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However petrols are more tolerant to the mistake
Seems a shame then that the current arrangement of small nozzles for petrol and larger for diesel protects the wrong cars
Putting diesel in a petrol car isn't a problem - she'll run, but it won't sound very nice.
Putting petrol in a diesel and you're in trouble...
Seems a shame then that the current arrangement of small nozzles for petrol and larger for diesel protects the wrong cars
I guess it's just historic. Most cars were petrol, then diesels came along and became more popular in passenger cars so they had to produce a different noozle and couldn't make a smaller diameter nozzle??
On a different note, my skipper helpfully put a 10 litre jerrican full of two stroke in my 205 GTi at the end of the racing season a few years ago. I took the risk and topped it up with half a tank of unleaded, and it carried on. The plugs even stayed clean. 😳
Seems a shame then that the current arrangement of small nozzles for petrol and larger for diesel protects the wrong cars
I guess it's just historic. Most cars were petrol, then diesels came along and became more popular in passenger cars so they had to produce a different noozle and couldn't make a smaller diameter nozzle??
The switch to smaller nozzles for Petrol is pretty recent though
They should switch to a combination of nozzle shapes, but that makes them more expensive to make (car and pump) and would need to also be retro-compatible, which would require narrowing of the nozzles I suspect, which in turn would mean reducing flow rate or increasing foaming in the tank as it fills. None of which is good. Ultimately it's not their fault people are a bit forgetful.
Running a petrol engine on diesel can very quickly damage the engine, whereas running a diesel on petrol is far less likely to damage the engine (only time the engine would get damaged, is if the injector tips failed, but chances of that happening are slim). Fuel system failure is a risk on diesels, but the risk is greatly overplayed.
The reason for engine damage is diesel burns at a higher temperature than petrol, which the internals of a petrol engine aren't designed to handle. Typical symptoms are melted/cracked piston crowns, catalyst damage, and cylinder head/valve cracking.
there are two catches on the inside of the filler, because a petrol nozzle is smaller it can't physically push both these catches at the same time
Ford do the same. On the Focus at least, there's a ring that has to be expanded by the pump nozzle in order to yield access to the tank; a nozzle that's too small won't release the opening (and one that's too big won't fit at all, of course). The car comes with a little funnel you can use to override it if you get a non-standard nozzle (ie, you're overseas).