So you put petrol in your diesel car and drove it.
Chances are you will fit into one of these categories
A) you broke down on the side of the road
B) you made it home and the car did not start again in the morning
C) you made it home, parked up and are now surfing the net to see what happens next, you will soon be a category “B”.
A) If you broke down – call a fuel draining company, your car will be fine once it has the wrong fuel out and the right fuel in, many people think they have ruined the car, this is not the case. of the 2000 plus fuel drains I have done, I have only failed to get about 6 running again by the side of the road, and in all of these cases something else had happend around the time of the misfuel, or the car had been harmed in a bodgy fuel removal attempt.
B) the reason your car won’t start is not because it is ruined, but because the engine is cooler now than it was when you misfuelld. warm diesel engines can still run on contaminated fuel, but cold diesel engines have a much harder time of it, hence you have been turning your car over to no avail and it just wont start, very often we arrive to find a flat battery on the car as well as it needing a fuel drain, not to worry we carry leads with us and can always get your car started again.
C) When you do go out to start your car you may well find B is now your answer, if however your car does start, I would always suggest a fuel drain, not because I want your business but because even tiny amounts of petrol in a diesel system can cause problems further down the line.
By now you may have read up on some of the scare stories about the perils of wrong fueling, most of it is tosh, Putting the wrong fuel in your car is unlikely to wreck it.
Main dealerships will often insist on doing very large and expensive repairs to vehicles that have been misfuelled, and in many cases this is not required.
In many cases the owner of a new or newish car will call the dealership first in the case of a misfuel – which is a normal reaction as the dealer is the only people you use in the warranty period, unfortunately some dealers have become greedy on the subject and now reel in misfuelled cars for repairs ranging from £5000 to £12000 using threats of voiding the warranty if the work is not done.
This tactic is unfair and unnecessary, in my opinion dealers are abusing their position of trust.
Quite often we attend jobs at the main dealers, there is a prestigious 4×4 main dealer in London that we find ourselves at at least once a month, we are called by the customers directly, and in nearly every case the dealer picked up the vehicle from the fuel station forecourt after the misfuelling on a recovery wagon, once the customer was given the estimated cost of repair – (which is usually around 7k) we end up getting a call.
We simply turn up at the dealership at the request of the customer and perform an on the spot fuel drain and replenish with diesel, at which point the customer hops in and drives off with his 7k intact.
So if you prized set of wheels is being held hostage by a main dealer demanding a kings ransom for expensive and unnecessary repairs, hold your ground and refer them the the EU block exemption ruling.
I have written extensively on the subject here
