Man uses flashlight to check petrol level in his car and then bounces vigorously to get more fuel in while sitting on the trunk

MALAYSIA: A man drew more than a few laughs for the interesting way he fueled up his car—using a flashlight to see how much petrol went in and then sitting on the ledge of the open trunk of his vehicle to bounce up and down vigorously.

“New way to measure if the fuel tank is full. Always keep a 🔦 handy and sit on the car a few times… yup, that will ensure you get an extra 10 km,” wrote Facebook user Muhazzan Mansor in the caption of a video he posted on the paultan.org Automotive/Car Discussion Group on Tuesday (Oct 22).

The video shows a middle-aged man dressed in a blue shirt and grey shorts wearing glasses getting petrol into his vehicle, regardless of the other cars and passers-by.

Shaking one’s car is, of course, not a new phenomenon.

People—including some Singaporeans— have been doing this for years in the hopes of creating more room in fuel tanks so motorists can maximize the amount of petrol they get.

Read related: Another Singaporean uncle shakes his car at JB petrol station to pump in more petrol

Little wonder this often seems to happen when the fuel price is down.

“Fuel tank shapes are not simple cubes or spheres …

… they’re often oddly shaped to conform to the shape of the floor pan or to avoid some chassis component or whatever, which could potentially result in areas within the tank that could trap air during a fill-up.

So there’s some logic to what folks are doing when they rock the vehicle back and forth (trying to get the air pocket to move from wherever it is trapped),” wrote engineer Jason Scott.

However, he added: “In reality, though, even if they are successful at dislodging an air pocket, it’s unlikely that fuel will rush in to fill the void.”

A 2022 article in The New Paper explained that “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.”

Moreover, the people who end up overfilling their fuel tanks to take advantage of lower petrol prices could face severe 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 related: Caught on cam: 4 men rocking their car vigorously while pumping petrol in JB said to be Singaporeans