On Fuel Crises

Poor Chemo has been unwell. I noticed when my Dad was over the car spluttered a couple of times. I put this down to the spark plugs being old, and the car needing a good service. Then, 2 weeks ago, TDT, MILTB and I went to Limerick on the Sunday morning. At about 80 mph, and on the motorway, suddenly the "check engine" light came on and the car promptly died. I limped it for a couple of miles, but it had all the symptoms of running out of fuel. The gauge said I had 100km of fuel left, but even I know you can't trust it. So, Ianymeany came down with a can and we got more fuel. Sure enough, it didn't make any difference, and we got a tow all the way home. A few hours later and it was all working again, but again a little bit spluttery. I got more spark plugs the following day and changed them, and all seemed ok. Then on Monday I had to go to the next town down, the thriving metropolis that is Shannon. On the way home it did the same again, "check engine", no fuel, generally poorly. This time I red lined it at 6500RPM and second gear, and just got it home. The next morning however and I couldn't even pull out of a parking spot without it stalling, so I took the putput to a few garages and got a guy who said he'd have a look. After getting a tow, the car was left at the hands of Ross, my new found friend. 2 hours later and he phoned with a diagnosis, and it was grim.
Poor Chemo had been poisoned. He'd had some sort of petrol that had turned to jelly, and the pump was chewing chunks off which were getting sent to the injectors. And the really strange thing was the more fuel I added, that also was jellified. So, there was only one choice. He emptied the tank, cleaned it out, and overhauled the pump, cleaning that as well. Then he put a tenner's worth back in, and that seemed to fix it. He advised me to get fuel cleaner, so I have it in the tank as we speak and Poor ill Chemo is now running a lot better.
Meanwhile, TDT and I sat and worked out where it would have come from. When my father was over I'd got fuel from a garage in Limerick, literally a couple of days before my first splutter. I normally get fuel from the same garage, and seeing as it's the nearest, if it was from there you can be sure some of the locals would have also had problems. So I can only assume it was the garage in Limerick. Unfortunately, in this day and age, it's very difficult to prove. I wonder if I would have had the same problem if I had a diesel...