[Closed] Oh cr@p - petrol, meet diesel 🙁

Just realised that, although I'd gone to a garage I use quite a bit, I used a different pump than usual and it had unleaded on the left and premium diesel on the right - all their other pumps have normal diesel on the left and unleaded on the right.
I must have just reached for the left hand hose.

Did the same : ( fluid extractor ftw but I've got no idea how to separate petrol from the diesel now

but I've got no idea how to separate petrol from the diesel now

You don't, well not without access to bits of an oil refinery which may prove slightly more costly than just disposing of the stuff.

[i]the AA arrived in 25 mins, but that's £200 gone[/i]

You must have a huge fuel tank.

I did this, but probably only 10 litres of unleaded. I topped it up with 60 litres of diesel and kept topping it up every 50 miles or so for a couple of weeks. No problems since 🙂

AA will want £120 for the fuel removal and if you add the cost of the petrol lost, you get there more or less.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/todays-top-tip#post-4618103

Yeah I was debating whether to top up with diesel and risk it but the ratio was too high. Plus I've just found out that my car has saddle tanks with a transfer pump in between which makes draining the tank rather more tricky than usual.
AA fuel assist bloke has just spent 50 mins getting the fuel out with proper kit.

Done it too!

Did think of siphoning it off myself, but didn't really know what to do with 10 gallons or so of petrol/diesel mix. Just easier calling the AA etc.

I'd brimmed the tank from empty and the car even made it back home.

I didn't think you could get the nozzle in nowadays. is that not true?

I always remember if I'm driving a normal petrol car nowadays because it feels like I'm wringing the nuts off it when I'm driving. Anything over 3000rpm feels like I'm in a race 😉

The AA charge for fuel removal if you're a member?

yep.

BUT they dont charge for a relay instead.

Then when it's relayed home [i]you arrange for a certified garage to remove and dispose of the contaminated fuel. Oh yes.[/i]

I put diesel into my old car. Just a few litres though. Filled the rest of the tank with unleaded and just crossed my fingers. Luckily had no problems.

Chaps, if you are going to do the good old - top up the tank trick, please please please stick some lubricity additive in the tank as well - OR at LEAST use VPOWER or Ultimate type fuels as they will have a greater amount of detergents and lubricity additves present. Without these you will kill your pumps..

Just changed my car and first thing I bought for it was a misfueling device http://dieselhead.co.uk/ Owning a petrol and a diesel it's almost inevitable that I'll make the mistake sometime.

Your insurance often covers you for this in the same way as it does for glass - no effect on no claims. Worth a go. Also if it was a BP garage they sometimes cough up as they have in the past admitted that their pumps look very similar.

I got away with about 50/50 diesel to petrol mix in a diesel car, it ran from the first grage where I put the diesel in at about 80-90% petrol, it ran rough though, but was only about 3 miles.

At 50/50 it did not feel a great deal different.

Also if it was a BP garage they sometimes cough up as they have in the past admitted that their pumps look very similar.

They've recently re-fitted all of the pumps by me with green = petrol and black = diesel instead of the old blue = petrol.

My brother managed to fill his van with petrol and run it for a few miles in France, turns out that although they removed all the petrol from the van and refilled with diesel not long after it needed all the injectors and seals replacing 🙁

I got away with about 50/50 diesel to petrol mix in a diesel car

I have done about 20k since, car now at 140k.

Fiat JTD Multipla... rest of car is in tatters, but still abmling along, even got my best ever fuel consumtion on Sunday at 45MPG fully loaded up.

Somouk's brother did not get away with it by the sound of it, so guess I was lucky, or all diesels are not equal.

It can be a killer. A few weeks ago a guy on the Merc forum I lurk on filled up his new CLS estate diesel with petrol......£6750 later....

Tsk, that’s nothing – when I was at university I worked for three years in a Tesco petrol station. One of blokes who worked there didn’t check the fuel lines correctly and cross-contaminated the tanks. Fortunately no customers were affected, but it cost a fair amount:

• The cost of emptying the tanks
• The cost of decontaminating the tanks
• The cost of the lost fuel
• The cost of the additional fuel required to fill the tanks
• The cost of the lost custom from the pumps having to be shut down whilst the situation was sorted

I think it was worked out at about £65,000...

Customers accidentally refuelling with the wrong stuff was [i]really[/i] common. I remember one bloke having a massive rant because of our ‘faulty nozzles’ which had spilled petrol all over him. We had to point out that he was trying to put diesel in an unleaded car, which was the problem – the nozzle was too big to fit in. He looked a bit sheepish and apologised – his usual car was diesel, but he was refilling a courtesy car...

But if you get the contaminated diesel/petrol mix from the AA man it'll go fine in a petrol car.

And this was from the RAC man who drained my wife's car after I'd stuck petrol in it... So I just chucked it in my Beemer. Didn't notice a difference.

soo easy to do, i done it myself last week

corsa d on the red put £20 petrol in and did not realise till a mile down the road when it started to run a little rough limped back to the garage brimmed it with fuel and then drove 200 miles topped it up again and now its running fine.

deff lucky that day

Triangular nozzles for Diesel and Square nozzels for Petrol - wouldn't take that much to impliment surely?

But if you get the contaminated diesel/petrol mix from the AA man it'll go fine in a petrol car.

And this was from the RAC man who drained my wife's car after I'd stuck petrol in it... So I just chucked it in my Beemer. Didn't notice a difference

thats a massive sweeping staitment that could cause ALOT of damage (more than just a deisel pump or injectors on a deisel car)

Deisel has a really low octain rating vs petrol this means that its ability to supress detenation, pre ignition or pinking (all mean the same thing in essence) is reduced put diesel into a turbo charged petrol engine put your foot down and it will det like **** cause hot spots and melt the pistons.

£200

! 😯

I did this last year, and local garage charged me £50 plus new tank of fuel.

Refuelling scared the crap out of me on honeymoon in the US last month; diesel is green, unleaded is black... eek!

Did the same as OP, but it was a works van so as well as having to phone in to get someone to come and pick me I up, I had to go to the Big Boss and explain.
😳

I did this last year, and local garage charged me £50 plus new tank of fuel.

Maybe you should let people know what the garage is so they can take advantage of this deal too?

I've done the same on a hire car I might add, twas early morning and I was tired after a long drive before giving the car back.. dunno how much it cost as the company picked up the bill. I should really know better..

Octane rating on Diesel BTW is around 8-20 depending on diesel type, petrol/gasoline is the same on Cetane. the other key thing to remember here is the flash point - Gasoline is minus 40c and diesel is around +60c - you shouldn't mix them as you create volatile compounds - or for a better term Napalm (well a version of it anyway)..

I\t's not that hard to do yourself. You can just pull out the fuel line from before the filter and suck away (then let gravity do it's bit), or if you have a pump (preferably not the cars), then you can draw it through the tank from that. Syphoning is hard to do these days because of anti syphon devices installed on most cars.

Oh sorry to add- if you have done it you can reclaim the duty from the fuel through HMRC if you produce a waste disposal certificate (the company should give you one of these) - this will help you offset the cost of the loss.

It can be a killer. A few weeks ago a guy on the Merc forum I lurk on filled up his new CLS estate diesel with petrol......£6750 later....

I\t's not that hard to do yourself. You can just pull out the fuel line from before the filter and suck away (then let gravity do it's bit), or if you have a pump (preferably not the cars), then you can draw it through the tank from that. Syphoning is hard to do these days because of anti syphon devices installed on most cars.

But what do you do with the 10 gallons or so of fuel you've drained off?

[i]But what do you do with the 10 gallons or so of fuel you've drained off? [/i]

See above. Put it in a petrol car - a few gallon at a time.

Fortunately no customers were affected, but it cost a fair amount:

• The cost of emptying the tanks
• The cost of decontaminating the tanks
• [b]The cost of the lost fuel
• The cost of the additional fuel required to fill the tanks[/b]
• The cost of the lost custom from the pumps having to be shut down whilst the situation was sorted

You've double counted there - the new fuel wasn't a cost of the screw up, as it was sold to customers. Only the tainted fuel was a cost. [/accountant]

[i]soo easy to do,... [/i]

Welllll, it's not really though is it. Green pump or black pump? Can't say I've ever got confused!

Welllll, it's not really though is it. Green pump or black pump? Can't say I've ever got confused!

no it is an easy mistake just one you have never made.

when you own a petrol and a deisel car its easy to have a moment of non concentration and in that moment to pick up the wrong pump, i doubt many people do it because there ''confused'' which type of fuel to use.

Not sure how true, but I'm sure some cars have a fuel pump that kicks when the drivers door opens...(Focus?).
Certainly shouldn't put the keys in the ignition to check the level, as that would probably make the pump run momentatlrily.

Not an issue for a £10 of fuel a time skinflint like me. 🙂

My Fiesta has a Anti misfuel filler neck so it will only take Diesel. Works fine till the pumps are busy and you can't do the old trick of stretching the pump over the "wrong" side as the spout only goes in straight.

Had the pump stuck a few times and panicked at first but needs lifting then pulling out.

I've put diesel in my old VW Polos but only a few quids worth and they just smoke a bit on tickover but they are old cars so no sensors to gunge up with the wrong fuel.

[i]I didn't think you could get the nozzle in nowadays. is that not true?[/i]

Diesel won't go into a petrol filler (normally) but the diddy petrol one will fit into a diesel.

I demonstrated this to my wife when we switched to a petrol car, and then confused the pump/staff as we'd lifted both nozzles and had to stand there like idiots for a few minutes whilst they worked out how to switch the pump back on 😀

The wife did this once. Since then one of these has been fitted http://www.fuelsure.com/index.html

Diesel won't go into a petrol filler (normally) but the diddy petrol one will fit into a diesel.

Modern Fords have a lock ring on the filler which prevents this; a too-small nozzle won't open the ring wide enough to release the flap and allow the pump to be inserted. #InnuendoBingo