or 3 times a year, it was never an employee, if it was and I caught him I would have pressed charges against his dumb ass. It typically always happened to trucks, and when a vehicle was left outside over night, either to be picked up and wasn't or dropped off for the next day. Its easy to siphon gas and it sure is getting expensive I bet this is going to be the next big little problem.

Whiskers

Cars of the 80's used to all have dealer installed locking caps...I wonder if they will start up again....

TzarChasm

I'm guessing manufacturers start putting blocks in the fuel tube so you cant put anything down there. Not really rocket science and cant add much to the price of the car.

majin ssj eric

My advice would be to get the hell out of NYC...

Blazing GT

I never leave gas in the tank n e ways lol

Scottman111

Sucks man.

Switch garages fast...they'll probably try your car again. And beware of retaliation by them if you get a locking gas cap.

Whiskers

spdy0001

Tank gets empty he buys a new car

Whiskers

Of course....

Blazing GT

cause im rich
but in all seriousness....when i take my car to get serviced/repair of some kind..i make sure i dont have gas in it

Whiskers

Parking garage?

zeroday

im guessing people all over the place are siphoning small amounts from many cars so its not noticed easily..and getting away with it. my bmw's cap locks when i lock the car and since i never hand my keys over to anyone, no worries.

Whiskers

My googling of trunk monkey has me confused...