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My pal has just been telling me about his mis fuelling accident. He managed to put £25 worth of diesel into his petrol engined Golf. (don't ask) He summoned the RAC who, 2 hours later sent a specialist company to pump out the diesel. Fortunately he had not started the car. With his membership discount the RAC charged him £230. The guy who did the job said if he had called him direct he would have charged him £150. I think Green Flag do it for free.
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You'd have to do the sums over claiming, but my insurance policy covers me for that.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 18 Feb 19 at 11:13
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£230 vs £150
You would think that with the discounts that the RAC probably gets from the supplier and because your pal was a member, they might have passed the extra costs on at "cost".
In my book that would be the fair thing to do because they are already profiting from the membership fee.
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>> In my book that would be the fair thing to do because they are already
>> profiting from the membership fee.
Not really, the premium cost is based on a duty of care by the driver. Its all very well for the driver to say what he would have done it for on the side, he could say anything, and the RAC incurred some cost in handling the call, and arranging payment to the contractor.
At the end of the day, you cant expect the RAC members to pay for the stupidity of others, unless they pay the stupid premium uplift up front.
And yes, I have been fuel stupid in the past.
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Also the £150 might have gone in the fellow's back pocket. The RAC income will have to go through the books.
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>> Also the £150 might have gone in the fellow's back pocket.
And had it done so, the contaminated fuel could well have gone down the drain or otherwise illegally processed.
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>> Fortunately he had not started the car.
Damage can still be done with some cars that prime the fuel pump when unlocking the doors, or simply putting the key in the ignition to listen to the stereo while waiting for the breakdown company.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 18 Feb 19 at 12:57
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would have been difficult fit the diesel pump into the petrol tank was it not the other way round
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Good point. And diesel in a petrol engine not as catastrophic as vice versa anyway.
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>> Good point. And diesel in a petrol engine not as catastrophic as vice versa anyway.
Yep, the days when the early diesel Golf advised adding n% petrol to combat winter waxing are long gone.
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I put petrol into a Diesel Galaxy. I'm guessing, because it was a while ago, but I think it was about £10 before I realised, into a tank which was probably already £20 diesel.
It was about a gazillion pound to have it sorted by a garage and, worse, about 4 days. So I was told, drive it carefully and keep topping it up with diesel to keep diluting the petrol
I did so, it didn't run very well for a 100 miles and then sorted itself out. Again I don't remember but I think the car got another 30k or 40k on it and ran fine before we sold it.
People panicking about the pumps priming seems a ridiculous level of paranoia.
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>>People panicking about the pumps priming seems a ridiculous level of paranoia.
I had a diesel Focus that 'lunched' its pump. Cost over a grand to fix. It was assumed it had been mis-fuelled at some time (certainly not in my ownership). The fuel acts as a lubricant for the pump and petrol ain't very oily!
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I've always wondered about this, so what do petrol car fuel pumps do for lubrication? If the petrol strips the lube from the diesel pump seals how does a petrol fuel pump keep working ok?
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From a manufacturing point of view, and if it was feasible, why don't they have a universal fuel pump?
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At the time the diesel misfiling thing was causing damage, it was the infancy of common rail very high pressure diesel systems. Pumps were a bit poorly designed and fragile. It seems to be much less of a problem now.
As far a universal fuel pump, a diesel engine with piezo electric injectors needs pressures of 30,000 psi or more (yes 30,000). Petrol engines dont need to run at anything like that pressure, say 60 psi, to atomise the fuel.
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>>diesel Focus...
Not arguing that misfuelling is bad, just that the amount passed through the system on priming is trivial.
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I misfuled my company diesel in 2014 after an exhausting week.
I took the black trigger from the slot that said diesel but someone had switched the triggers around.
I drove 60 miles home with no problems until I went to start the car and it wouldn't start and I kept turning it for some time.
Given the car was almost new I would have expected some damage but the man from the AA didn't think any damage was done save for wasting about £60 of petrol and the engine ran fine for another 70,000 miles (changed it after that).
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Volkswagen Golf VI - Mis Fuelling - Crankcase
