Water gets into ground tanks, shutting down Lehigh Acres Sunoco gas station

Concerns are swirling about bad gas after a Sunoco gas station in Lehigh Acres shut down its pumps.

WINK News spoke with Sunoco Friday, and they confirmed water had gotten into the ground tanks, and the gas pumps will be closed until they get the tanks cleaned out.

The gas station is located on 1360 Lee Boulevard in Lehigh Acres.

Three vans from Guardian Fueling Technologies arrived at the station to help with the tanks.

It remains unknown if anyone filled up with this tainted gas.

We spoke with the owner of Professional Auto Mechanics off Lee Blvd, just a few miles away from where the bad gas was sold.

David Zangari said if you end up with watered-down gas, you’d likely notice the problem within a few minutes.

“Your fuel pump sits at the bottom of your tank, so it’s pulling fuel from the bottom. Water sinks to the bottom, so the first thing the fuel pump is going to get is water, so that’s why you immediately know when you’ve got water in your gas,” Zangari said.

Zangari said not to continue driving it if you notice signs of contaminated gas, as it could lead to more serious and costly problems.

“It should be towed to a repair shop into your mechanic, your local mechanic, and he will determine a take a fuel sample. If he does indeed see water intrusion into the fuel, he’s going to want to drain the gas tank, obviously, put fresh gas in it, change whatever fuel filters he can, and basically hope for the best and no other further damage has been done from the water intrusion into the gas,” Zangari said.

Mechanics at the shop we spoke with even still had contaminated fuel samples from last summer when bad gas was delivered to a dozen Southwest Florida gas stations from the Port of Tampa.

Human error was to blame there. Time will tell what’s to blame for the contamination at this gas station.