Dear Tom and Ray:

Help me out here. I need to know if I have to start wearing my flameproof sweater next time I fill up at the neighborhood gas station. The last two times that I filled up the tank at the local gas station, there were Richard Petty wannabes filling up their cars with the engines still running. Now, I know illiteracy is bad in this country, but do people really not understand the words "turn off your engine while refueling"? I was going to ask this soon-to-be-Roman candle whether he thought it was OK to ignore the signs, but I decided to ask you guys instead. Should we pay attention to these signs, or should we all just ignore them? -- James

Ray: Of course we should pay attention to these signs. After all, someone spent all that money to print them up, didn't they? It's the least we can do.

Tom: Here's why we should obey the signs. When you're refueling a car, gasoline vapors are generated. And there's always a possibility that gasoline will spill and vaporize.

Ray: And when gas vapors meet a spark, the result is ... kaboom! So it makes sense to do everything possible to reduce the chances of blowing yourself and other innocent people into the big filling station with clean restrooms in the sky, right?

Tom: And while random sparks are not normally created by most cars, it can happen. If you had a bad spark-plug wire, for instance, and the spark was jumping, under just the right (actually wrong) circumstances, it could ignite the vapors and take you and all those S&H green stamps with it.

Ray: On the other hand, when the engine is off, there's almost no chance that a spark will ignite the gasoline fumes. So why not cut the risk to zero? Are we that lazy that we can't shut off the engine for five minutes while we refill the gas tank?

Tom: And by the way, James, for the same reason, you should also insist that your mother-in-law snub out her El Producto before you send her out to fill the tank, too.

Stop the madness! You can stop driving like a knucklehead, and you'll help your car in the process. Learn how your driving habits can harm your car in Tom and Ray's pamphlet "Ten Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car Without Even Knowing It!" To order, send (check or money order) to Ruin, P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. You can also order online.

© 1998 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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