I'm a total idiot!

[AndyMac]

Just put £15 of unleaded in my wifes TDi!
This is after reading a post on here a few days ago about the confusion surrounding the colour coding of diesel/petrol pumps.
So then put another £38 of diesel in, which apparently sinks to the bottom and car is running fine.
My question is what do I do next apart from not letting the tank get below half full?
Will the problem eventually resolve itself, or do I need to syphon off the unleaded?
Will the unleaded eventually mix with the diesel to such a degree that it'll get used up or will it sit on top forever?

 

[gizze]

It will mix with the diesel virtually straight away mate, within a mile I would have thought it will be completely mixed.

Your main problem is how abrasive the unleaded fuel is compared with diesel, I can't see there being any short term problems but you may get problems later on with your cats etc.
I would say you need to fill up with diesel everytime you can get another fivers worth in to get it diluted as much as possible if you don't want to drain the tank and replace the fuel filters.

What petrol station was it?
If it was BP and you put ultimate unleaded in BP will cover all costs by the way.

 

[gizze]

Just thinking about it, 25% unleaded is a high percentage, I put just under 10 litres in our ML270cdi and then filled it up with diesel and aviation oil (to help lubricate the mixture a bit), but that was an 80 odd litre tank so the percentage was around 12% and I started having problems with that, engine light coming on and the car shutting down etc.

You may be better to get it drained as long as you have not done too many miles already.

 

[AndyMac]

Thanks Gizze
Yes I only drove 0.5mile to get home and now the car won't start.
It was BP ultimate unleaded, with the stupid blue handle. Have you anymore info on claiming for the damage?

 

[dickys3]

I think you can get away with approx 10% of unleaded in a diesel. Anymore than this I think you will have problems.

As it wont start, I would syphon out the fuel, change the fuel filter and put some diesel in and give it another try.

This happened to my brother the other week and once we did this, it worked fine.

He filled his car up with unleaded (mk3 Golf Diesel) and he drove it until he broke down! He then realised what he had done and was expecting a big bill. Guess he was lucky!

Good luck
Rich.

 

[gizze]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Gizze
Yes I only drove 0.5mile to get home and now the car won't start.
It was BP ultimate unleaded, with the stupid blue handle. Have you anymore info on claiming for the damage?

[/ QUOTE ]

Just call BP customer service and tell them, they sent me a cheque for just short of £500 for our ML and covered my Dads S-Class costs when he did it (first time he has ever done it in over 40years of driving and he does 50k miles a year) and I hate to think what that cost, they drained the tank, replaced the fuel filters and the cats, so probably £3k+.

 

[AndyMac]

Well I filed my claim with BP, and nipped down to the filling station and took some photo's of the pump in question. If I'd pulled up at any of the other pumps on the forecourt it wouldn't have happened as that was the only one that had both diesel ultimate and petrol ultimate.
Filed my claim with BP Cust Service who did say they've added extra signs to every pump, but as shown below this only has signs on the diesel pumps. The additional sign on the petrol just says "Try Me"

 

[bainsyboy]

CRIKEY andymac where abouts is your petrol station Tehran looking at the state of the pumps

 

[AndyMac]

Yes thinking about it maybe it was the sniper fire that made me panic and select unleaded!

 

[gizze]

Hmm, I wouldn't send that photo mate, looks like the unleaded handle is now green rather than light blue.

 

[HTC]

To be honest I wouldn't send that in either. Looks clear as day to me. There is also tags hanging off the diesel nozzles too.

Sorry.

 

[AndyMac]

Oh yes silly me, I didn't spot the tags hanging off the diesel pumps when I using the unleaded ultimate pump, can't think why, oh yes that's right it wasn't the pump I was using!!!
The unleaded ultimate handle is in fact black, the same as the standard diesel
The diesel ultimate handle is blue
The logo's are almost identical
The unleaded part is white on a light blue background

Are you honestly telling me that any of those pump handles look like they've been changed recently?

 

[HTC]

I see your point and I don't. It's strikingly obvious to me, but there you go.

Hopefully no damage has been caused. Just keep diluting until its all gone.

 

[Scotty]

I'm paranoid about doing this. So much so that whenever I take the noozle off the rack I always trace the pipe back to ensure it goes to the correct pump and some "clever" person hasn't switched them.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. I personally would have pushed it to one side and called Audi assistance.

 

[AndyMac]

Don't have Audi assistance and RAC won't cover it. In fact they make a point of it in their latest TV ads. It's up there with running out of petrol and they're fed up with it so will charge for recovery.
Autotechnik in Southampton arranged for it to be collected this afternoon (£40 bargain). They're gonna drain it, flush it and fit a new fuel filter and possibly injectors if required.
HTC, yes obviously it's obvious if you're looking for it, I wasn't trying to suggest that it was a something off the Krypton factor, just that I've never even come close to doing it before, so the colour coding is the only thing that could have possibly affected my judgement. 120,000 other motorists would seem to agree.
Just shows you how little we actually read in our day to day lives, and that familiar shapes & colours are far more immediate.
Anyone know why diesel nozzles aren't made triangular just to irradicate this problem?
Far too simple I guess.

 

[madvw]

my god, we're already asking people to read and take notice of colours...

you really want the added brain drain of having to shape sort as well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[gizze]

Ford have a new fuel tank opening coming out on all their diesels that will not let you put a petrol nozzle in. Excellent design and means the pumps don't have to be changed either.

Andy, the problem is the top of that unleaded nozzle is green, where as it used to be a slightly lighter blue than the diesel handle.

 

[AndyMac]

Well got her back today.
£240 including the initial recovery charge, new fuel filter and £20 of diesel, so I guess I got off lightly.
I won't be using BP ever again!

 

[Marko]

I did that with BP. I even knew I wanted diesel but there was only 1 of the pumps with Ultimate diesel. Nobby here that they all were an filled it with £20. I started to put it int he parking bay. 5 seconds of engine running.

I was advised to call the RAC and they took my car there and then to be drained. It cost me £95 plus the fuel. I triple check the fuel nozzles now. Even when I'm halfway through filling I still check!! At least I won't do it again, and nor will you.

You aren't the first nor last. The guy who did mine said bizarrely enough they are mostly Audi cars they have. RAC guy thought it stemmed from Audi only using perfrormance engines and diesels only came into a performance catagory in the mid to late 90s. French cars, for example, have had diesel for years but were like vans. Maybe has a point there, but like many I thought I was filling with the Ultimate... I bet BP have made a fortune from this...

 

[gizze]

Told my Dad this morning what you did, as we have both done it, and he said something interesting, apparently when he did it back in Feb (in his week old S320cdi /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ) he called BP and the guy on the phone said that they were getting around 50 calls a day across the UK, when he asked why the hell they were not changing the nozzles back to green then? He replied that their insurance had 6 months remaining and the insurance company were liable to cover all costs until then. So it was not costing BP anything and they would only change all the nozzles when it was going to start costing them. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Marko]

Cheeky 8ast@rds. And I've just filled my tank with BP again!!!! I'm sure the reason I use them is because of environment issues. I've heard that they are one of the better ones. I don't use Shell anymore and I'm not a fan of supermarket fuels.