Man raises his SG-registered Jaguar car with brick at JB petrol station, possibly to pump in more petrol

SINGAPORE: Does raising a car while it’s being filled with fuel cause it to store more petrol? One man, caught on camera using a brick to lift his Singapore-registered Jaguar at a petrol station in Johor Bahru, may have done so for such a purpose.

Pictures of the man and his temporarily-raised Jag were posted on Facebook recently, according to Oriental Daily and Sin Chew, Chinese-language news outlets in Malaysia.

The incident caused netizens to engage in heated discussions, said Oriental Daily, with some even joking that the person who uploaded the photos should have also offered to help the Jaguar owner shake his car, another thing people have done to obtain more fuel.

Some people from Singapore have taken to getting their fuel tanks filled in Malaysia, where petrol is less expensive. For example, the current price of RON 95 is RM2.05 (S$0.58), while RON 97 is RM3.47 (S$0.99).

In Singapore, meanwhile, fuel with a grade of 95 is currently priced between S$2.92 and S$2.97, while petrol with a grade of 98 costs between S$3.41 and S$3.47.

Therefore, even if the Jag driver got RON 97 fuel in JB, he still saved a significant amount.

RON 95 is much cheaper in Malaysia because the government subsidizes its cost. However, any vehicle with a foreign registration plate in Malaysia cannot be filled with RON 95 fuel, and drivers may use RON 97 instead.

Does raising or shaking your car work?

But back to the Jaguar driver and his brick. Some commenters, their curiosity piqued, wondered where the man got the brick in the first place, with others commenting that maybe he carries it around at all times.

However, the question remains whether raising or shaking one’s car allows it to fuel up more. The short answer is no.

A 2022 article in The New Paper explained why: “The space in the tank will not increase, nor will a pocket of air be magically exposed by raising the corner where the fuel filler is located.”

Shaking the car, which supposedly frees up air pockets in the fuel tank so it can hold more petrol, doesn’t work either, so there’s no point in doing so.

On the contrary, those who end up overfilling their fuel tanks to take advantage of lower petrol prices could face serious consequences as this could cause damage to a car’s fuel-injection system or, in a worst-case scenario, possibly cause a fire or even an explosion. /TISG

Read also: Singaporean car driver caught filling up RON95 fuel in JB; insists he can because he’s Malaysian