Another one fills up with Petrol

[Sp!ke]

I had a distress call from my dad yesterday having filled up his Skoda diesel with BP Ultimate Petrol (same coloured pumps).

He ran the car until it spluttered to a halt before realising and the AA recovered him home but said they couldn't drain his tank and fix the problem as they only had two vehicles in london for this purpose and neither worked on weekends.

To cut a long story short, the guy that bought my W123 Lang off me runs a one man band mobile mechanic outfit. (He has a bit of a mercedes OCD and is planning to fill up a 50 car garage back in Poland with the marque to satisfy his thirst for vintage mercs). I digress, I gave him a call and he promptly turned up at dads, drained everything off and sorted the problem under an hour and it looks like my dad got away without any permanent damage.

Total cost £75... versus the AA's £150 'members rate'.

My dads happy as larry and the Martin (my friendly mobile mechanic) has just gained himself another long term customer.

So good news all round in the end :bannana:

 

[coupe deville]

I put 50 litres petrol in the focus couple months back. RAC came out and after a few calls he recovered me to a breakdown/recovery outfit at Hartshead Moor services on the M62 Eastbound, about 35 miles away. They pumped it out and put 10 litres diesel in and I then filled up at the services. They sent a bill to my employers for £380.
Rac chappie said misfuelling was his main call out

 

[Sp!ke]

£380 Thats money for old rope.

I'm wondering if I could run my bike on the diesel/petrol mix. (75% petrol)

The bikes a low compression carb fed old school thing. (thinking there might be a plentiful supply of this for free out there)

 

[robert.saunders]

Not good of BP to have the Ultimate fuel-pump types so similar in colour and design

 

[gIzzE]

They were meant to be getting rid of this in January 2005, both pumps being blue, when their insurance policy said they would no longer pay out for misfueling if the pumps were the same colour.

I have not seen them the same since.

 

[Smiley]

BP has been paying compensation to customers who make this mistake - take it up with them in writing with a copy of your receipt and you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[GordonTarling]

Most places in the US where I filled up whilst on holiday recently had black pumps for petrol and green for diesel! That actually made it quite simple for my brain to compute - stick to the same colour that I always use here!

 

[SilverSaloon]

i've been putting a few litres of petrol in my E300d recently..... of course the rest is veg ;-)

 

[ADY1983]

I actually did this a couple of years ago but I put diesel in the CE luckily I didn't start it and I only put a tenner in, but to be safe I got recovered to a friends garage he charged me £10.00 for draining it.

Exactly the same though this was at BP with Ultimate diesel not petrol, I didn't even know they did an Ultimate diesel at the time

 

[pint6x]

Been there - done that - got the Tee shirt - filled up an Audi A6 1.9 TDi with petrol - got 400 yards down the road before coming to a grinding halt. Rang up Audi, furious with their rubbish cars for breaking down, before they asked "what did you put in the tank" and realisation slowly dawned.....

Humble pie was served and eaten - recovery truck took me and the car away - didn't get it back for a week - the Audi garage had to drain 70 litres of contaminated petrol - must be something of a waste hazard because there's probably naff all they can do with it.

 

[SilverSaloon]

must be something of a waste hazard because there's probably naff all they can do with it.

yep, there is a big scene on the "veg scene" that collects this "miss-fuel" for free/cheap from garages and they use it mixed with the veg.

i've still got to source some for myself. Unfortunatly, there is a legal limit joe-public can store, but if you can get a regular supplier then you are laughing at 10p per litre....

of course, you always have to treat it as if it is 100% petrol, just to be on the safe side, unless you also invest in a dipper stick thing that detects the amount of % of petrol vs diesel.