AA Zone

If you've ever put petrol in a diesel car or vice versa you're in good company as the AA estimates that around 150,000 people do this every year. We've even introduced a dedicated service, Fuel Assist, to deal with the consequences.

But why does it happen?

Someone else's car?
Confusing pump labelling/design?
Mind on something else?

And what do you think can be done to prevent it?

Generally a small amount of incorrect fuel should not damage the engine as long as you have not started the car and top up fully with diesel fuel.

If you've added more than 10% (5 litres in a 50 litre tank) petrol – Drain the tank and refill with diesel

If you've added less than 10% petrol (5 litres in a 50 litre tank) – Top up with diesel and run normally unless the manufacturer has advised otherwise

More on theAA.com here

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuels-and-environment/misfuelling.html

Am getting contradictory advice on this. Have 07 BMW 320Dl. My wife refueled last night. There was about 1/4 tank of diesel in car. She then put 1.6 litres of petrol in the car before realising her mistake (tank holds around 60 litres I think) . The garage said top up with diesel and would be OK. She then drove the car home.

Should I really get the tank drained or is there now no point as the amount is so small and in case she has driven the car so any damage will have been done.

Take a look:

www.tullmaninnovations.com

this can obviously happen as a mistake, especially if you have been driving for a long time, have other things on your mind, usually drive an unleaded car, then use yor husbands diesel etc etc.

would stop happening if petrol stations took more responsibilty and separated unleaded pumps from diesel pumps. Also if the nossils were different shapes so diesel didn't fit into an unleaded tank etc etc.

Until they were liable for damage then nothing will change. Also the AA are hopeless with this problem as they don't seem to have any mechanics that are skilled enough to drain a tank.

That would be because it is actually illegal for us to drain fuel at the roadside. Another breakdown company was fined £15,000 after their patrol was caught driaining fuel. The patrol was actually sacked from his job.

This is why we have specially eqipped Fuel Assist vehicles and technicians who go through weeks of training to be able to do the job. However if they are all busy because so many people have misfuelled their vehicles on a particular day then you will get a patrol who has no option that to recover you vehicle.

http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/story/?nID=48024

If the vehicle is common rail then the advice is no more than 2% which on your vehicle would be 1.3 litres.

You have driven a fair way now with no sign of a problem

The AA fuel assist guys go out to vehicles every day where people have actually driven with the wrong fuel and the vast majority of those are absolutely fine after draining and filling with the correct fuel.

Personally. and anything I write here is a personal view only, I would not be overly concerned.

Before setting off on holiday to Cornwall i incorrectly put 3.82litres of unleaded petrol in my 2003 Kia Diesel. The unleaded petrol pump was coloured black, the same as nearly every diesel pump i've ever seen. With all garages closed that day and an agitated family on board, draining the tank was not realistic, so i gambled by filling the tank from half-full to full with diesel. As my tank holds 55litres the amount of alien petrol i put in was around 7% of the capacity of the fuel tank. They reckon that if you have under 10% of petrol in your tank particularly on older engines you may get away with it. However, being a fairly modern engine with a common rail fuel delivery system i set off on the 170 mile journey fully expecting the engine to sieze up.
I drove the entire journey going no faster than 60mph so as not to call upon the fuel injection system too often. Every time the tank had emptied by a third, i refilled with more diesel to dilute further the corrupting petrol. I did this 3 times in all.
The car got us there with no noticeable problems or drop in performance, in fact by the time we got home we had racked up 600 miles. We felt comfortable enough to drive "normally" by the second day.
On arriving home, i popped over to Halfords and bought a 325ml bottle of Wynn's Diesel Injector Protector (£6.99) which i emptied into the half-full fuel tank. This will help to remove carbon deposits and lubricate the fuel pump. I also bought a 500ml bottle of Redex Cetane Booster additive (£9.99) which they recommend to empty into the tank before i next fill up. This will help keep the injectors clean.
Although, as i write this, 9 days on, i have seen no obvious side effects, i do wonder whether there may be longer term damage done to say the fuel lines, the tank or the pump and the injectors. I would welcome an AA expert to comment on my story and whether he thinks my mistake may be costly later.

I put £23 worth petrol in my 3/4 full diesel tank BMW320d on wednesday at Sainsbury's service station Cobham.I then in ignorance drove to Birmingham NEC and back...everything was OK until I reached M3 when car started to misfire and slow down...when I came to a stop in traffic it made horrible juddering noises with smoke coming from bonnet...i limped back home another 30 minutes...got it towed to my local garage..they got a specialist "wrong fuel" company to pump it out (£180)..then they discivered there is a hole in the injector system (new part £380) which will be fitted tomorrow and may not be the end of it. Just went back to Sainsburys...the pump I used was CITY DIESEL!!! ..so it must have had wrong fuel in it!!! so the question is can I claim from Sainsburys?..the receipt only says it was for £23 not the fuel type....any IDEAS??