put petrol in diesel car.

[DITTRICH]

Misfuelling: stepson = 1, wife = 1, me = 0.
Last night my 12 y/o proudly told me that he "helped" mummy pay for and fuel the car at ASDA.
"what colour was the pump nozzle?" I enquired.
"Black". Good but better check...
"What was written immediately above where the hose connects to the pump?"
"Diesel". Yeah!
So now more than one person in our family knows what to do.
Well done son!

 

[BillyW124]

Glad its sorted mate,

but there goes my thinking that a diesel and petrol nozzles at the station are different in terms of size so this does not happen?

 

[blue gnome123]

Diesel nozzles are larger than petrol so it's harder - but not impossible to put a diesel nozzle in a petrol car. Obviously the opposite way around (petrol into diesel) is easy since its not a nozzle physical size issue.

 

[scottydee]

This happened to me when I had my Mondeo - AA wanted a scandalous amount to send their specialist draining unit out.

In the end I took it to a local garage, who simply disconnected the fuel line, and used the cars own fuel pump to pump out the unleaded. They charged my £50, which included £20 of fresh clean Diesel.

Apparantly a very simple process. It goes to show how much these "specialists" make!

 

[markjay]

To be fair, you do need to factor in the cost of a 24x7 call out, plus the specially equipped van. Of course it will be cheaper if you decide to risk it and drive the car to garage.

 

[ghummy]

This happened to me when I had my Mondeo - AA wanted a scandalous amount to send their specialist draining unit out.

In the end I took it to a local garage, who simply disconnected the fuel line, and used the cars own fuel pump to pump out the unleaded. They charged my £50, which included £20 of fresh clean Diesel.

Apparantly a very simple process. It goes to show how much these "specialists" make!

very true, but when your stuck between a rock and a hard place you pay the price for the balls up. all seems well with it so far, just hoping nothing will surprise me out of the blue...

 

[ghummy]

out of curiosity, what warning signs should i be looking out for? if i have managed to bugger it how long do you reckon before i notice something is wrong?>

 

[Stratman]

You should be fine. I brimmed an empty tank with petrol and drove it a couple of miles before the penny dropped. An excellent back-street place drained and flushed the system and it's been absolutely fine for years.

I fitted a Solo Diesel cap which has shaped fingers that allow the large diesel nozzle through but stop the smaller petrol one. The best bit about it is you just put the nozzle straight in, there is no need to remove anything hence no need to touch it.

 

[MarkJunedd]

One of the guys at a company i worked for previously managed to do what Top Gear failed to do. He killed a Toyota HiLux!!! Was a hired hi lux and he was returning from a site job when the fuel light came on so he stopped at the next garage and filled it with unleaded !!!! I recieved a phone call off him about 1 mile from the garage to say the pick up had broken down ,i then asked him to look at his fuel receipt where it then dawned on the numpty what he had done. Vehicle was recovered and we drained it but it was obvious on starting that damage had been done. Sheepish phone call to hire company to explain the events and they came and collected it. I cant remember the exact cost but it ended up costing the company thousands for a replacement engine.

 

[scottydee]

If it's not been driven any distance, then I'm sure it'll be ok. Petrol can damage the oil seals in the fuel pump (Diesel is waxy/oily).

 

[ghummy]

If it's not been driven any distance, then I'm sure it'll be ok. Petrol can damage the oil seals in the fuel pump (Diesel is waxy/oily).

unfortunatly it had been driven 0.4 miles before the mistake was spotted, not through any fault shown on the car but by the mrs looking at the receipt stating unleaded on it.

took it for a 20 mile drive following the draining yesterday and has been driven a total of 40 miles today, both high speed and urban speeds and seems to be functioning like new still, no smoke from the exhaust, no loss of power at any speed, no unsual noises and doesnt hesitate at all.

 

[scottydee]

I personally think that you'll be ok. The fuel feed pipe would be full of diesel, so by the time the mixture of petrol/diesel came through from the tank, you would probably have been home.

 

[ghummy]

just wanted to update all. have driven the car for 100 miles since the incident and all seems to be working fine.

what seems really strange though is that i seem to be getting better economy. it seems to be giving me 35mpg from not so careful driving and about 43mpg with careful driving. whereas before i had to feather the accelerator to get 35mpg most of the time. strange.

i seem to be panicking more and constantly driving with the windows down listening for anything unusual. but i guess that normal after something like that.

thanks all.