Young Lady having a bad day

[Ean Austral]

Gday All,

Call into the petrol station today , and as I was only picking up some ice I parked next to a new Pajero Sport with dealer plates, I get out to find a young lady in tears, and her hand shaking to much to dial the numbers on her phone. Thru the tears I gathered that she put the wrong fuel in and realised once she moved the car.

Not sure if my words calmed her any , but she managed to call someone and when I returned I asked if she wanted me to wait with her but she declined. I hung around till one of the mechanics arrived but he seemed pretty casual with it so I drove off.

I guessing just a tank drain as I don't think she drove it very far.


Cheers Ean

[Gordie]

Nice of you to take the time to care. Well done.

[loanrangie]

Seems to be all too common Ean with the amount of diesel cars on the road now, they really should make the nozzles and fillers so that they cant be mixed up.

[Gordie]

Seems to be all too common Ean with the amount of diesel cars on the road now, they really should make the nozzles and fillers so that they cant be mixed up.Yes...when I started 'pumping gas'....each bowser was separate and dispensed a different product....now you get diesel and 3 grades of petrol out of one bowser....so one has to be pretty careful about which nozzle one chooses.

[pop058]

Seems to be all too common Ean with the amount of diesel cars on the road now, they really should make the nozzles and fillers so that they cant be mixed up.

I thought they were.

[trout1105]

I thought they were.

You can't get the larger diesel nozzle into a petrol tank But the smaller petrol nozzle fits nicely in a diesel tank [bigwhistle]

[Sitec]

I thought they were.

They are on Euro cars.... Ford and VW have an 'easi fuel' filler with a flap that wont let a larger diesel nozzle fit a petrol vehicle and vice versa.. That said, they're all pretty well labeled..

[Hall]

My daughter has just recently brought a diesel car. I think she has got the idea that it is not a good thing to put the wrong fuel in. I had a chat with her on the subject ( hopefully put the fear of god into her re mixing fuel ) Car does sound diesel which is a good thing as it is a constant reminder. Also inside the fuel cap recess is a warning label.
Cheers Hall

[POD]

Did she put 'High Flow' diesel in it?

[crash]

I know more than one person that has accidentally put petrol into a diesel - and both have been motoring for many many years - both with diesels and petrol vehicles. It only takes a bit of distraction to put the wrong fuel in - particularly if you own both a diesel and a petrol vehicle. Both people that I know noticed before they put too much in.

At least that lady realised her mistake soon after the event.

Good on you for offering assistance.

[Ean Austral]

Some of the people at work reckon I am a cold hearted bugger , but I didn't want to put the young lady under anymore stress by probing questions

my guess is she put unleaded in the Deisel car . I know that station and they are side by side , most likely distracted by Mr mobile phone and grabbed the handpiece she normally would . But that is a guess.

cheers Ean

[cripesamighty]

I almost got caught out when filling up at a different servo to the several ones I regularly use. The colour of the diesel pump handles at my regular servo's is black and through force of habit picked up the black pump handle at the new servo, only it turned out to be premium unleaded. Lucky I always double check the pump before starting to fill up as (although pretty hardy) I don't think Tdi's do so well with 3/4 of a tank of petrol in them. Reminded me not to be too complacent!

[p38arover]

The diesel nozzles at my locals have a secondary lever that has to be depressed to dispense fuel. It wouldn't help in this case.

[Bearman]

I would definitely not say you are cold hearted Ean.

[rar110]

Easy to do, and all our cars are diesel. I say that as I nearly put petrol in my wife's diesel car. Just got distracted when I picked up the nozzle. Luckily noticed the nozzle was the wrong colour before I pulled the trigger.

[1950landy]

I've been to a couple of servo's where the somebody has swaped the nozels so the unleaded one was hung up on the diesel pump & vice verser. Supose they think it is funny people putting the wrong fuel in there car. I always make sure the nozel & hose goese to to the type of fuel I require.

[Tins]

Well done for looking out for her, Ean.

The mistake is all too easy to make, when you are distracted, or cars aren't your thing. It's worse when it's easy to put petrol in a diesel, where the damage can be severe, and hard to put diesel in a petrol car, which isn't quite so bad. ( I'll qualify that by saying I have no idea what damage it can do to modern injected petrol cars. In the carby and early injected days all it meant was that the car wouldn't run.)

[AllTerr]

They should make one square, and the other round...

[SBD4]

I've been to a couple of servo's where the somebody has swaped the nozels so the unleaded one was hung up on the diesel pump & vice verser. Supose they think it is funny people putting the wrong fuel in there car. I always make sure the nozel & hose goese to to the type of fuel I require.
Fortunately that 'clever' trick will never get the wrong fuel delivered to the tank as lifting the nozzle is what activates the pump so, if the nozzle is on the wrong pump, it will never flow as the pump it belongs to still has nozzle holstered on it..... If that all makes sense. Still, it doesn't hurt to be OCD about it, I am!

[Lee Jackson]

Last week at a BP servo I noticed an Ad Blue Pump. I asked the cashier and said why the pump as I thought you don't need a lot of it. She said why then told me of a guy who filled his car up with ad blue. Didn't get too far.

I am hopefully going to have my first Diesel car soon so I think i will get a sticker and put it in the fuel filler as a reminder to me. With the busy world we live in it is so easy to get distracted. I did get told though on euro cars you cant put Unleaded in a Diesel. Either the nozzle wont fit or it has a sensor that detects. I am not sure.

[weeds]

I've done it twice.....and I have only owned diesel cars for the 15 years....the wife cars have been petrol.

1st time I realized the mistakes and push the car way from the bowser

2nd in a rush, the fuel car was rejected so I paid cash, 24km later I tried to restart the car and it wouldn't.....I looked at the receipt with the gut felling I just dropped 60L petrol into a 70L diesel tank. Toyota were amazed I got so far.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

at least one brand (caltex) call their 98 and diesel the same, Vortex. surprising it doesnt happen more,,

[cripesamighty]

And they didnt have consistent colours on their handles between stations too. That was what almost caught me out.

[trout1105]

I inadvertently put 20l of petrol into the missus's diesel Hilux because I had stupidly put petrol into a diesel jerry (Yellow one) and didn't notice until too late.
Easy fix? NO.
There is no drain plug (That I could find) in the plastic tank and there is a plastic mesh moulded onto the filler at the top of the tank so I couldn't siphon out the fuel.
I ended up drilling a tech screw into the bottom of the tank to drain it and replaced the screw when I finished, It is still there and hasn't leaked [biggrin]
I didn't start the engine so no damage done but what a PITA.

[BMKal]

Did she put 'High Flow' diesel in it?

Or maybe "turbo" diesel...................... [bigwhistle]

[jonesfam]

Just a couple of weeks ago we had 2 X couples in one of those hire camper truck things pull up & put almost a full tank of Opal into it. They bloke realised just before it clicked off.
He fully admitted it was his fault because he was chatting to someone next to him.

They were in a panic because it was a hire camper. We did our best to help them out & the 2 blokes got stuck in, drained the tank, emptied the fuel lines & poured diesel into the tank & then re-drained it.

We put them up overnight & gave them some tools & stuff to use so by the next day they had the thing running as advertised.

They were really nice folks, paid for everything & then gave us $50 for our trouble. I said don't bother with the $50 we were just happy to help. The bloke then went & spent the $50 on stuff for our spoilt kids.

We usually have someone fill with the wrong fuel 2 or 3 times a tourist season. Our ULP is labeled Opal which confuses people & 2 of our pumps are pre-paid (have to come in & pay before you can pump) so, although we have signs on the pumps, people who want to fill pull up at the pre-paid pumps, when the pump won't activate they get stressed & make errors.

I wonder if the camper people made it to Darwin?

Jonesfam

[Tins]

Last week at a BP servo I noticed an Ad Blue Pump. I asked the cashier and said why the pump as I thought you don't need a lot of it. She said why then told me of a guy who filled his car up with ad blue. Didn't get too far.

I am hopefully going to have my first Diesel car soon so I think i will get a sticker and put it in the fuel filler as a reminder to me. With the busy world we live in it is so easy to get distracted. I did get told though on euro cars you cant put Unleaded in a Diesel. Either the nozzle wont fit or it has a sensor that detects. I am not sure.

Think she was telling porkies. AdBlue pumps need a magnet device in the neck of the tank or they won't deliver. It cam be a PITA, but it's better than putting the stuff in your fuel tank.

[Ratel10mm]

The only time I put petrol in a diesel, I luckily realised before I pulled away.
The mechanic that sorted it told me that you can have up to 25% petrol in a diesel & effectively all it does is increase the octane rating. So your Astra / Escort van goes faster. :D

Do NOT put diesel in a petrol, he said.

I had a MkIV Golf tdi company car several years ago.
My wife dropped me off at the airport one day.
That evening I got a phone call.
"There's something wrong with your car. I put petrol in at Reading on my way home and it started getting rough as I got to the M25.
I managed to get home but I don't think I should drive it further."
Me: "Odd. It was serviced a couple of weeks ago. Oh. Hang on, what did you put in it?"
"I told you. Petrol."

So thinking she's up for around £4K for repairs, off it goes to VW.

They drained it, checked it. And...



It was perfect. No danage at all. They and I were astonished. My wife was very relieved! Lol

So, a MkIV golf diesel can survive running on petrol. :)


LPG is much worse.
First day on my first Australian job. I'm issued a Falcon ute.
I get to the petrol station & open the fuel cap.
What the heck is this???? I can see screw threads & a valve arrangement, but neither petrol or diesel bowsers have this style of nozzle.
Call the boss.
"It's LPG Matt"
"What?"
"LPG. Don't you have that in the UK?"

As it happens, at the time there were 4 BP's in London that had LPG. Pretty much only some Councils used it, and you couldn't order a LPG only vehicle.
So far as I know, it's still rare.

Mates in the U.K. were blown away as much that I was driving a 4L straight 6, and it was considered perfectly normal than it was LPG only ex factory.

[Mick themungrel]

Think she was telling porkies. AdBlue pumps need a magnet device in the neck of the tank or they won't deliver. It cam be a PITA, but it's better than putting the stuff in your fuel tank.

Most Adblue pumps have the magnet on the nozzle or hanging on a cable, so it is possable for people to put Adblue in the main tank. 50m is a bout the accepted distance to get. Blocks the fuel filter solid, if you are lucky.

[AndyG]

You would think it would be possible to engineer a sensor that detects the wrong fuel type and shut down the pump

[FisherX]

Here's a good fifth gear video on the subject.

Putting Petrol Into A Diesel Car #TBT - Fifth Gear - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL9-i9tcESU)

and do you know what AdBlue is? "Aqueous Urea Solution 32.5%" and you know what urea is! I'd hate to be the farmer that milks his cows for that [tonguewink]

[Eevo]

You would think it would be possible to engineer a sensor that detects the wrong fuel type and shut down the pump


issue is cost

[Clip]

They are on Euro cars.... Ford and VW have an 'easi fuel' filler with a flap that wont let a larger diesel nozzle fit a petrol vehicle and vice versa.. That said, they're all pretty well labeled..
My diesel Rangie has a shut-off flap that, allegedly, also activates if you put an unleaded nozzle in the diesel filler neck. Then there's a special tool that tool comes with the car to release it, should be in that situation of trying to fill your diesel with petrol.

[S3ute]

You can buy a replacement fuel cap that fits the diesel filler and prevents a petrol hose going into it. They cost about $60 - auto clubs used to sell them.

I have one if anyone is interested. I bought it for a new Volvo XC60 but it came with a preventative barrier already installed.

Cheers,

Neil

[Tins]

Most Adblue pumps have the magnet on the nozzle or hanging on a cable, so it is possable for people to put Adblue in the main tank. 50m is a bout the accepted distance to get. Blocks the fuel filter solid, if you are lucky.

Sure, but it's a two step process, and thus should make you think.

Yeah. Urea is a PITA if it is allowed to 'set'.

[Tins]

and do you know what AdBlue is? "Aqueous Urea Solution 32.5%" and you know what urea is! I'd hate to be the farmer that milks his cows for that [tonguewink]

I thought it mostly came from pigs, but hey, still the same stuff I guess. They charge up to $4 a litre if you buy it in 10 litre bottles. 70c if you buy it in 1000 litre pallecons.

Also great fun if you can't get it, which is the case over most of Aus, and run out. The Scania I drove had 730 HP, and would de-rate down to about 550 if there was no AdBlue. And don't think you can trick it by simply adding water.

[V8Ian]

And don't think you can trick it by simply adding water.
Carton of barbed wire beer and make your own. [bigwhistle]

[Pedro_The_Swift]

How can you run out?
its just a fuel?

[V8Ian]

It's not a fuel Pedro, it's an exhaust gas treatment. The size of the ad blue tank generally does not correlate to the size of the fuel capacity. Rule of thumb says 1 litre of ad blue for each 10 of diesel. Not all servos have ad blue bowsers.

[pop058]

It's not a fuel Pedro, it's an exhaust gas treatment. The size of the ad blue tank generally does not correlate to the size of the fuel capacity. Rule of thumb says 1 litre of ad blue for each 10 of diesel. Not all servos have ad blue bowsers.

Do they (DEFs) actually improve your fuel economy of just improve emissions.

[V8Ian]

Purely effect emissions.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

It's not a fuel Pedro, it's an exhaust gas treatment. The size of the ad blue tank generally does not correlate to the size of the fuel capacity. Rule of thumb says 1 litre of ad blue for each 10 of diesel. Not all servos have ad blue bowsers.

no, for the sake of this arguement, de-rating engines, its a fuel,, and a professional driver should manage it as such,,

so you guys just drive off into the horizen not knowing when the truck will de-rate itself?
seriously?
wow,,













































[bigrolf]

[donh54]

The R730 I was driving would get about 3 tanks of diesel to 1 of adblue. The adblue light would come on when you had enough left for about 100 kms by memory. We used to keep a 10 litre bottle in the trailer toolbox "just in case"

[V8Ian]

no, for the sake of this arguement, de-rating engines, its a fuel,, and a professional driver should manage it as such,,

so you guys just drive off into the horizen not knowing when the truck will de-rate itself?
seriously?
wow,,
Availability is the issue Pedro, technology is ahead of retail.

[Pickles2]

I "nearly" did this myself. We were travelling to S.A., & got to this servo in Nurioopta (I think). Anyway it was a BP, very busy, they were having renos on the driveway, some pumps not working etc, so big delay to get fuel, and several people taking ages to get out of their car, muck around operating the pump etc. Not good.
Anyway, I eventually get to the pump, start to put fuel in, when wifey yells out "STOP" in a loud voice. Luckily, I'd only put in 1.5L of petrol, so no worries, but I was very lucky.
Talking to a friend who owns an ultra tune center, He said they get a few calls a week to drain tanks etc. He said the problem is with the location of the bowsers, where the diesel pump used to have its own location, but not any more.
So now I'm extra careful, to check I've got the right fuel.
Pickles.

[solmanic]

It's not a fuel Pedro, it's an exhaust gas treatment. The size of the ad blue tank generally does not correlate to the size of the fuel capacity. Rule of thumb says 1 litre of ad blue for each 10 of diesel. Not all servos have ad blue bowsers.

Whoah! That doesn't seem right. I get almost all the way between services before needing to top up on AdBlue which equates to around 1l Adblue to 135l fuel. And it's only around $1/litre at the pump. Regular cars & 4WDs are not however, recommended to fill from the bowser (not sure why) so I buy the 10l bottles.

[Eevo]

. He said the problem is with the location of the bowsers, where the diesel pump used to have its own location, but not any more.


due to the number of diesel passenger cars, "petrol" stations are installing more diesel pumps, generally right next to the petrol pump

[Eevo]

AdBlue converts harmful NOx from your diesel vehicle exhaust into harmless nitrogen and steam, therefore considerably reducing the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) that are a major source of atmospheric pollution and that lead to smog in urban centres.




The injection rate depends on the specific after-treatment system, but is typically 2–6% of diesel consumption volume

[V8Ian]

Whoah! That doesn't seem right. I get almost all the way between services before needing to top up on AdBlue which equates to around 1l Adblue to 135l fuel. And it's only around $1/litre at the pump. Regular cars & 4WDs are not however, recommended to fill from the bowser (not sure why) so I buy the 10l bottles.
I'm going on what I was advised when taking a Volvo road train from Perth to Darwin, a route that, at the time, had no ad blue bowsers and limited bottled supplies. All other ad blue trucks I have driven have been from an un-metered in-house bowser.

[Old Farang]

Not too sure how Adblue can be called a fuel. The following has a good description:

AdBlue: What diesel vehicle owners need to know (https://www.rix.co.uk/blog/2016/7/adblue-what-diesel-vehicle-owners-need-to-know/)

[Pedro_The_Swift]

call it what you like,, call it bananas,, but when it runs out,, your million dollar truck runs like ****,,,