[sputnik]

Last month I was stopped in Neutral on a cold day when the car shuddered and died. The shudder was so severe that, for a moment, I thought I'd been rear-ended.

Not rear-ended, but there was quite a lot of smoke coming from the tailpipe after restarting. It cleared up within 10 minutes and all seems fine since. Hubby suspects it was a blob of bad gas (even from Chevron) and Honda dealership agreed when I asked them about it. Does that seem like the most likely cause and might there be any effects "down the road"?

Thanks very much.

 

[Insightful Trekker]

Ok, so you stalled in neutral. That much is established. However, a "blob" of "bad gas" if interpreted literally is an impossibility. Any other petroleum product that is not "gas" will diffuse throughout the tank throwing the "blob" theory out the window.

More likely a small amount of water caused the stall. Water _will_ form a "blob". And no, it will do no harm or damage in small quantites. If the weather was just right it would have also contributed to the "white cloud" on restart.

I'd put a bottle of isopropyl alcohol fuel line "dryer" in the tank as soon as practical. Find the nearest stuff to 100% concentration, not the standard 70% drug store variety that's already diluted with water (along with most of its water in gasoline dispersent ability). Ethanol would be OK too if you could find it as would an ethanol / gasoline blended fuel (assuming it's not already "watered" down, by oops or intent). AVOID methanol, its HIGHLY corrosive to many plastics and in high enough concentrations _will_ cause $$$$ damage :!: :shock:

HTH!