What a wally I am

[Mercy1]

I always thought that the easiest and best solution was for the petrol pump nozzles to be round and the diesel nozzles triangular (with corresponding shapes for the car filler aperture) - and that neither would fit if you chose the wrong fuel. What happened to that idea?? Too simple I suppose!

 

[simba23]

I had to turn the ignition on to get the car out of the P position and in to N in order to roll it 15ft to the parking space.

I thought it was a bit excessive to drain the fuel lines and pump but I did witness that as soon as the guy turned the ignition on the car was pushing through fuel quite powerfully.

So i think as a precaution it was a good idea. I think the car may have been ok to run on that mix aswell, but weighing up the costs of possible engine damage/replacement I would rather have not taken the chance.

I'm double paranoid thank god it wasn't the sls.

 

[Pittsey]

I made a similar mistake at BP. It was when I was a teenager and drove an imprezza. I wanted superunleaded and usually filled up at shell. I picked a pump. Diesel, unleaded and ultimate were the choices. I picked Ultimate. It didn't fit properly. Wondering why, I pressed the lever. By the time I realised it was diesel, I had filled it with about 4 quid worth. I panicked too, but filled it up with petrol and risked it. Luckily, it was fine.

Why not have Diesel Ultimate written on the pump? Surely an easy mistake to make, although the ill fitting nozzle should have tipped me off straight away.

 

[Mr E]

I'd challenge you on that statement. They reckon at least 150,000 drivers put the wrong fuel in their cars every year - not an insignificant figure and I'd say the op is in good company (although that's hardly any consolation in this case).

That's an interesting number often quoted. It has it roots in a 2005 Telegraph article, which also claims that it costs an average of £7k to rectify a misfuelled diesel car.

This has been of interest to us for a while (as an industry consulting group) because if it was such a major issue then there would be mileage in the OEMs doing something about it. There are plenty of third-party devices out there (Solofuel is one, for example) and an OEM could fit these as standard, probably tying up a unique provision deal, which would be a major selling point.

However, there is no proven evidence for any of the numbers bandied about - which range from 50,000 to >300,000 incidents per year. The closest we've ever got is with the AA and RAC, who quote numbers but refuse to open up the data for third-party analysis.

We did some anecdotal research and asked about 500 filling stations how many incidents they would see on average per month. The answer came out to less than 1 per month (IIRC it worked out to be about 0.4).

With 8,800 filling stations in the UK (according to 2010 numbers) that works out at 3,520 per month or 42,240 per year, which is way below the number often quoted. Assuming that there are 10 million diesel cars on the road (it's probably more but I don't have the time to extrapolate the numbers out of the yearly stats - but latest numbers are 28.5 million cars overall) then this equates to 0.4% of the population. Now that's not "proper" research, but it gives an decent idea to the real scale of the problem, and why neither OEMs or fuel stations are that bothered about it, and is why we've never tried to dig any further.

We've run diesel and petrol in the E household for more than 10 years, and we regularly use and refuel each others cars and have never had a problem - but I have picked up the wrong nozzle and can therefore appreciate that it's far too easy to do. Things like using ANPR to unlock the appropriate pumps, or different-shaped nozzles are just too expensive to consider when it affects such a small part of the population...

 

[Dieselman]

Presumably it was the only company car they drove? But they (or the wife) may have had a privately owned petrol vehicle which they drove from time to time hence the confusion?

Some were single people with access to only their company car. How do they not know the car is diesel after driving 100k miles in it.

 

[markjay]

Personally, during my 35 years of driving I have never misfuelled a car.

Yet the fact is that some people do misfuel - for whatever reason - and therefore a failsafe system that will prevent them from doing so seems to make sense.

 

[SavMan]

Personally, during my 35 years of driving I have never misfuelled a car.

Yet the fact is that some people do misfuel - for whatever reason - and therefore a failsafe system that will prevent them from doing so seems to make sense.

I am also lucky enough to have never come close to putting the wrong fuel but it could have something to do with the fact that I have never driven a diesel

 

[Dieselman]

Personally, during my 35 years of driving I have never misfuelled a car.

Yet the fact is that some people do misfuel - for whatever reason - and therefore a failsafe system that will prevent them from doing so seems to make sense.

Some people never crash, others do. What failsafe should we have for that?

 

[markjay]

Some people never crash, others do. What failsafe should we have for that?

Good point. I have never driven into crash barrier, yet from time to time some people do, and it stops them from rolling into a ditch, so it makes sense to have them, no?

 

[craig1912]

Ford have managed to incorporate a device that stops this happening, not sure why all manufacturers can't.

 

[gIzzE]

Why did you call Mercedes?

Is your car still under warranty?

 

[s88]

It is not uncommon to find the wrong gun in the appropriate holster! If that makes sense, or is that someone deliberately swopping them, so that people do make a mistake?

 

[Rory]

There have been plenty of diesel cars on the road for at least 20 years, but very few fueling mistakes.
Having managed company fleets I found the same drivers did it multiple times, even though it was the only car they drove.

I've no idea what the real number is but in my last company we had around 100 cars and it seemed to be happening all the time. We never did anything other than drain and refill and we ran the cars (mainly Audi A4 and BMW 320's) to 90K miles and never had any problems.

I've seen it reported that mis-fueling is almost epidemic on some Polce fleets.

I did it once, after having hassle the first time I ever used pay-at-pump. Thank God I realised just as I pulled the trigger and I put 7p of petrol in my car. I have a routine of standing back and double checking now before pulling the trigger.

 

[markjay]

.... I have a routine of standing back and double checking now before pulling the trigger.

I always do that.

 

[gIzzE]

I have a routine of standing back and double checking now before pulling the trigger.

I always do that.

I would bloody well hope so to Markjay, you're in a firing squad!!