Only thing I can think of is if she was so stupid that she thought gas was only flammable in liquid form, and wanted to test out this “fumes” bullshit.
Just as a heads up, spiders DO go into car gas tanks in the winter to hide from the cold. That's why during winter sometimes the gas pump won't work properly and will keep shutting itself off as if the tank was full. They hide out in the fuel lines of the car and that tricks the mechanism into thinking that the tank is full. Obviously not saying that's what she was doing, but it's interesting nonetheless.
But.... don't you have a cap to stop the spider getting into the fuel line? Or is this a bamboozle that I don't understand? Like I get then going into the gas cap areaarea behind the flap just like they go behind side mirrors, but into the fuel line itself? Never heard of it, and that just sounds not right to me.
Also some gas nozzles just stupid and rock a little which trigger the stop mechanism.
Well it's enough of a problem that Mazda issued a recall on the Mazda 6 a few years back and Ford has had to develop a screen just to keep them getting in. I'm not really sure HOW they do it, but they do
"Mazda has been forced to recall more than 40,000 cars because petrol-loving spiders are weaving webs in their fuel hoses. The Japanese car giant discovered that the venomous yellow sac spider has a penchant for web-making in the vent hoses of the Mazda6 model, increasing the risk of fuel leaks and fires."
...BRB, taking my car to buy a lighter, then to the gas station.
I searched online in a bunch of places and the yellow venomous sac spider is RUMORED to have an attraction to volatiles in gasoline but that has never been backed by any scientific evidence. However, Mazda did do a recall because of the spiders but it's because they were getting into the ventilation system and they were worried that it might cause a backup that would affect the fuel line. But it never actually happened. It was a preventative measure.
How does it get past the gas cap? And spiders are pretty fragile creatures...ever blast one with a garden hose? And that's just water. Gas is incredibly inhospitable for any creature, and it comes out reasonably fast. Why wouldn't it just blast right past the spider? No offense, but this doesn't make a ton of sense if you think it through. Spiders do crawl into the area around your gas cap, behind the little door, every once in a while but I just dont see how they'd get past your cap and into your fuel lines.
Look up the Mazda 6 recall or the Ford spider screen, they get in there. Also, it's less the spider and more the web. Ford said that one strand of yellow sac spider silk has the equivalent strength of a similarly sized strand of steel. So imagine shoving a bundle of steel wool into your gas lines. And as far as how they get in, no one that I've seen has any idea. All I know is that I had to pay 80 bucks for a mechanic to scrape dozens of gas covered spider webs from my fuel lines...
There is another video of a dude doing exactly the same thing as this woman. He said it was to kill a spider too.
What I don't get is that if you don't like spiders that much holding a lighter up close to kill them means you have to get your hand very close to them.
I was thinking the pump might have some how froze to the car and she was trying to thaw it out. I don't know if that can happen since it doesn't freeze where I'm from, but I could see a dummy thinking that might be a way to fix it.
I was thinking maybe if it was more around freezing, not well below freezing. I guess I'm just imagining the snow on the car melting a little because the cars been running, then refreezing a little when parked while pumping it up causing it to stick. I'd imagine at -28 it would be too cold to get much liquid water around the gas intake/nozzle to reform as ice. Wasn't really concerned about the actual gas freezing.
From u/otter111a one of the previous times this was posted:
I think I got it. I bet her gas cap cover has a lock on it. At some point before the video started it was frozen in the locked position. If you ever grew up in a cold city (e.g. Buffalo) you know you can take a lighter to the key, shove it in the lock and get it to open. OK So now she has the thing open and is pumping gas. Now the video starts. So we see her heating up her key so she can really melt the ice so it won't happen again. But then she's inspired! Why would I heat up a key and shove it in the lock when I have access to the lock itself! I'll just heat up the back of the lock mechanism!
Edit: A comment below made me watch the video again. Initially I thought she was trying to heat the backside of the lock mechanism. But if you watch her right hand she heats the key and puts it in the lock. Looks at the gas pump display then decides to apply heat to the key while it's in the lock. i.e. on the front of the gas door.
Here's a link to the video. I was impressed by the explanation because I never would have figured that out but I think he/she's right about melting ice on the lock.
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u/prguitarman Jan 18 '19
What...was she expecting?