If you’ve ever had to ask yourself this question,
“I’ve put the wrong fuel in my car! What do I do?”
I genuinely feel for you. This is something that affects many thousands of motorists every year and not only is it an inconvenience but it can also be quite costly to resolve.
So, for those of you thinking, “I’ve put the wrong fuel in my car! What do I do?” let me try to ease your nerves and point you in the right direction.
What do I do then?
Firstly,
DON’T start your car – not even to move it off the pump at the station forecourt. If the contaminated wrong fuel is not allowed to enter the fuel lines you will save yourself a lot of hassle.
If you have already started or driven the car, STOP! There’s no point in making a bad situation worse by forcing the engine to continue to run on a mix of petrol and diesel.
Secondly,
find out if your insurance provider will cover the cost of having the contaminated fuel removed.
Unfortunately most will not – in fact the majority of insurance providers state specifically in the small print that misfuelling is not covered by their policies.
Nevertheless it is always good to find out where you stand in this regard. Please note that some companies that say that they DO cover misfuelling will consider the issue to be a “claim” and you will end up paying for the drain out of your excess and have the possibility of increased insurance premiums. So check first!
Thirdly,
call Fuel Fixer. We have nationwide coverage and operate 24/7. Our call operators are more that willing to provide you with any information you need and have an engineer out quickly to resolve the issue. With an average call-out time of just 47 minutes nationwide we can have an engineer draining your tank and flushing the system so that you can get back on the road with minimal lost time. Additionally we price our services so that we are one of the cheapest on the market.
Forthly,
try to come up with a good excuse to justify to your partner, friends and even yourself as to why you just did that thing that you laugh at others for doing – and then realise that the majority of people who drive diesel vehicles have done the same thing and that it’s no big deal (would you believe that even some of our own fleet vehicles have been misfueled?!).
“Wrong fuel in car” problems are what we specialise in, and we are the professionals in this business. We can set you straight and get you going again – fast!.
my friend put about eight pounds worth of diesel in my petrol jaguar a few weeks ago . He told me that he would put twenty pounds of petrol in and that it would be fine . Can this do any long term damage to my car . I would appreciate a quick response to this question if possible . Thank you Mrs Hawkins .
Hello Mrs Hawkins,
Diesel in a petrol car is never a good idea, no matter really how much it is. The problem here is that diesel will not burn in a petrol car. As a result of this driving it can cause the following damage in some cases:
-Unburnt diesel passes down past the pistons and ends up in the oil sump, thereby thinning out the oil and reducing engine lubrication. This can lead to engine flooding with ineffective oil requiring a full oil change. Obviously continuing to drive on this can cause engine failure.
-Unburnt diesel can coat the spark plug and cause them to fail, leading to misfires.
-the petrol/diesel mixture will have a slightly different octane rating which can lead to engine knocking and premature ingnition, which can damage pistons.
Of course there is also the chance that filling it completely with petrol will dilute out the diesel enough that none of the above will happen. Unfortunately there is no guarantee on this, one way or the other.
So, in summary, to answer your question: “Can this do any long term damage to my car” the simple answer is Yes. However that does not mean that it WILL cause damage. It is a bit of a risk and you will need to add up the risks and compare then with the value of the vehicle and the price to get the wrong fuel drained out.
I hope this answers your question. Give us a call on 07730 357613 if you have any other question.