Wrong Fuel?

terrierlady

made a mistake and put wrong fuel in your car? many people do please be aware that your Breakdown company will not pay for a fuel drain and the costs will be around £150.
Today we have had 2 wrong fuel jobs and the people have been amazed at the basic charge.
It costs the garage money to dispose of the old fuel and I understand that some breakdown companies will not even pay for the call out charge as they consider it your fault ( which it is).

zacspeed_2

I used to work in vehicle rental, & the last person to dispense the wrong fuel into one of our vans was charged £380! She (yes, she) insisted that the vans fuel type had not been made clear enough. We put a bright red "DIESEL" tag on the keyring, a similar sticker on the outer fuel flap, one on the inner, one on the cap itself, it is clearly marked on the rental agreement & we verbally informed her of the fuel type. She actually rang the office from the filling station to check - we informed her she was to use the pump with the black hose - unless she was @ a Sainsburys station, in which case it would be yellow (cheers Sainsburys!) & she still ended up putting unleaded in it. Some people are beyond help!!!!!!!!!!

ArsenalFC

£150 to clean off the fuel is steep, no wonder people are suprised at the charge. I remember years ago (10yrs or so) my brother put in diesel for his unleaded car and had to pay £40 to get the system clean.

Ok it's 10 years later now, but it still too much to pay £150 imo. People should take much care when fuelling their vehicle as it will be a costly mistake and the inconvenient it would caused.

mrcow

Oops........I did this years and years ago in a brand new Vectra hire car.

The rental company told me it was a diesel, and I didn't bother checking the manual/petrol door

The car had only done 14 miles in it's entire life when I filled its unleaded fuel tank right up with diesel and then proceeded to drive it about 15 miles just to be sure to completely knacker it out. How I managed to get the diesel pump into the car I'll never know, as they are a different fit.

I was told that I'd ruined the catalytic converter and caused hundreds of pounds of damage....don't really know if that was true, or if the rental company were just hacked off with me?

ryobi-roy

does anyone know if it is possible to drain off the wrong fuel which i have put in my ford focus c-max? i.e:- petrol in a diesel

tonys_3

Rather than do that,if you did not put too much diesel in,you could fill it up wilth more petrol to reduce the petrol/diesel mix and run it,possibly topping it up after a few gallons to further dilute [?]the mixture.
I did this successfully some years ago,but these new zetec engines might not be as forgiving as the older engines.If you know a mechanic or you are a member of the AA or RAC,ask them how possible it would be.Obviously the lower the amount of diesel you filled the tank with,the better your chances of a successful result.

ryobi-roy

thanks for the reply tony but you have got it the wrong way round. i have put petrol in a diesel

Jem8472

I did not know you could get the wrong nozzel in the car, I thought they were different sizes to stop people filling up with the wrong fuel.

And as for ruining the catalytic converter, if you use anything apart from the correct fuel then yes you will ruin the catalytic converter, if you look in a petrol manual it says even bump starting it can do that!!!

skiddy2k

tonys wrote:

Rather than do that,if you did not put too much diesel in,you could fill it up wilth more petrol to reduce the petrol/diesel mix and run it,possibly topping it up after a few gallons to further dilute [?]the mixture.
I did this successfully some years ago,but these new zetec engines might not be as forgiving as the older engines.If you know a mechanic or you are a member of the AA or RAC,ask them how possible it would be.Obviously the lower the amount of diesel you filled the tank with,the better your chances of a successful result.

sounds logical to me, but a very expensive mistake if it doesnt work!!
Skiddy

ryobi-roy

thanks for all the help offered. i took it to a friend of a friends garage and he drained it out for me, didnt charge much, the hardest part was towing it there.
the thing about the nozzles is you cannot put a diesel nozzle in a petrol filler neck.

mrcow

ryobi-roy wrote:

the thing about the nozzles is you cannot put a diesel nozzle in a petrol filler neck.

Apparently not.....but....

I'm walking proof that you can