Myth or Fact: Does rocking/shaking your car allow you to pump more petrol??

Johor Art Gallery (Galeri Seni Johor)New Directive: Singapore Cars can only pump 20 Litres Petrol in Malaysia

Myth or Fact: Does rocking/shaking your car allow you to pump more petrol??

November 28th, 2009 stephen.wong

It is a comical and sometimes unbelievable sight.

Driver comes out of their car and starts rocking/shaking the car away, oblivious to the fact that their actions sometimes resembles what couples do on bed. All in an attempt to make a trip to Johor Bahru all worth it, which means squeezing every possible drop of petrol into their car. See a video below:

But does rocking/shaking a car allow you to pump more petrol? For the sheer fun of it, we wanted to prove it today.

We went to an ESSO petrol station and started our experiment. The best way to prove it is to pump the petrol to the point where it OVERFLOWS. After which we will all rock our poor Toyota Altis in unison and hopefully, the petrol level will subside and we will measure and see how much more petrol we can pump from there.

Limsimi.com - Petrol Tank of our Toyota Altis

Unfortunately, our experiment is cut short with an immediate result:

1. Pump Petrol till the points it overflows: Meter Reading@45.01 litres
2. Start shaking the car: Petrol subsided.
3. Start Pumping petrol again. Petrol overflows.
Repeat (2) and (3).

Final Meter Reading@45.44 litres. Additional Petrol pumped: 0.43 litres.

And we have to add that the whole petrol station people were looking at us as if we were planning some kind of illegal activities.

Conclusion: With this meager 0.43 litre, you save about 40 Singapore cents . If you are one of these people, please do not do it in future…… else you will make yourself looking like a pent up teenager.

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Entry Filed under: Others

24 Comments Add your own

1. Ree | November 28th, 2009 at 3:51 PM

I agree, it’s funny as hell, and hearing all your laughter adds to mine.
However, couldn’t you at least blocked out his licence plate?

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2. DeTang | November 28th, 2009 at 3:55 PM

Haahahahahaa.. this is funny!!!

What is this guy doing?!! Think he is going to change his license plate!

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3. Warrior | November 28th, 2009 at 8:28 PM

I will like to share with everyone how best to top up your fuel tank to the max.

You put the pump fully into the fuel tank firs until the top-up auto stops.

You then insert the pump mouth about 5 cm into the fuel tank. Fill until the top-up auto stops. At this point, there will be some overflow and you can see the petrol (orange in colour).

Wait a while (no need to shake) then just cover up. Some of the petrol will spill out but u can use the water provided (in the bottle similar to wat u use to flower you plants)

Thats it!

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4. Ina | December 1st, 2009 at 4:01 AM

How I wish to witness this act of “kiasunism” live when I’m in JB next time!The owner of the car will either be changing their car plate or their kiasu attitude….if only they felt embarassed!

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5. Rina | December 1st, 2009 at 4:05 AM

Oh! How I wish to witness this act of “kiasunism” live when I’m in JB next time! The owner of the car will either be changing their car plate or their kiasu attitude….if only they felt embarassed!

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6. Don | December 1st, 2009 at 1:20 PM

Poor Guy

need to find a hole for him to stuck in

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7. Bob Goh | December 1st, 2009 at 2:33 PM

I am a Singaporean and I dun do this. Phew!! Tough luck for the poor guy and I wonder if he has changed his licence plate.

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8. John | December 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 PM

I think the ugly thing about sporean is not the kiasuism. The ugly thing is ppl are just too busybody such as this person filming the video putting on web to mock at others, whereby they derive their satisfaction from there.

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9. Jay | December 10th, 2009 at 9:59 AM

lol he got $$ drive civic, but petrol97 1 litre only less than SGD$1 he oso so calculative.

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10. Johnson Lam | December 12th, 2009 at 1:17 PM

Please lar my fellow Singaporeans, don’t do this. 没脸见人。

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11. hafizh | December 13th, 2009 at 6:38 PM

Hi Jay, this is exactly the image some Singaporeans pportray that turns Malaysians off.

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12. admin | December 13th, 2009 at 11:41 PM

Hi Ree, we are not the originator of the video so the laughter are not from us!

Just last week, I was with a lady Singaporean friend of mine at the Caltex petrol station near leisure mall. Just as the fuel pump stopped, she actually requested me to “shake the car” to get more petrol in.

Wonder how Singaporeans got this idea.

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13. Keith Lim | December 16th, 2009 at 10:44 AM

It doesn’t really make much different. Can’t imagine what’s really wrong with these people…

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14. Eric | December 27th, 2009 at 12:29 AM

haha… sad to say, im belong to one of the shaking car gangs in JB. but true enough, i always manage to squeeze in about 5-6 litres more of petrols for my 64 litres tank… so for me, i think this little bits of laughter…is worth it…

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15. Chong Seng | December 27th, 2009 at 3:00 PM

I used to shake my ford focus but not
like the way the guy in the video did. If u r “experienced”, pump until you can see the fuel almost leaking out, just like what tis post says.

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16. Curious Malaysian | February 8th, 2010 at 12:55 AM

By doing this can cause fuel gauge malfuntion and inaccurate reading which can lead to confusion.

My Mercedes E230 1998 with W plate, was overfilled in Kuala Kubu Bharu and I shake the car, it subsided. When after filling and start my car, the fuel gauge showing 3/4 although the tank full. Last time when driving with 1/4 gauge, the car stops due out of gas. Aftermath, I always never overfilled and stop filling when gauge at 3/4.

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17. Curious Malaysian | February 8th, 2010 at 1:00 AM

Typo error

“Can cause spoil and malfunction the fuel gauge”

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18. Curious Malaysian | February 8th, 2010 at 1:01 AM

Typo error

“Can spoil and malfunction the fuel gauge”

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19. quattro | February 24th, 2010 at 2:46 AM

This a clasic Singapore trait of “monkey see monkey do”.

These guys saw taxi drivers filling up thier tanks. Taxi drivers in Singapore used to rock their cars to get as much DIESEL in thier tank because the diesel FOAMED when it was being pumped into the fuel tank.

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admin Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 9:34 PM
Interesting comment Quattro. Diesel foaming is not something we are not aware of!

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20. MarkSpizer | May 3rd, 2010 at 9:13 PM

great post as usual!

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21. zexel | May 4th, 2010 at 3:05 AM

I’m curious about this weird trend.. is the objective simply to get more fuel into the tank, in which case the ‘air pockets’ theory comes into play (this seems to be the prevailing idea but overfilling is not recommended as fuel will expand at higher temperatures), or is it to get a better fuel\dollar ratio, in which case saving a dollar or two is hardly worth the embarrassment of humping your car in public…

Anyway, to my understanding, modern fuel pumps are already designed to minimize air bubbles and the auto-stop is there for safety reasons.

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22. KS | October 4th, 2010 at 12:31 AM

This is funny, but not necessary wrong. Although petrol does not foam as much as diesel, there is air within the fuel tank that needs to escape when you pump in petrol. Also, some air are trapped within the fuel tank. Look at a glass when you pour in some gassy drinks & you know what I mean. The action of rocking releases the air pockets, so you can push in more petrol. Well, a better way of doing this is to pump it up full, drive around, do your chores & give some time for the trapped air to escape, THEN you might be able to pump in some more without too much of an embarrassment to yourself. Anyway, I think to each one’s own way of doing thing. It’s not illegal, it’s not unethical, no harm is done, so let whosoever want to shake their cars, continue to do so lah!

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admin Reply:
October 16th, 2010 at 4:19 PM
Hi KS, sometimes, I do that same. Drive to do my groceries before coming back for the 2nd round and usually, I can pump another 4l more.

I need to do that because everyweek, my fuel gauge just toe the middle line based on the week’s usage, so I have to ensure I pump to the brim.

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