Garage put petrol in our new diesel Rav 4

homerdog

I'm after some advice please.
Today we went to pick up our 2014 reg diesel Toyota Rav 4 after part exchanging our other car. We did all the paperwork and were told they had put £20 of fuel in it to tide us over.
We left the garage and drove to see our daughter to show her our new baby, about 10 mile journey. Just as we got outside her house the car cut out and wouldn't start. Phoned the garage and hubby was told to put foot on clutch and push button to restart, to no avail. It was finally realised that the young man who put fuel in the car had petrol in the dielsel car. They have the car at the moment and have told us it will be fine by saturday and there will be no ill effects. Given that we have driven the car, unaware of the fuel problem, and the fuel has gone through the engine, injectors, fuel pump etc etc, where do we stand and what should we do???

tykesi

You stand wherever you need to be until it comes back on Saturday.

Let them fix it and ask for a full tank of diesel if they aren't doing that already.

Nobbie1967

I'd reject the car now unless they're going to warranty the fuel system for however long you intend to own it. The diesel is used to lubricate various parts of the fuel system and running petrol through it will potentially cause damage that although not immediately obvious may compromise the long term reliability.

loskie

If it were me I would look at rejecting the car due to the potential long term garage.
Manufacturers would void a warranty after misfueling so the potential for damage is well known.
https://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/advice/wrong-fuel-advice

lewishardwick

Reject! Unless they are going to replace some very expensive parts!

Petrol in a diesel car can cause some really nasty (and expensive) problems!

homerdog

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

I'd reject the car now unless they're going to warranty the fuel system for however long you intend to own it. The diesel is used to lubricate various parts of the fuel system and running petrol through it will potentially cause damage that although not immediately obvious may compromise the long term reliability.

That's what the AA man said. Thankyou

sheramber

A work colleague put petrol in her brand new diesel car when she picked it up from the garaage.

The car needed a new engine.

Muscle750

Get ready to start putting new injectors and a pump in it as the petrol will duff the seals in time

AnotherJoe

I agree, reject it. Call them today and say you either want an equivalent spec car or better, or the agreed value you were paying for the car refunded, but you are not accepting this car.

Once you accept it back, however good it seems, you will be in for a horrendous time trying to get recompense should issues arise later.

This is because you'd driven it for such a long while. Had they just put petrol in and then realised, that could be fixed, this is much worse because the petrol has been fully circulated.

I would not accept a warranty because suppose later the car develops an intermittent fault that the garage says isn't the fuel system? And what if the garage gets a new owner and they won't accept previous warranty ? It's a potential mess you don't need to get into.

m0bov

Theyve trashed the fuel system. Reject its not worth the hassle, make sure they prove a loan car whilst they source another car.

fiish

The car is likely to have suffered serious damage due to the dealer's negligence, so they are liable. There shouldn't be any dispute over a fault that occurs with 10 miles of driving. As earlier posters have mentioned, now that the misfuel has spread through the car's fuel system, you don't know whether it is possible to fix the car properly.