Jeep fuel leak causes roadside assistance on Highway 101, San Ardo CA
TrafficA driver experienced a major fuel leak from their Jeep while traveling on Highway 101 near Fort Hunter Liggett. The gas was leaking from a disconnected or broken connection on the gas tank. The driver called AAA for roadside assistance but faced delays and confusion with the tow truck dispatch. After waiting on the roadside for three hours, the vehicle was towed to a repair shop which was closed. The next day, the shop diagnosed that a tank drop was needed to fix the issue.
Audio|Source: KE6TZG 146.3850 MHz Keller Peak Repeater
04:22
Transcript:
00:00
I paid the price of not putting my own fuel pump in my Jeep and I took it out to somebody. They put it in.
00:10
I think you all heard that when they play it, they tried, I tried to go for the first fill-up.
00:15
Part of the fill-up tube or one of the overflow fill-up, something was broken or not connected properly,
00:25
and I was pumping in just as much gas on the ground as I was getting in the tank.
00:30
So I took it back again.
00:32
They dropped the tank, they fixed that issue, and I went up to Fort Ord,
00:37
or to actually we were staying in Watsonville.
00:40
75 miles short of Watsonville.
00:44
I look down, so I leave, what was that, off the five, the crossover on the 46 and coming out of Paso Robles.
00:53
I look, you know,
00:55
fuel consumption is about where it's supposed to be.
00:58
I head north on the 101 past Fort Hunter Liggett, and I look down again. I've gone 88 miles, but I'm at half a tank.
01:07
Way, way, way off kilter. I should have had more gas than that.
01:16
I pull over, take a look,
01:19
and as the car is running, I can see I've got gas running out from somewhere above or around my gas tank.
01:26
And this is gas coming out part two.
01:31
So I couldn't get in there and I couldn't drop the tank out there where I was, so I went ahead and called a tow.
01:38
I have AAA, which is very nice to have if you don't have that considerate.
01:45
However, when I call AAA,
01:48
so these are the foibles of my trip now,
01:53
the AAA usually is pretty good about it, but I get a phone call from a driver.
01:59
It says, where are you located? I said I'm on the 101, just north of Fort Hunter Liggett,
02:06
just south of...
02:08
What is that?
02:10
Aldo, or something like that.
02:12
And I'm not familiar with that town, but San Ardo.
02:18
And he says, well, I'm up in Humboldt, and I'm thinking Humboldt County, which is way north.
02:24
And he said, I don't think I'm going to be coming down there to help you out. And I fully understood that.
02:30
There's probably a few hundred miles between Humboldt County and the area that I was at.
02:36
So I have to... I try and call AAA again.
02:44
When you call AAA, everything's automated and you get put in this loop.
02:49
that you can't get out of sometimes.
02:52
And I just wanted to talk to somebody and tell him, hey,
02:56
my tow truck driver is not coming.
02:58
And I don't know if he's called you and let you know that he's not coming, but I've been out here already for 55 minutes.
03:05
And I've got no way to get out of this stupid loop that you've got me in with this push one, push two, push three, and you get the same prompts over and over again. You're getting this. you're being directed to the same place where they say your driver's en route.
03:23
So nothing's working until finally I pushed the button that got me out of that. And then I just, actually, I canceled the driver and then went to, and that didn't help me, that I canceled the driver because I guess they probably thought that I was good.
03:38
So eventually I got out of this. So three hours later, I'm getting picked up by another driver.
03:43
I've been sitting on the side of the road for three hours now.
03:47
and they take me to a shop, the shop's closed, and we drop off my Jeep,
03:52
and the next morning I go in there and link up with them.
03:57
And they tell me that it's going to cost $175 to diagnose what's wrong, and I can tell them what's wrong.
04:03
There's a connection that's disconnected on my gas tank, but it's $175 later, and most of the morning they tell me that, hey,
04:12
we're going to have to drop your tank.
04:15
Suffice to say is a no S story or comment with that, no crap, right?
Disclaimer:
This transcript was automatically generated and may contain inaccuracies. Please verify the information independently.
Location mentioned:
US-101, United States
This shows a Google Street View of the area near the location, which might not be the exact address.
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