Idiot!!

Same story in our D3 (MY08). Wife filled it up from empty with unleaded. Drove off and the car stopped 2KM down the road. She got it started again and drove it another 2km - it stopped again. She got it started yet again and drove it home where it stopped for the final time. Low and High pressure fuel pumps plus all injectors completely cactus.

All parts and labour just over $11K (cost me $400 in excess on my insurance)

Dealer said it was pretty common, but most people realise before leaving the servo, the rest figure it out when the car stops, but he had never heard of someone getting the car going again after it stopped itself - twice! Hence he also reported not ever having seen one so badly damaged.

We now have our D4 and a diesel Passat but I insist on filling both cars, and I double check before I pull the trigger!

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Originally Posted by DanW

Same story in our D3 (MY08). Wife filled it up from empty with unleaded. Drove off and the car stopped 2KM down the road. She got it started again and drove it another 2km - it stopped again. She got it started yet again and drove it home where it stopped for the final time. Low and High pressure fuel pumps plus all injectors completely cactus. All parts and labour just over $11K (cost me $400 in excess on my insurance) Dealer said it was pretty common, but most people realise before leaving the servo, the rest figure it out when the car stops, but he had never heard of someone getting the car going again after it stopped itself - twice! Hence he also reported not ever having seen one so badly damaged. We now have our D4 and a diesel Passat but I insist on filling both cars, and I double check before I pull the trigger!

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Your lucky your insurance paid out.

My previous policy and current one cover fuel contamination, but specifically exclude petrol being put into a diesel vehicle. Nearly died when I read that when my wife put petrol into about diesel Touareg. My car was ok though. I guess it starting again is what caused the damage.

And my wife too is not allowed to fill either car anymore.

Brett.....

We had 2 D4D vehicles destroyed (engine) by Engineers filling them with Petrol and driving to the mines...

They get rather unhappy!

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Originally Posted by LGM

This happened around 12 month back.

So there I am standing in the servo fuel gun in hand hand click goes the 'don't put that in there' thingy. Like the bright intelligent bloke I am, I scratch my head and continue to try to trickle the fuel into the tank. Mind you I did check and I definitely had hold of the diesel pump. One of the servo staff comes over to see what is going on (probably heard my very descriptive comments and saw my arms waiving about). Between us we give up and I drive home with a small amount of fuel in the tank.

If all else fails read the instructions! Ah!!! the mis-fueling device. :o

I scrabble around in the glove box and find the ''yellow doover'' for fixing the problem and sure enough click and all is good or so it seems.

Back to the servo for fuel. This time I check that I have the diesel pump and stick the diesel nozzle into the opening.

Then 'click' and :censored: me if I can't fuel the vehicle.

The staff member comes out again and suggests that its a Land Rover and I should expect problems. While I am listening to his view on every thing european the penny drops.

The diesel nozzle at this bowser has been fitted with a ULP spout! I point this out to the staff member who then goes silent. We both check the other pumps and sure enough its only this particular hand piece that is incorrectly fitted with the ULP spout. I then make comment that the vehicle is doing what it was designed to do and protect both itself and the nut behind the wheel from making a grave mistake.

So whilst I have not stuck ULP in the tank (touch wood) you really do need to look carefully when at the servo as they are not the be all and end all of correctness! ;)

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I've found the same at a couple of small country stations in my travels. While the attendant didn't regale me his/her views on Euro cars, they also didn't care less that the nozzle was 'wrong'...:)

We have about the same situation over here; small towns and local norms it seems.

The locals really do not care about big city concerns; in fact you kind of get the notion that you really do not belong here in town and things are just fine the way they are. You certainly know you are an outsider.

The colour of the fuel nozzle handle cover does not really matter; whatever is handy and for the most part, there is not a plastic cover installed at all, (well perhaps pieces of one). Again, it is the view that coloured covers are a big city thing.

These days, fitting all the pumps with a small diameter spout seems to be more the norm as small fits all; in the past, it was the large diameter everywhere and you were expected to knock out the filler restriction if you had a "new" vehicle.

With most vehicles here being petrol, about all that happens is that the petrol grades get mixed up in the storage tanks. As a driver of a premium unleaded vehicle, you figure you maybe got a load of water. If it really is water and the winter, the gas line freezes and you are soon stopped. You haul the vehicle off to a heated shop and all works fine; then you drive outside and it runs until it stops again.

The first fix is to pour methanol into the gas tank to absorb the water as draining is never easy. Also a pint of methanol with every tank full in the winter can be good practice. If you can, it is also a good idea as a matter of routine, to fill up when the tank gets to about half empty as insurance against a full tank of wet or off spec fuel.

Thanks to all who contributed and it's good to know that I'm not alone but more impressed that it looks like I got away with it.

Modern cars are all soft...
When I went travelling in a 200Tdi Defender, it was normal practice to pull into the petrol station, put in 100lts of diesel and the drive to the petrol pump and stick in another 20 litres of petrol. At -20c, that was the only way to improve the antifreeze properties of the diesel.
Had absolutely no issues at all - car ran fine with no obvious side effects - in fact, performance felt slightly better.

What damage exactly are you expecting? And why would you need injectors rebuilt?

Thoughts?
Ian.

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Originally Posted by roobar_and_custard

Modern cars are all soft...
When I went travelling in a 200Tdi Defender, it was normal practice to pull into the petrol station, put in 100lts of diesel and the drive to the petrol pump and stick in another 20 litres of petrol. At -20c, that was the only way to improve the antifreeze properties of the diesel.
Had absolutely no issues at all - car ran fine with no obvious side effects - in fact, performance felt slightly better.

What damage exactly are you expecting? And why would you need injectors rebuilt?

Thoughts?
Ian.

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Have a look at one of the other replies, all injectors and both fuel pumps and that's what the repairer said was a possibility.

You may be right but the modern ones are also "harder"..

Harder acceleration
Harder pulling power

:)

Just to allay some fears.

If the nozzles get swapped, the trigger won't start a fuel flow. This is because the actual diesel nozzle that remains in the petrol position holds the emergency stop flap in. To put the wrong fuel in a tank requires the wrong nozzle in your tank and the wrong pump has to have an empty nozzle receptacle.