about diesels and petrol; from Daily Telegraph

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Forth
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about diesels and petrol; from Daily Telegraph

Post by Forth »

<font color="red"><b>A costly mistake</b></font id="red">
<i>Daily Telegraph</i>
(Filed: 27/08/2005)
<font color="green">You bought a diesel car for better economy. Then, one day, you put petrol in the tank.
Whatever you do next, don't unlock the doors, warns Michael Kemp</font id="green">
Warning: merely clicking "unlock" on your diesel car's key fob could destroy its engine if you have filled the tank with the wrong fuel.
Pump chumps: 'misfuelling' happens more than 400 times a day
You probably think it couldn't happen to you. But nobody puts the wrong fuel in their car deliberately, and "misfuelling" has mushroomed into a huge problem for tens of thousands of drivers switching from petrol to diesel to help offset rocketing oil prices. In fact it is happening, on average, more than 400 times a day, each mistake costing about £7,000 to fix, and it's not likely to be covered by insurance.
Diesel technology is advancing so fast that new refineries are becoming vital to keep up with growing demand. The latest engines, many of them 20 per cent more fuel efficient than petrol, are giving up to 60mpg in compact family cars and challenging the 60mpg-plus offered by hybrid petrol-electric vehicles.
That's a big attraction with UK pump prices at more than £4 a gallon (almost 70 per cent of which is tax) and likely to rise further as developing economies such as China burn more fuel and new sources become increasingly difficult and expensive to exploit.
Diesel engines produce less carbon dioxide "greenhouse gas" emissions than petrol engines and, if fitted with a particulate trap in the exhaust, offer relatively "green" motoring; Mercedes has started a programme to introduce such traps on all its diesel models.
So diesel makes good sense. But if a motorist who has used petrol all his or her life buys or borrows a new diesel car then uses the wrong nozzle at the filling station, costly damage can be done even before the ignition key has been inserted, because unlocking the doors also energises a diesel's fuel pump.
That puts the fuel under pressure, ready for instant injection into the engine, which is why modern diesels start so quickly. The old-fashioned waiting time for preliminary ignition "warm-up" might appear to have been eliminated, but in reality it has simply been electronically absorbed into pre-driving procedures. It is a clever and convenient development but it comes at a price for the absent-minded.
Petrol wrecks diesel engine lubrication processes and is particularly damaging to a diesel engine's costly, high-pressure fuel pump, which operates at up to 2,050bar (30,000psi). Petrol removes the pump case hardening and if a film of hardened metal disintegrates into swarf it will greatly harm or even wreck an engine's internal organs.
At best, if the engine is not started or perhaps run only very briefly, the fuel tank and its internal pump, fuel lines, main high-pressure pump, fuel injectors and filters will all require removal, clearing and re-installation (which might include some renewal) at a cost of up to £7,000. At worst, several parts will need replacing, even the engine itself, at a potential cost of £12,000, or more for a top executive car.
Friday is danger day, when drivers fill up on their way home at the end of a hard week. Those new to diesel motoring too often go for unleaded petrol as a matter of habit. At the nationwide business vehicle management company Fleet Support Group, of Chippenham, Wilts, technical services manager Mike Kick warns: "It's a big problem that isn't getting any better and is growing in cost.
About £7,000 is the norm. Rarely is it necessary to replace an entire diesel engine because drivers realise their mistake before starting up and do not move their cars before calling for help. That's important. Every driver new to diesel cars must make a conscious effort to avoid misfuelling. Petrol is death to a diesel engine."
The problem is seriously disabling about 155,000 diesel cars a year. The RAC attended 50,000 cases last year, the Automobile Association 44,000 and Green Flag more than 6,000; UK plc suffered 54,000 company diesel car misfuelling incidents.
Each says that the problem is getting worse. And, of course, as diesel's popularity grows, so does the number of fuelling errors. The annual cost of repairs is estimated at more than £800 million. In principle, that accidental damage is covered by comprehensive insurance, according to the Association of British Insurers.
In practice, misfuelling is widely excluded from motor policies. And it is automatically excluded for a vast number of companies that insure their vehicles third-party only to avoid high premiums. They pay for their own vehicle damage repairs.
As a spokesman for the VW Group observed: "It's difficult to put diesel in a petrol car these days because the diesel pump nozzle is too big. It doesn't fit and that alerts drivers to their mistake before it happens. But the other way round is easy. Unleaded petrol pump nozzles fit easily into diesel car filler necks. Business pool and self-drive hire diesel cars are at particular risk from petrol car drivers who suddenly switch to a borrowed diesel; by the time they pull in to refuel, they've forgotten."
Currently one in three new cars (34.9 per cent) is a diesel, according to the SMMT. Five years ago the figure was one in seven. In the first half of this year, UK businesses bought 296,000 diesel cars and private motorists 156,000. The SMMT predicts that this year's total new diesel-car registrations will be a record 881,000, about 170 per cent higher than in 2001.
BMW GB, big in diesel power (as is Mercedes-Benz), says that since 2001 its largest diesel growth has been 137.8 per cent in executive cars and more than 81 per cent in medium-size models. The firm has just updated its guidance to dealers for repairing petrol-contaminated diesel cars and hosted a Motor Consultant Management Forum, at its MINI plant in Oxford, to project the topic to business vehicle managers.
"Three years ago, 12 per cent of our car sales were diesel models," said a spokesman. "Today the figure is 35 per cent, with diesel the top choice for BMW 3-, 5- and 7-series car buyers. So it should be no surprise that since the diesel segment is growing, the number of drivers wrongly refuelling with petrol is also increasing. We don't know the answer. We're simply doing all we can to get a message across to drivers to help them avoid an expensive error."
While fuel filler flaps and/or filler caps are usually clearly marked, gone are the days of a distinctively coloured cap to jolt the driver's memory. A spokesman for the RAC said: "Part of the problem is that people forget they are driving diesels, because they are now so good and no longer noisy, smoky and smelly. Modern diesel cars have slick, petrol-like performance. A worrying feature is that forecourt fuels are now sub-branded and do not have uniform pump nozzle colours for diesel and petrol. Making a mistake is too easy. Sadly, misfuelling diesels is a growing phenomenon that will continue until it is physically impossible for drivers to make a mistake."
While some motorists aren't too embarrassed to stick a warning label on the fuel filler, inventors are searching for ways to actually prevent misfuelling. Intelligent petrol pumps that recognise and refuse to serve diesel cars is one idea being given serious consideration.
Filling station security cameras would read number plates of all arriving vehicles and electronically check DVLA records to identify diesels, which would then only be served by diesel pumps; petrol pumps would be automatically switched off to diesel vehicles. Triangular diesel pump nozzles is another idea that might work, if cars had similar fuel filler apertures. But in both cases the costs would be enormous, and why should oil companies or filling stations shoulder such expense?
Truth is, they don't have to. Thousands of rueful motorists would be more than satisfied with a clear, simple, colour-coded and standardised labelling system at the pumps. The cost? Almost nothing.
<font color="purple">• Diesel fuel is likely to rise still higher in price but petrol will drop a little after the summer holidays, predicts Ray Holloway of the Petrol Retailers' Association. Diesel has risen by 9p a litre since January and unleaded petrol by 11p a litre. Tax on petrol and diesel is the same at 47.1p a litre - excise duty plus 17.5 per cent VAT on the total (price plus duty). As fuel prices rise, so does the VAT (although the duty remains unchanged). So, the higher the product price the lower the excise duty as a percentage of the cost. On a £4 gallon (87.9p per litre), the total tax paid is 68.5 per cent.</font id="purple">
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fastandfurryous
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Post by fastandfurryous »

I think some of the figres in that article are a little "tabloid" to be honest. I used to work in 4 different fuel stations, for about 2 years in total, and I only ever saw it happen once.
and £7000 for a new HP fuel system? come on. That's a little much, even at main dealer prices. Plus I'm fairly sure that most fuel systems only energise when you turn the key, not when you open the door!
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Post by Kowalski »

I could see it becoming more common with diesel cars becoming more common and women getting small diesel engineded cars, but I'd agree that 400 times a day is stretching credability.
The author of the article doesn't seem to understand the difference between electric fuel pumps and glow plugs either.
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Post by bxbodger »

£7000.00!!!!![:0] Mind you, at Mercedes-Benz main dealer prices, thats probably correct!!!
It is a lot more common now that diesels are the flavour of the month. I mentioned in another posting how my brother in law runs his cheapo p/x diesels on what he gets out of the tanks on mis-fuelling pump out recovery jobs.
Currently its a ZX and its been running on a petrol/diesel mix for months with no ill effects-its predecessor, an Escort, was quite happy on the mix too-mind you, he doesn't have to buy them as they are worthless trade-ins which come as token finance off-sets so when it does give up the ghost he'll just get another from the yard......
These are, however, old style low-pressure diesels like most of us drive- he reckons that modern HDI type high pressure systems are completely killed by petrol in the system.
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Post by Ross_K »

I have to admit I filled my ZX to the brim with unleaded a couple of months ago. [:I][:I]Luckily I didn't start the engine... My excuse is that I had three petrol ZXs before the diesel, and I was on autopilot at five in the morning. [:)]Called out the RAC, who sucked some air through their teeth and said one of their "contractors" would empty the tank for £250. Bugger that. If I hadn't been stuck in the middle of nowhere I would have got a siphon and emptied the tank myself (in an environmentally correct manner of course [;)] ). I got it towed to the garage where I was getting my timing belt done the same day, and had the tank emptied for £40.
Now I pay very close attention to what nozzle goes where. [xx(]
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Post by James.UK »

My mate did it with his car, [:I] (Astra diesel) AA said it would cost in access of £100 to drain the tank etc, so he called me out. I towed him for about 800 yds to get to a roadside storm drain, he ran some fuel off, added a cheap can of 20/40 engine oil to the petrol-diesel mix, and the car started and drove just fine. [:)] that was about 2 years ago. It's been fine ever since.. [^]
Based on that, I think the bloke who wrote that article, was talking complete rubbish! [}:)]
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Post by tomsheppard »

August. Silly season. Twaddle.
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Post by Kowalski »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by James.UK</i>
I towed him for about 800 yds to get to a roadside storm drain, he ran some fuel off
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
What you mean to say is that you disposed of the waste oil in a government approved fashion and made sure it didn't end up in the watercourses [;)]
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Post by kafkaian »

Gawd knows why they don't have standardised notches in the filler opening to prevent this common occurrence. I've never done this but have come close on a couple of occasions.
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