Stupidly this morning I wasn't concentrating at the fuel station.

I picked up the wrong vpower pump at the shell garage and put 20 quids worth of diesel in.

I should have known something was wrong when refueling was slow. Naively I thought I had broken the filler neck when shoving the pipe in.

I should have relooked at the vpower sticker on the pump. My paranoia over the evap canister got the better of me. I could have sworn I did relook at the pump. I obviously didn't see the diesel sign.

What a tool.

 

I paid for the fuel and drove four miles. I already had 80 miles worth of petrol in the car to start with.

I went about my business and got back in the car about an hour later. It wouldn't start. I pushed the button to start it, and it started, then cut out, with a message on the dash saying 'please start the car manually'.

I tried one more time, and it did the same again. I left it 5 minutes, went on google and I couldn't find the answer.

So I had 2 more attempts, and then the penny dropped.

I looked at the fuel receipt on the passenger seat. Clear as day - Shell vpower diesel.

That reminds me - I need a swear box for the car.

 

I called the AA and they sent out the Fuel Doctor. 2 hours I had to wait.

He shoved a flexible metal tube down the fuel filler neck and siphoned off all the diesel.

He disconnected the big pipe to the airbox, and he disconnected the fuel line to the hpfp and connected that to a tall plastic container/pump, so he could draw all the fuel out.

 

Once all the diesel had been sucked from the fuel tank, he tipped some petrol in from a jerry can.

He squirted some easy start in the air filter tube and then got in the car, pressing the start button a few times to prime the fuel pumps.

I could see fuel being pushed out into the container.

 

The fuel line was reconnected to the hpfp and he made 2 attempts to start the car. The first one immediately cut out, but the 2nd attempt ran for a few seconds before cutting out.

I got in the car and tried to start it, whilst he was squirting easy start in the air filter pipe. Eventually it ran smoothly, after i'd upped the revs.

 

The air filter pipework was put back together again, and the doctor sat in my car for a few minutes giving it some revs.

There was a little black smoke coming out of the exhaust to start with, but this eventually went completely.

 

200 quid lighter, I got my car back and drove home without issue. I think I've been lucky. And that's what the doctor said too.

 

I hope someone finds this info useful, because when I needed it, I couldn't find anything on the 'net relating to an idiot putting diesel in his petrol skoda.

And it was all fixed with the simplest of tools. I feel like I've had my pants pulled down and been slapped. 

 

 

 

Reassuring to know that a job like that can be done at the roadside, instead of having to be towed to a garage. Money aside, you were pretty lucky alright.

Better to have learned the lesson putting diesel in a petrol engine and not the other way around especially on a common rail diesel.

...I have put petrol into my diesel twice, in the ten years of ownership/150,000 miles. 

Apart from feeling like a berk, having to slash the cash to get the tank drained, along with the lost time and having to fuel up again, no lasting problem. The RAC do the draining, put  a can of clean fuel and a cleaning additive in, check it over and advise you to swap out the fuel filter. (Cheap and easy on my car). 

Both times, I was busting for a Sally and pulled up at the fuel depot where they sort of mirror the pumps. That is to say, as you reach the first set, they go petrol, super petrol, diesel, super diesel. Then drove through them to the second back and it all goes the other way, super diesel, diesel, super petrol, petrol. 

The lack of attention whilst bursting, meant I did not spot that and grabbed the wrong filler. 

Real lesson learned? If you need the toilet, go first, prior to filling up, then fill whilst relaxed!

 

Trying to think which garage brand it was, BP, I think  and why they alternate. If I was a sceptic, I would say to catch people out!

 

I just the other day helped a stranded elderly lady out, pushing her car across a major junction as she broke down right at the lights and made getting past a pain, in rush hour. After promoting her to se what may have happened, I discovered she too, had mis-fuelled. The penny had not yet dropped and she was calling the RAC at the time, amid furious road users. It was only after I asked if she had fuel and she said she just filled up, on her way home, I asked to see her receipt and she put diesel in her petrol car. I advised her to tell the RAC as they may send the wrong help, otherwise, doubling her wait. 

I also told her, when I did it, the mechanic told me he spends all day doing mis-fuelled vehicles and the stats are really and I do mean really high, for people doing it.

 

Still, keeps the Government in duty. 

Apparently, a little diesel in a petrol, you can just keep topping up again with petrol, which will thin out the diesel, drive 20 miles or so, top up, keep doing that. It will smoke a little but should be ok, driven gently. 

 

The big alarm bells you hear regarding damage, seem to be slightly over-egging the pudding. In most cases, you just come to a halt.

Edited 17 July, 20205 yr by mrgf

@mrgf  I know what a gipsy's kiss is, but "busting for a Sally" is lost on me? What's the rhyme?  

Bloody hell !

Sally Ash, Slash!

To me a Sally has always meant bursting forward.

32 minutes ago, Roottoot said:

To me a Sally has always meant bursting forward.

? Thats a weird one! Perhaps series from bursting for a leek. Is it just a Sally?  Cockney slang usually consists of two words, with only the first one given.. Sally, being Sally Ash- slash (Wee-Wee). Apples, being apples and pears - stairs and so on. The confusion was intentional.

Edited 18 July, 20205 yr by mrgf

Sally forth.  Sally on.  Sally along. 

Sally Ride Astronaut one of the fastest women on Earth or in Space at 17,000mph terminal velocity.

Edited 18 July, 20205 yr by shyVRS245
spelling mistake

I keep worrying that me for the other half will do the same!

 

We've driven exclusively diesels for around 12 years and now have a petrol again!

 

As above, it's worse if its petrol in a diesel. It shouldn't have done any damage at all.

I've only done it once in 40 years of driving.   The only saving grace was it was petrol in a works van not my car.  My extenuating circumstances  were it was 12 hours into a working day and my mind was elsewhere having recently learned my dad was teminally ill.

 

Didn't stop the work giving me a disciplinary warning for it though.  Never even realised. Filled up from 1/4 or 1/2 tank to full and drove 20 miles back to base and parked up.

 

3 years on I'm still double checking every time before starting to fill. 

I checked out cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk and found out that the slang for Škoda is "whiskey", as in whiskey and soda. Mockney. 

15 minutes ago, freelunch said:

I checked out cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk and found out that the slang for Škoda is "whiskey", as in whiskey and soda. Mockney. 

Thanks Tree Bunch.

We've had a petrol and a diesel for 16 years now, touch wood not done it either way.

After many years driving petrol cars (diesel was for tractors & lorries) I then switched to diesels & have recently switched back to petrol. Thankfully I've not managed to mis-fuel  - yet. 🤞

 

I can understand why petrol can be mistakenly put into a diesel tank because the petrol pump nozzle is a smaller diameter than the diesel filler. But I don't understand how diesel gets put into a petrol tank when the diesel pump nozzle diameter is larger so should not fit into a petrol filler neck. Am I right or wrong with my logic?    

14 hours ago, Colin170CR said:

After many years driving petrol cars (diesel was for tractors & lorries) I then switched to diesels & have recently switched back to petrol. Thankfully I've not managed to mis-fuel  - yet. 🤞

 

I can understand why petrol can be mistakenly put into a diesel tank because the petrol pump nozzle is a smaller diameter than the diesel filler. But I don't understand how diesel gets put into a petrol tank when the diesel pump nozzle diameter is larger so should not fit into a petrol filler neck. Am I right or wrong with my logic?    

 

I thought exactly the same 🤔.

 

Parents borrowed my diesel Cavalier company car back in the early 90's and filled it up for me as a kind gesture. Over the next few days the engine wasn't happy, it gargled and coughed a few times but still drove alright. I'd happened to mention this to them the following week, the reply came "did you say it's a diesel? "  No breakdowns or call outs or anything, I just filled up with diesel again. Of course that was in the early days, no emission tech on board etc, And that's when diesel pumps were located at side of the forecourt and you waited in line with the HGV's to fill up. Plastic gloves? it was a tetanus jag you needed whilst handling a derv pump back then

 

Needed a slash? Couldn't you have just pi55ed in to the add blu tank when you were filling up?

Edited 26 July, 20205 yr by Guest

My mind was obviously elsewhere when I was doing this - I was going to hospital for physio

The diesel nozzle does go in the filler neck, but not all the way in. I thought I had dislodged the housing in the filler neck which is why I carried on trying to get the fuel in.

Every now and then fueling would stop, so I persevered with the trigger until it got to about 20 quid and then I got fed up.

I picked up the 'vpower' pump, and it didn't even register that the pipe I was holding was black not green.

On 25/07/2020 at 19:56, Colin170CR said:

After many years driving petrol cars (diesel was for tractors & lorries) I then switched to diesels & have recently switched back to petrol. Thankfully I've not managed to mis-fuel  - yet. 🤞

 

I can understand why petrol can be mistakenly put into a diesel tank because the petrol pump nozzle is a smaller diameter than the diesel filler. But I don't understand how diesel gets put into a petrol tank when the diesel pump nozzle diameter is larger so should not fit into a petrol filler neck. Am I right or wrong with my logic?    

I don't know how they did it but I had a diesel focus and you couldn't get a petrol filler in there. I know because I had brain fade once and tried. Took me a while to realise what I was doing wrong.

Why can Ford do this but not other manufacturers?

Ah yes. They have some sort of mechanism called Easy Fuel. It's also a capless design so no fuel cap to screw on and off.

 

Depending of the nozzle inserted it either opens or doesn't. So it's no possible to fill with the wrong fuel.