Driver learns tough lesson about filling gas tank after water in gasoline damages car

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- If you fill up and your car stops running, something is probably wrong with the gas, but you have to prove you got the gas from the store in question, it's a lesson one Houston mom is now learning.

The liquid in this jug came from a gas tank.

It's what gasoline and water look like when mixed together and Iris Irigoyen says it's from her car.

"Yesterday I went and put $10 worth of gas in my car and I made it about a mile," said Iris Irigoyen.

Iris says her car stalled. This is what the mechanic says is the problem, water in the gas tank.

So Iris went back to gas station.

"When you went back to tell them, what did they say? No, no, no, it's not us?" asked reporter Jeff Ehling.

"They had tested the pumps and it came out clean, no water, no nothing," said Irigoyen.

Typically when drivers get water in their gas tanks from a gas station, the station will pay to have the car fixed. But drivers must prove they bought the gas from the station in question.

"No, unfortunately I did not get a receipt," said Irigoyen.

Iris says the owner of the station was unwilling to help, so we called and eventually the owner said he would pay for a portion of the repairs while insisting the station's gas is just fine.

"The gods of high octane are looking down on her because he did not have to do anything," said Dan Parsons with the Houston Better Business Bureau. Parsons adds drivers should always get a receipt.

"It shows you did business with the firm, it's critical, it's absolutely critical," said Parsons.

These types of repairs can be very costly, anywhere from several hundred dollars to more than a thousand.

So get a receipt every time you buy gas.