Misfueling: Diesel in petrol or petrol in diesel tanks

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Misfueling: Diesel in petrol or petrol in diesel tanks

kingdragonfly

4311 posts

Uber Geek

#243714 27-Dec-2018 20:12

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109619865/caltex-christmas-mix-up-causes-pain-at-the-pump

Caltex Christmas mixup causes pain at the pump

Holiday motorists filled up with the wrong fuel after a costly mixup at a South Island service station over the weekend.

A Caltex station in Milton, Otago, accidentally filled its diesel tank with 91 octane petrol [which will be very expensive to repair, and less bad filled its petrol tank with diesel] on Friday, but the mistake was not noticed until Monday.

Otago man Dan Love was one of many motorists hit by the pre-Christmas mix up. He filled up his $25,000 Triumph motorbike with what he thought was 91 fuel, but it was diesel.

"I got about 5 kilometres and realised the bike was losing power and there was lots of white smoke," he said.

He managed to get the bike to Dunedin, but it would not start in the morning. The back of the bike, which is only seven months old, was covered in soot and grease.

He is taking the bike to his dealership in Invercargill to see if the engine was damaged by the wrong fuel. He went back to the Caltex station this week to find out what happened.

"They apologised and admitted the mistake," he said.

"They said there were lots of other people affected and said I should refer it to my insurer, which I wasn't happy with.

"If the bike is damaged, I will have to go back to Caltex. I don't think it is fair for me to incur the costs of this."

What to do if you put petrol (gasoline) in a diesel car
Auto Expert John Cadogan

It's Australian, so of course, rough language.

blakamin

4431 posts

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Inactive user

#2151242 27-Dec-2018 20:22

Don't. Read. The. Comments.

My dog, there's some morons on stuff.

Goosey

1975 posts

Uber Geek

#2151246 27-Dec-2018 20:45

Yeha had to also laugh at the quality of reporting. The writter made it sound like the mistake was caused by the actual service station.

Anyone with half a brain would know the delivery contractor would have been the one to fill the tanks.

It sounds like only a small amount was filled before the mistake was realised else there would have been more reports and things realised immediatley.

Diesel into a petrol just causes a good old fashion smoke out.

Can be flushed through with more petrol or simply clean your tank and lines and filter.

Petrol into Diesel is another matter....

it's a small town servo...Milton is about 200m long :-)

richms

23262 posts

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#2151247 27-Dec-2018 20:47

Goosey:

Diesel into a petrol just causes a good old fashion smoke out.

Can be flushed through with more petrol or simply clean your tank and lines and filter.

In the old days it did, but since the 80s you will crud up sensors and all sorts of other damage that will not just clean off.

Gonna be expensive for caltex.

Richard rich.ms

Goosey

1975 posts

Uber Geek

#2151249 27-Dec-2018 20:57

richms:

Goosey:

Diesel into a petrol just causes a good old fashion smoke out.

Can be flushed through with more petrol or simply clean your tank and lines and filter.

In the old days it did, but since the 80s you will crud up sensors and all sorts of other damage that will not just clean off.

Gonna be expensive for caltex.

As late as early 2000's I was witnissing people put the wrong fuel in their car. The onsite workshop simply drained, cleaned the tank and packed them off on their merry ways.

The best one I saw was someone filling diesel into the water inlet ! (it was a mobile dentist).

ajobbins

Awesome
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#2151250 27-Dec-2018 20:58

I think petrol in some of the new direct injection diesels is pretty catastrophic. My old boss put petrol in her husband's brand new diesel Range Rover Sport a couple of years back. Was basically a whole new engine.

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richms

23262 posts

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#2151263 27-Dec-2018 22:46

Goosey:

As late as early 2000's I was witnissing people put the wrong fuel in their car. The onsite workshop simply drained, cleaned the tank and packed them off on their merry ways.

The best one I saw was someone filling diesel into the water inlet ! (it was a mobile dentist).

If its not been driven then no worries, and also the damage wont really show for a while, they will get the check engine light a few days later and by then they are not really going to have any comeback on the "onsite garage" who really did all that they could when it wasnt their fault.

This is the servos fault, and if the car has a warranty and the manufacturer says that its 8000 of damage, then good job arguing with them.

Richard rich.ms

Sidestep

822 posts

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#2151269 28-Dec-2018 06:24

ajobbins: I think petrol in some of the new direct injection diesels is pretty catastrophic. My old boss put petrol in her husband's brand new diesel Range Rover Sport a couple of years back. Was basically a whole new engine.

Yep, with a high compression direct injection turbo it's pretty much all over if they suck petrol.

I had a close call while helping a friend move some of his business equipment to Tauranga.

On the way back we pulled into a servo. Through the window I could see my friend filling the ute for me using two separate bowsers - one in the front filler, one at the rear, (and trusting the auto-off to work) while he washed the windscreen.

I got out there just as they clicked off – and realised he'd filled my diesel vehicle with gas. He'd seen me fill it up with a yellow nozzle previously, but yellow here was unleaded.

There was no way I was even going to run it to back away from the pumps.

A bunch of people helped us roll it back out onto the forecourt and (discounting the servo guys advice to drain it down the stormwater drain!) we purchased a 200l drum from some guys spending their Saturday in a fabrication shop, and spent the afternoon - a good 4 hours - pumping out both tanks.

The rear we managed by jumpering the transfer pump - but the only way to drain the main tank was very slowly via the disconnected injector pump feed line with a paperclip stuck in the pump relay, then purging the lines with straight diesel.
Surrounded by idiots offering advice the whole time ("just drive it, it wont even hurt it mate").

The workshop guys helped us load the 3/4 filled drum and roll the truck back to the diesel pumps.

A pretty annoying deal, and expensive for my friend who purchased 250l of fuel in total..
The 150l of diesel/gas mix turned out to be good for washing parts and lighting fires...

Azzura

447 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2151276 28-Dec-2018 07:37