Like people leave their engines idling while waiting for a pump and that’s not an issue… and if there was a chance of a spark traveling back along the line and ignigting the tank (and thus, the station), then why doesn’t this happen during normal operation?
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I imagine it’s similar to why you shouldn’t use a cell phone while pumping gas, the odds of any incident happening is extremely low but it’s not 0.
It’s not. The reason you have to shut them off on newer cars is because of the ECU detecting an error in the EPA required systems. refueling with the engine running causes a CEL. Older cars do not care if the car is running.
Drummer for Aerosmith eas fueling up whike car was running (I think a classic muscle car type) and spark occurred when he hit the novel against the gas receptacle and the car caught fire, etc.
At least part of the reasons are unrelated to the engine actually running
There are cars with malfunctioning electrical systems that can cause sparks
People who leave the car running tend to go back in the car during fueling. This increases the risk of static discharge when they go back to the pump.
There is a nonzero chance of a running car being improperly secured when the person exits
Think of it as why they don’t allow cell phones to be turned on and in-use on a plane. The signals do in fact cause some disruption but it’s generally not critical, and in general even mid flight a phone is not powerful enough to disrupt it. But will all phones? What about something that acts like a phone like a radio or something that does cause serious issues. How will the FAA or whatever your regional Airline regulation agency is, check all phones past present and future.
Now apply that to fueling. Putting fuel in a car CAN cause issues, but in general it doesn’t. Having the engine running does produce sparks and heat that generally would not ignite the fuel that you are pumping in to your car. But it could, and maybe a future car has more risk, or a past one. How will the manufacturer of the fuel pump systems test every single car past present and future so that it won’t cause critical issues.
It comes down to: a plane having its communications or other systems disrupted HAS happened and CAN happen though probably not through a cell phone, but common sense kind of brought us to turning them off/put in airplane mode as a general rule while in flight. Similarly sparks of sorts HAVE caused problems while putting fuel in the car and it has led us to say: turn off your car while refueling. In both cases there is very little you will lose by turning something off (most phones won’t have the ability to get a connection at airplane speeds and heights, you don’t need to drive your car while you are putting fuel in) and there are highly impactful (serious injury or death) events that can be prevented that way.
I saw you respond a few times with “what about the person behind me idling their engine” again: they are actively operating their car. It is saver for them to be able to move when they need to. Unlike you refilling your car it’d be less save to move your vehicle while fueling up.
tldr; even if the risk of things catching fire while refueling due to a running engine is really low, changes in technology can change that, and cars/people have caught fire in various ways that could be caused by an engine running. In the end by not running your engine you are giving up something that’s not necessary in order to prevent something that could result in death.
Technically it’s mostly for gasoline engines. Diesel vehicles you can keep running while you fuel no problem.
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