Sainsburys fuel gaff

[AlexisV]

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven...rys-in-salford

There's been a few threads about this kind of thing recently - it seems it can happen.


I'm also pretty relieved as I almost put some in at this location yesterday.

[Joe Horner]

At least it was the "safe" way to !!!! up - filling the diesel tanks with petrol would have been far more of a problem!

I must say, though, I'm quite surprised that anyone (in the article) could pump £40 of diesel into their petrol car without noticing that it smelt of the wrong stuff! Even as a long term smoker with no sense of smell I'm still always aware of the smell within a few seconds of starting a pump!

[George Michael]

If it's anything like my local Tesco, the smell difference wouldn't have been too obvious.

There are about 14 different pumps, the majority of which seem to be in constant use, and with the current high ambient temperature, there is an awful lot of fuel vapour around each pump and as soon as you get out of your car all you can smell is petrol and diesel fumes.

[Paradigm]

Something tells me that the unemployment figure has just risen by 1!

[mikey72]

At least it proves when the filling stations get the fuel in the wrong tank, it's obvious, and never just affects the odd car. At least 44 they know about.

[Premier]

Originally Posted by mikey72

At least it proves when the filling stations get the fuel in the wrong tank, it's obvious, and never just affects the odd car. At least 44 they know about.

Precisely

Dozens of motorists were left stranded at the roadside ...

Perhaps we can use this thread as a good example everytime a newbie starts a new thread blaming supermarket fuel for the reason their radiator's blown, cam-belt's failed etc.

[Premier]

Originally Posted by AlexisV

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven...rys-in-salford

There's been a few threads about this kind of thing recently - it seems it can happen.


I'm also pretty relieved as I almost put some in at this location yesterday.

Wish I'd have known.

Diesel for the same price as petrol!

[peter_the_piper]

Originally Posted by Joe Horner

At least it was the "safe" way to !!!! up - filling the diesel tanks with petrol would have been far more of a problem!

Is this the right way round?

I've put a couple of gallons of petrol into a diesel car in error with no problem (more might have been) but a tank of diesel in petrol car would be very expensive to sort out.

[molerat]

Originally Posted by peter_the_piper

Is this the right way round?

I've put a couple of gallons of petrol into a diesel car in error with no problem (more might have been) but a tank of diesel in petrol car would be very expensive to sort out.

Diesel in petrol = drain, flush ,clean = £300
Petrol in diesel = drain, flush, clean and possibly replace fuel pump etc = £K.

Old diesels,ie the ones that will run on chip fat, would probably be ok but any modern common rail type is a potential disaster. The fuel is the lubricant for the close tolerance components and petrol does not do it.

[worried jim]

Originally Posted by molerat

Diesel in petrol = drain, flush ,clean = £300
Petrol in diesel = drain, flush, clean and possibly replace fuel pump etc = £K.

Old diesels,ie the ones that will run on chip fat, would probably be ok but any modern common rail type is a potential disaster. The fuel is the lubricant for the close tolerance components and petrol does not do it.

I would regulary mix 10-15% petrol in with my waste vegetable oil in the winter to help with cold morning starts and smoother running when running my Vauxhall on veg.

[oldagetraveller]

"Diesel in petrol = drain, flush ,clean = £300"

Should be very difficult in a modern car as the Diesel nozzle is bigger and shouldn't fit into the filler restriction?!

[Ultrasonic]

Time for a naive question: why is it that tankers and fuel station tanks don't simply have a different type of connector for petrol and diesel? Surely a system like that could easily make errors like reported in this thread impossible.

[shaun from Africa]

Originally Posted by oldagetraveller

"Diesel in petrol = drain, flush ,clean = £300"

Should be very difficult in a modern car as the Diesel nozzle is bigger and shouldn't fit into the filler restriction?!

It doesn't make any difference what size the nozzle is and what restrictor is fitted to the filler hole if the bulk storage tank in the garage has the wrong stuff in it.

[Joe Horner]

Originally Posted by Ultrasonic

Time for a naive question: why is it that tankers and fuel station tanks don't simply have a different type of connector for petrol and diesel? Surely a system like that could easily make errors like reported in this thread impossible.

Good question, and a definitive answer would be interesting. At a guess, the tankers themselves are probably dual-purpose for either (obviously with suitable flushing) and they expect the driver to know what he's carrying?

[Joe Horner]

Originally Posted by peter_the_piper

Is this the right way round?

I've put a couple of gallons of petrol into a diesel car in error with no problem (more might have been) but a tank of diesel in petrol car would be very expensive to sort out.

A bit of petrol in a diesel (couple of gallons on a tank, say) probably won't matter even in a newish car. You'll lose a little lubrication through the pump and injectors but they'll still have enough to survive In the good old days a little petrol was often used to help cold starting / prevent waxing of the fuel.

But 40 quids worth (probably at least 50% of the contents) is going to cause problems, especially if the tank was close to empty.

Diesel in a petrol engine will simply refuse to burn (if the mix is too high) or not burn very well and cause misfires. That might cause problems with the cat if it's up to temperature and the problems show at speed but it's more likely to just stop the engine. Once it's all flushed through the engine will be fine, even if the cat's suffered.

[peter_the_piper]

Luckily it was an old Corsa with a basic diesel Isuzu engine, actually seemed to run better. Never did it again though.

[andrew-the-cat]

Originally Posted by Ultrasonic

Time for a naive question: why is it that tankers and fuel station tanks don't simply have a different type of connector for petrol and diesel? Surely a system like that could easily make errors like reported in this thread impossible.

Because most tankers have multiple compartments which can hold different liquids in each (eg a single tanker can carry unleaded, super unleaded, and diesel).

This is part of the reason why the whole fuel strike thing was going to happen, because there was no security in the contracts that the fuel delivery companies had, for example Tesco could switch from their current supplier to another at the end of the contract. And the boys who know what they were doing were not impressed with the fact that they could so easily be undercut by a bunch of idiots who didn't know what the !!!! they were doing - just like this guy.