Petrol station measure

kinetic

Hi, i lived in the UK for several years and you would commonly see customs and excise measuring out a litre of petrol/diesil from a petrol station forecourt pump into a measure and if it wasnt exactly measuring out a litre they would shut the pump down.

The reason why i am saying this is that i have never seen a pump checked here.My car has an 80 litre tank and i constantly run it almost dry.When its nearly on fumes it takes 81 or 82 litres to fill up to the brim again,but today it took 86 litres!
I would bet money on the pump not reading correctly.Who can i contact to report this?

MarkR

I think there is supposed to be some form of label on the side of each pump showing when it was checked by some third party.

kinetic

Any idea who regulates this?Like i say, i drive a 1000 miles a week and have never seen one checked.
mybe they are cheked when put on site?

L-M

Strange, I was at a station during the weekend and I know the pumps are there about 20 years. It's always been on my mind as to whether they actually give out a litre or not.

kinetic

it drives me nuts even when its almost empty it always takes more than what the tank is meant to hold.

Owen

kinetic wrote: »

it drives me nuts even when its almost empty it always takes more than what the tank is meant to hold.

Bear in mind, my 50 litre tank on my car will take 52 litres when it's running on fumes. That extra 2 litres is the connecting pipe between the tank under my rear seat, and the flap about 3 foot away.

robtri

I have seen this before, a mate of mine had a range rover, I can't remember the exact amount the tank holds, but he was charged 8 litres over the actual capacity of the tank,(one or two would be fine, this takes account of the pipe from the tank to the filling hole) but 8 was way too much.
He complained to the attendant at the station and recieved no joy.
So He lodged a complaint with I believe customs and excise and they came out and did a test on the pump... it was slightly out and he got a refund of the difference, from the garage...

if its way out and you are sure of your tanks exact spec's then report it....

gibo_ie

Office of Weights and Measures looks after this and it is a legally binding office.
You will see a small green sticker, clearly viewable on the front panel of each pump on the glass of when it was last checked and when next one is due.

L-M

gibo_ie wrote: »

Office of Weights and Measures looks after this and it is a legally binding office.
You will see a small green sticker, clearly viewable on the front panel of each pump on the glass of when it was last checked and when next one is due.

When the next is due? Isn't that a bit pointless?

kinetic

Like i said initally,when its dry it takes 81 or maybe just under 82 to fill it up,and that is fairly consistent,but no way did it take 86 litres to fill it today.And it wasnt totally on fumes.

gibo_ie

Limerick man wrote: »

When the next is due? Isn't that a bit pointless?

It doesn't tell you the day, just the month and year...

L-M

gibo_ie wrote: »

It doesn't tell you the day, just the month and year...

Ah, good stuff. Still, they know which months they can tamper with it, lol

Paddy001

As far as I know the are calibrated and sealed, so next time they will know if they have been tampered with