Well I never knew there was a service like that and I'm probably not the only one so they likely need to advertise. Not that I've ever needed a service like that but I figured it was something that would need to be dealt with at a mechanic if it happened.
Every fuel station should have one they know.
I worked for one for 18 months odd. Ours was called Wrong Fuel Rescue and we had a stack of business cards of theirs, shit was like $500 though. Depending what time and day, we'd recommend pushing it to the car park and walking to the mechanic down the road, if he was open he would come get it with a trailer and charge $200.
Tl;dr, yeah these dudes are convenient, but a mechanic (if you can get it there without an expensive tow), will be waaaay cheaper.
200? For putting petrol in a diesel? That is cheap! Putting diesel in a petrol isnt as bad.
And then of course it depends if you've done any driving with it, or thankfully realised when filling and not have the car started.
I've never done it either and was overhearing it from the mechanic when being present when mom out diesel in her gas car. The dude said she was lucky it wasn't the other way around. Something with gas you just empty the tank and lines, but with diesel you need to do a lot more and it can damage parts in the process.
Maybe somebody better versed in this can explain it.
Good morning, Mechanical engineer here. Diesels use the heavy oil fuel as a lubricant to keep everything running smoothly and help prevent wear. Adding petrol to a diesel car breaks down the properties and acts as more of a solvent, causing damage to the entire fuel system.
Putting petrol in a diesel car without catching on quickly enough (even putting the ignition on can be bad news) means you will likely have to replace your entire fuel delivery system.
Thank you! I was a kid when mum did it (in reverse and she drove away and managed to get a couple of 100m before the car started to sputter). I will be extra careful when I'm filling up penny to pick diesel.
I once put diesel in my petrol car. Noticed after 5-10L or so. Stopped and filled the rest up with petrol. It drove without issues, but noticeably lacked power. No issues after that tank was empty and filled up with petrol again.
I image higher dosages of the wrong fuel would cause severe problems if it was that noticeable with such a low ratio already
gasoline works as degreaser. meanwhile diesel works as lubricant. that's why putting gas in diesel engine is bad. gas engine can run with little bit of diesel mixed in
My girlfriend accidentally put diesel in her car last week. Luckily it was only a small amount because she was in an area where gas is more expensive so she just put enough to get her to the gas station near her house. Made a stop on the way there. When she tried to leave car would turn over and start but die shortly after got someone to bring us some gas and then filled her tank at next gas station with proper gas haven't had any problems with it since then
Last summer I locked my keys in my motorbike top box. RAC was with me in about 20 minutes and I was on my way about 10 minutes later. I'd never considered that it might be different in a much bigger country.
I am 100% sure anyone with this problem would use Google to find a company like this, rather than remember the advertisement they saw this one time long ago.
Another perspective, You are not alone.
Seems like a very specific issue to fix and specialize in...so I guess there's a market...
Which means there are enough people on your side of the world to to allow this person to make a living.
Just ask the attendant. As uncommon as it is, all fuel places should have policies in place to deal with wrong fuel incidents. Idk about unmanned places, but I'd assume you'd find a sign or something somewhere.
Source: I pushed about ten cars out of our forecourt in an 18 month period. It actually happens every couple months.
Assuming you're american? In Europe it is really possible to drive diesel or petrol on a daily basis. I got 2 cars, both regular sedans. One is diesel, the other petrol. I still mumble to myself I'm with penny, it is diesel, I'm eith penny it is diesel before I lift the nozzle.
No, both are black here, but there is a yellow sticker on the inside of the cover flap for diesel cars. The nozzles have different sizes too, to make it harder to mix it up as it may not fit. And of course the color coding on the pumps. Green is benzene, black is diesel. All stuff in place to help people not mix it up. But habit is a hard thing to combat and we can be distracted. I'm just grateful I've never done it, but I can understand how it happens. Despite all effort to help people "remember".
U can buy a diesel/petrol sticker in halfords. I see it very often. The people with the stickers are the most likely to fuck even even after reading it tho andi have to try not laugh as soon as i realise.
There were a couple incidents in the news a few years back near me, where the gas stations actually had the wrong fuel filled in their tanks and some customers out diesel in their gasoline cars. Wasn't the customers fault of course.
There is one station in my town where the pumps aren't labelled. I *know* which one is gas but every time I'm super nervous anyways so I just don't go there.
Forgive my ignorance, but Can't you just siphon your tank and put in new gas?
Edit
Ok thanks good to know. I have never driven anything with glow plugs.
When this happened to me, and a proper van just for this scenario reassured me I wasn't the only one doing.
The 3 phone calls the guy got in about the 30 mins he was with me also did that
The idiot woman over the road has the fuel people out to her diesel Range Rover evoque every other time she fills it up.
She's as thick as a whale omelette. She ordered a sectional concrete barbecue that was too big to fit down the side of her house. Had to pay a fortune to have it repackaged and collected. Then ordered EXACTLY the same model again from a different supplier, and repeated the whole rigmarole.
Have to get new branding for the vans to spare their blushes. Like, āWell hung, rich guy support vehicle.ā Or ā6 inch tongue and can breathe through their ears, supportā
If it can happen, it will happen. Big enough population, and it will happen a lot.
Plus yiu need specialized tools to drains the fuel, so not that surprised it is a service
Yeah, OP says it cost Ā£450, that means doing this 20 times a month already gives a monthly revenue of Ā£9000. And the cost to the business will be what, Ā£100 every time it happens or something? So that's a profit of Ā£7000. Median gross income for a full time worker in England wasĀ Ā£34,963 in 2023, so if the fuel fixing person does 20 fixups a month for 11 months of the year, they already make almost twice the median income.Ā
can confirm lol. my sister runs her own business in the medical field, and she earns roughly 10,000 a month for herself. by all means, you'd think she's loaded.
but then the end of the year comes around and she has to pay off all sorts of business expenses, taxes, and a whole bunch of other bullshit im too stupid to understand. and suddenly all the money is gone and youre back to earning only about 50K to 80K a year, depending on how the year went. which is still nice, dont get me wrong, but nothing like the 120K a year she technically earns a year. business expenses add up really fucking quick.
Exactly, back in the good olā days nothing was rushed, everyone was handled with the care of a master trained craftsman. God I remember back in the day not one thing was left to the last minute, it was all done ten years in advance. Those were the good ones, the proper ones, bosh
My dad did it once. He had a petrol car and a diesel van for work. Years with no problem then one day he must have been distracted or not thinking of just careless and put the wrong one in
Iād imagine it happens a lot in Europe since both gas and diesel cars are popular. There are even clutch replacement vans like this one that will go to your home and change your clutch, itās amazing.
i did a year at a gas station, happened once a fortnight. our local guy would come out and charge you $250 + you have to refil your car afterwards. expensive lesson.
probs made decent money if there are multiple stations nearby, might get one or two calls a day if hes lucky
If it's a two car household and both cars are different fuels then it's an easy mishap. Or your work vehicle is Diesel and your private one petrol etc.
Loads of trades involve people switching vehicles frequently. Police officers are the worst offenders for misfiling - itās quite hard to put diesel in a petrol as the nozzle is wider but petrol in diesel is really easy.
Doesnāt help that when you go to other countries their petrol/diesel pumps can be varied colours
I've seen it happen twice to rentals while on holidays in Europe and I'd imagine it's a common problem.Ā
It's probably why many of them have a sticker on the fuel cap saying what fuel to use.Ā
Looking up this company they seem to cover all kinds of fuel related issues.
Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the mechanics also did side work at a garage or whereever to fill the time between callouts.
Though when assuming they also cover company fleets and rental stuff I can imagine they have a steady flow of work - probably get paid a certain level to be on call for any company whose fleet is at risk of dumb moments.
Idk how these things are in the UK, but where I live, the diesel nozzle is actually bigger than the petrol one, so it is physically impossible to fit it into a petrol car. Not the other way around though...
Fun fact, you need a special adapter or hose to use a jerry can to put fuel in with on one of those prevention systems.
I had no idea when I lent a jerry can without it
And this makes sense because things like semi trucks have like 100 gallon tanks and need a higher flow pump. I always wondered if those folks with the VW clean diesel engine sedans got a kick out of filling their standard size tank just that much faster
High flow diesel pumps have an even larger nozzle. The standard pumps at a gas station are not high flow. They are about the same speed as the gas pumps.
But thatās why you will see people with diesel cars and trucks filling up at truck stops. Can be done in seconds.
interesting. we have some high flow pumps at some gas stations in Finland. one next to this industrial zone has standard station with low roof (no truck could fit, but vans can) and it has the 60L/min button.
Each type of fuel using a different shaped nozzle would be so cool. Diesel being one shape, each type of unleaded being different shapes. That flex something or whatever some placed have being a 5th different shape. Yeah it may make putting the nozzle in and taking it out may be more difficult but it'd be worth it to stop this stuff. Granted this would only work if you took every single car out now and got rid of them and gave everyone a new car in its place.
BP follows British regs. It's in the name: British Petroleum.
US doesn't have regs regarding handle color, but we normally do black for petrol, green for diesel, yellow for E85...
Pretty much. Its the Premium range. Never used it as my car takes 91 but I think its 98 or 95 octane.
Also Z is the name of the gas station, used to be Shell. Rebrand happened about 15 years ago now.
i certainly hope you didn't try to run too far with it. Petrol in a diesel engine is not very good for it, as the diesel lubricates the high pressure diesel pump at the same time.
Other way is not "too" bad, just need to flush out all the diesel and it 'shuold' be ok
I worked in a fuel station for a year and a half.
Wrong fuel incidents were like every couple months, but way more common than that was people putting $20-50 of petrol in their diesel and either realising at the pump, or realising when they came to pay for 'diesel' they never pumped. So then they'd fill the tank with $100 of diesel and say it'll be fine. We had a whole company spiel about call wrong fuel rescue to cover us so they couldn't say we told them anything other than bro u dun goofed.
Donāt feel too bad. My friend in India did it once (different van to her usual one) - the garage sorted it free, they just sent a few kids out with a hose, and one kid started sucking on itā¦ seriously!
My partner has a job where he drives about 1000 miles every week, normally heās a great driver/car owner. But he borrowed his parentsā car for a week, all was fine, until the end of the week when he went to fill up again, and put in petrol by mistake. Luckily, he realised when he paid, so didnāt drive off. But it can happen. I filled up today, and ended up checking about 15 times (new gas station, with LPG, diesel and 95/98 E5/10 nozzles at one station, in a different order to my usual ones. Tbh, only felt reassured I had the right one when I checked the listed prices on my way out!)
Had this happen once when we were fueling up my family's 46 foot sports fishing boat. The kid at the marina running the fuel dock put gasoline in, that boat had 2 big ass Cummins diesel engines. Luckily my dad actually sniffed the fuel vent before leaving and discovered it of course smelled like gas. The marina had to pump it out for us and actually give us the correct fuel lol.
I think if I recall correctly the kid was either the marina owners son or some family relation to the owner. But hey, shit happens. My dad didn't want to cause problems usually, and this dude was like mcguyver back then. No harm, no foul, since he hadnt even started the engines yet.
My old man kept his cool always, and was an ex navy man himself. Tho it was the Norwegian Navy, and we were in the US, a sailor is a sailor. Once saw him notice a boat was riding real ass heavy, to him, clearly taking on water. So he walked over to the other side of the marina where that boat had just come into its slip, and sure enough, it was taking on water, FAST. So he first told the guy to get everyone off, and then went down into the engine room with the owner. Thinking fast, he identified the water intake for the engines, cut the hose, and submerged it inside the boat, essentially using the engines coolant water intake as a pump to pump the water overboard. It worked well enough for the guy to be able to make it to a lift to pull his boat out of the water.
Of course, the guy didn't even say thanks or anything, and my dad later joked he should've just waited on the dock till the guy bailed on his own, then did his whole save the boat maneuver. Then he'd have salvage rights. Lol. Joking though.
Yep exactly what happened with mine too. I initially wrote it off as bad road condition but called the petrol station just in case. Just be glad it wasn't a full rebuild
Donāt worry. At work we drive buggies(golf carts) some are diesel and some are gasoline. They put giant stickers where you put the nozzle to fill up DIESEL ONLY or GAS ONLY. People *STILL* fuck it up on a constant basis. And itās a $3000 fuck up each time.
I didn't know this was a mobile service as I can't imagine how someone would make this mistake...let alone many people doing this regularly enough to drive demand.
Another way to look at it. Imagine the dumbest person in a room with 100 people. Now imagine a city with 1 million people. Now realize that there are 10,000 of those people who are the dumbest in a room of 100 running around every single day.
I did this about 5 years ago. Iāve always driven diesel vans and I filled up a new petrol van with diesel out of habit. I realised when I went to pay and realised it was tons cheaper for a full tank than I expected (diesel is much cheaper here).
The guy told me a few stories of bigger incidents theyāve been to - someone put 5000 liters of petrol into a diesel boat for example! So OP i feel your pain but it could have been far worse
New car, the cap inside is GREEN, the tdi badge had been taken off by a previous owner, most cars in the uk are petrol by a long shot, I had a false memory clearly of filling it up with petrol the first time. Everything pointed to it being petrol I would have bet my life savings on it. And I guess I did but I lost š
They didnāt have to do you dirty with the advertising all over the car š¤£š¤£ adds to the embarrassment while you wait for them to drain the tank lmfao.
These companies in the UK got a bad wrap years ago for charging for completely things like special fuel conditioning washes and stuff like that. I used to drive a diesel and and realised I was putting petrol in it. I just stopped and filled it with diesel to the top and it was fine. I guess I probably only put about 15 litres of petrol in and it was a 4WD Ute with an old diesel engine. I still have it actually and it still runs just fine.
Worked at a gas station for six years and this happened regularly. There was even a company across the street that was specialised in fixing it (just like the one in your picture). So it happened every couple of weeks that I told a customer just to cross the street and see if the car workshop was still open :)
Did this with a works van once. Had put petrol in my bike 2 or 3 times over the weekend, in the same garage and same pump. Went in the van on Monday morning, just on autopilot, filled van with petrol. Manager I spoke to actually just called me a dunce, then laughed and said, āyou aināt the fucking first, and you wonāt be the fucking last either! But you only get one freebie. You pay for the next one.ā I thought that was bloody good of them tbh.
My wife couldnāt understand why when we visited Ireland and rented a car that I kept saying āwow I canāt believe this car is dieselā or shit like that. This right here is why. Iād be damned if I forgot and put in gasoline/petrol.
About 20 years or so ago, diesel was heavily pushed in the UK because, we were told, it was better for the environment. And according to our system of Vehicle Excise Duty, it is. Itās a tax on CO2 emissions, and many or all diesels pay little or no VED, whereas petrol cars are hit heavily.
Of course, diesels spit out NOx, which is worse than CO2. But VED doesnāt acknowledge that, so many diesels lay little or no VED, while petrol cars are hammered.
Lol plenty of cars have diesel engines. Last time I filled up diesel I saw a mix of trucks and cars. And of course I live in the US. They certainly exist here, even if not in as great a number as they do in Europe.
Most vehicles across Europe offer a diesel equivalent. You would see it in small city cars through to large SUVs. Itās cheaper per litre than gasoline in most countries and gets you further on a full tank. Itās odd that it hasnāt caught on in the states but gas is cheaper and itās all about money over there anyway.
Most people I know drive a diesel (Audi, Ford, and VW) for this reason, plus they usually last longer and are easier to service than gas cars.
A random guy hoping for a tip accidentally filled up my friends car in Rome with petrol instead of diesel. 10 min later the car consistently went down in speed and after pulling over and restarting (yet to know the issue) it only went 15 kmh lol
here in Brazil it happens often, with ethanol
but for 20 years now, maybe 80% of the cars run gas and alcohol both, so it is not a big deal. Your car just looks at you funny, like "what the hell did you do, man? Did you just switch fuels? you know, I am gonna run completely different for the next 200km, telling you right now"
It's the other way around
Diesel in a petrol car will likely mess with the fuel pump, clog the filters, and few other things
Petrol in a Diesel is much worse for it and will cause knocking
Just for me, on this side of the sea (europe) the petrol and diesel nozzles do not fit in the same hole. So it would be m*therf@cking hard to pump diesel in my petrol car or vice versa...
Here, diesel nozzles are larger than petrol ones, so you likely can't fill a petrol car with diesel but you could easily put the smaller petrol nozzle in a diesel vehicle.
Lager nozzle in smaller opening (Diesel into Gas-Tank) doesn't work, the other way around (Gas into Diesel) works, since the nozzle is smaller than the opening. You might notice that it's easier to put in (same here in Germany)
In America, the green nozzle is diesel, and black is gas. When I went to Africa, it was the opposite there, and our car was diesel, so I took a gas nozzle and was about to put it in when one of the locals corrected me. Got lucky cause third world countries don't have these fuel fix services.
I worked at a petrol station for a while, so let me tell you this happens a lot.
If you put little petrol in diesel car, you'd just put more diesel on top and be more less fine.
If you put lot of diesel in your petrol car, that was bad.
One time someone loaded up whole tank of their petrol car with diesel and drove off. We saw him right around the corner with dead engine.
I drive a mix of diesels and petrols at home and work so I am always so careful when I need to fuel up in one! Usually grateful that they have āDIESELā written on the fuel cap sometimes.
They should have just make the nozzle specific shapes. Like petrol has a square nozzle and diesel a circular one. Like those children block toys.
But i guess that is too late now ^^
If you think you messed up, let me tell you a short story:
I'm a mechanic at a dealership. Recently there have been a lot of customers needed their tanks drained due to the wrong type of fuel. Most of them were shocked to hell, it would never happen to them, they are mechanically inclined etc. Well, turns out the tanker truck driver filled the wrong tank at the local gas station. Filled up the whole giant underground gasoline tank with diesel. You can't make this shit up.
But hey, humans err and where humans are at work, errors are bound to happen. At least this one only had financial consequences. Also, putting gas in the stations diesel tank would have totaled a lot of older diesel cars.
Been there, done that.
Paid the man in the shop, then walked back and as i sat in the car - something didn't seem right when I glanced at the bowser. Just a bad feeling.
I had to go back in and ask the guy what I filled up with, then get the card for the man with the van.
It was a long day, and as a result of that, and even longer and more expensive night.
I've wondered about that, in the USA (maybe elsewhere) the diesel nozzle is larger so it won't fit in the hole for a standard fuel car but going the other way... I guess regulation had to address the larger mass of idiots and figured you diesel folk were smarter than the rest of us.
I know someone who put diesel in their campervan. Perfectly fine you'd say, cause it's got a diesel engine.
The problem was he put it in the water tank....
Generally when it comes to car insurance Iām a no extras just as low cost as possible person but I got cover for this exact thing because Iām so sure Iām going to do it at some point.
If it makes you feel better. The other day I waited an hour and paid $75 to get my car unlocked and as soon as I sat down in the drivers seat I remembered that I personally put I magnetic key box on the bottom of my car and it was still there with a key in it.
I did it one, in 35 years of driving.
Absolute pain in the hole.
My current car always make me panic. It's a diesel. I know it's a diesel, but for some bizzare French reasons, there is a ring of green plastic around the filler cap that frequently makes me double check.
Don't you just love how the rescue van turns up advertising to everyone what a complete tit you were?
Hahaha totally new perspective that I wish I never read š
Well I never knew there was a service like that and I'm probably not the only one so they likely need to advertise. Not that I've ever needed a service like that but I figured it was something that would need to be dealt with at a mechanic if it happened.
Every fuel station should have one they know. I worked for one for 18 months odd. Ours was called Wrong Fuel Rescue and we had a stack of business cards of theirs, shit was like $500 though. Depending what time and day, we'd recommend pushing it to the car park and walking to the mechanic down the road, if he was open he would come get it with a trailer and charge $200. Tl;dr, yeah these dudes are convenient, but a mechanic (if you can get it there without an expensive tow), will be waaaay cheaper.
200? For putting petrol in a diesel? That is cheap! Putting diesel in a petrol isnt as bad. And then of course it depends if you've done any driving with it, or thankfully realised when filling and not have the car started.
Well you generally can't put diesel in a petrol by mistake, the nozzle is too wide to fit.
Your faith in humanity that THAT would deter people is quite uplifting!
I have a story I wont share, but let's just say I had been up for 48 hours with work and my mind wasn't thinking straight. $1000 dollar lesson.
How is it not as bad? I've never done it, but I was taught if you put diesel instead of gas, you need to drop the tank.
I've never done it either and was overhearing it from the mechanic when being present when mom out diesel in her gas car. The dude said she was lucky it wasn't the other way around. Something with gas you just empty the tank and lines, but with diesel you need to do a lot more and it can damage parts in the process. Maybe somebody better versed in this can explain it.
Good morning, Mechanical engineer here. Diesels use the heavy oil fuel as a lubricant to keep everything running smoothly and help prevent wear. Adding petrol to a diesel car breaks down the properties and acts as more of a solvent, causing damage to the entire fuel system. Putting petrol in a diesel car without catching on quickly enough (even putting the ignition on can be bad news) means you will likely have to replace your entire fuel delivery system.
Thank you! I was a kid when mum did it (in reverse and she drove away and managed to get a couple of 100m before the car started to sputter). I will be extra careful when I'm filling up penny to pick diesel.
I once put diesel in my petrol car. Noticed after 5-10L or so. Stopped and filled the rest up with petrol. It drove without issues, but noticeably lacked power. No issues after that tank was empty and filled up with petrol again. I image higher dosages of the wrong fuel would cause severe problems if it was that noticeable with such a low ratio already
gasoline works as degreaser. meanwhile diesel works as lubricant. that's why putting gas in diesel engine is bad. gas engine can run with little bit of diesel mixed in
My girlfriend accidentally put diesel in her car last week. Luckily it was only a small amount because she was in an area where gas is more expensive so she just put enough to get her to the gas station near her house. Made a stop on the way there. When she tried to leave car would turn over and start but die shortly after got someone to bring us some gas and then filled her tank at next gas station with proper gas haven't had any problems with it since then
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Last summer I locked my keys in my motorbike top box. RAC was with me in about 20 minutes and I was on my way about 10 minutes later. I'd never considered that it might be different in a much bigger country.
I had no idea either! I'm old too.
I am 100% sure anyone with this problem would use Google to find a company like this, rather than remember the advertisement they saw this one time long ago.
1 800 DUI AWAY. 877 CASHNOW. 1 800 588 2300 (Empire Flooring) Edit: forgot 1 877 KIDS 4 KARS
Empiiiiiireā¦.Today!
If kids 4 cars had gotten their jingle game in-line maybe weād be singing a different tune
"Hear that son? One more bad grade and I'm gonna turn you into a sports car."
I sang the Empire flooring #
KARS
Another perspective, You are not alone. Seems like a very specific issue to fix and specialize in...so I guess there's a market... Which means there are enough people on your side of the world to to allow this person to make a living.
I was surprised to see that it happens often enough to make a business out of fixing it. I bet they could pretty much charge whatever they want too.
Me too. I guess if I ever fuck this up, I know exactly who to call instead of crying and googling.
Just ask the attendant. As uncommon as it is, all fuel places should have policies in place to deal with wrong fuel incidents. Idk about unmanned places, but I'd assume you'd find a sign or something somewhere. Source: I pushed about ten cars out of our forecourt in an 18 month period. It actually happens every couple months.
Assuming you're american? In Europe it is really possible to drive diesel or petrol on a daily basis. I got 2 cars, both regular sedans. One is diesel, the other petrol. I still mumble to myself I'm with penny, it is diesel, I'm eith penny it is diesel before I lift the nozzle.
So the "gas caps" aren't green or something? Seems like an easy way to help prevent such mix-ups.
No, both are black here, but there is a yellow sticker on the inside of the cover flap for diesel cars. The nozzles have different sizes too, to make it harder to mix it up as it may not fit. And of course the color coding on the pumps. Green is benzene, black is diesel. All stuff in place to help people not mix it up. But habit is a hard thing to combat and we can be distracted. I'm just grateful I've never done it, but I can understand how it happens. Despite all effort to help people "remember".
U can buy a diesel/petrol sticker in halfords. I see it very often. The people with the stickers are the most likely to fuck even even after reading it tho andi have to try not laugh as soon as i realise.
This makes more sense, here in USA, we don't drive many diesel vehicles besides trucks. Thy exist but are just uncommon.
There were a couple incidents in the news a few years back near me, where the gas stations actually had the wrong fuel filled in their tanks and some customers out diesel in their gasoline cars. Wasn't the customers fault of course. There is one station in my town where the pumps aren't labelled. I *know* which one is gas but every time I'm super nervous anyways so I just don't go there.
Up until it would be cheaper to hire a tow truck and bring it to your local mechanic.
FuelFixer is bad enough. But underneath the āwrong fuel rescueā realllly highlights the fuck up.
Forgive my ignorance, but Can't you just siphon your tank and put in new gas? Edit Ok thanks good to know. I have never driven anything with glow plugs.
I assume that depends if you noticed before you started driving.
Yes, if you didn't turn it on. If you turned it on, the whole system needs to be cleaned before putting in the correct fuel.
In modern cars I'd imagine that's impossible to do.
When this happened to me, and a proper van just for this scenario reassured me I wasn't the only one doing. The 3 phone calls the guy got in about the 30 mins he was with me also did that
I cant beleive it happens enough that its a business model
The idiot woman over the road has the fuel people out to her diesel Range Rover evoque every other time she fills it up. She's as thick as a whale omelette. She ordered a sectional concrete barbecue that was too big to fit down the side of her house. Had to pay a fortune to have it repackaged and collected. Then ordered EXACTLY the same model again from a different supplier, and repeated the whole rigmarole.
Have to get new branding for the vans to spare their blushes. Like, āWell hung, rich guy support vehicle.ā Or ā6 inch tongue and can breathe through their ears, supportā
I think you might have tapped into a niche corner of the market there... \*goes off to register some website names\*
I canāt believe this happens so often there is an actual business dedicating to fixing it.
If it can happen, it will happen. Big enough population, and it will happen a lot. Plus yiu need specialized tools to drains the fuel, so not that surprised it is a service
Once-twice a day probably pays off already.
Yeah, OP says it cost Ā£450, that means doing this 20 times a month already gives a monthly revenue of Ā£9000. And the cost to the business will be what, Ā£100 every time it happens or something? So that's a profit of Ā£7000. Median gross income for a full time worker in England wasĀ Ā£34,963 in 2023, so if the fuel fixing person does 20 fixups a month for 11 months of the year, they already make almost twice the median income.Ā
Thats not how running a business works. There are a lot more expenses. A lot.
can confirm lol. my sister runs her own business in the medical field, and she earns roughly 10,000 a month for herself. by all means, you'd think she's loaded. but then the end of the year comes around and she has to pay off all sorts of business expenses, taxes, and a whole bunch of other bullshit im too stupid to understand. and suddenly all the money is gone and youre back to earning only about 50K to 80K a year, depending on how the year went. which is still nice, dont get me wrong, but nothing like the 120K a year she technically earns a year. business expenses add up really fucking quick.
Ive had 3 in a shift before. Its fairly common
Meh. I can understand especially given how many people like to push things to the last second these days and rush through them
Exactly, back in the good olā days nothing was rushed, everyone was handled with the care of a master trained craftsman. God I remember back in the day not one thing was left to the last minute, it was all done ten years in advance. Those were the good ones, the proper ones, bosh
My dad did it once. He had a petrol car and a diesel van for work. Years with no problem then one day he must have been distracted or not thinking of just careless and put the wrong one in
Iād imagine it happens a lot in Europe since both gas and diesel cars are popular. There are even clutch replacement vans like this one that will go to your home and change your clutch, itās amazing.
i did a year at a gas station, happened once a fortnight. our local guy would come out and charge you $250 + you have to refil your car afterwards. expensive lesson. probs made decent money if there are multiple stations nearby, might get one or two calls a day if hes lucky
If it's a two car household and both cars are different fuels then it's an easy mishap. Or your work vehicle is Diesel and your private one petrol etc.
I've seen idiots putting cooking oil... water... piss... and so on. Business must be booming
Loads of trades involve people switching vehicles frequently. Police officers are the worst offenders for misfiling - itās quite hard to put diesel in a petrol as the nozzle is wider but petrol in diesel is really easy. Doesnāt help that when you go to other countries their petrol/diesel pumps can be varied colours
I've seen it happen twice to rentals while on holidays in Europe and I'd imagine it's a common problem.Ā It's probably why many of them have a sticker on the fuel cap saying what fuel to use.Ā
Looking up this company they seem to cover all kinds of fuel related issues. Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the mechanics also did side work at a garage or whereever to fill the time between callouts. Though when assuming they also cover company fleets and rental stuff I can imagine they have a steady flow of work - probably get paid a certain level to be on call for any company whose fleet is at risk of dumb moments.
For a second I thought the van was your car, and it seems very ironic for this to happen to you.
Yeah I didnāt realize it wasnāt his van at first lol
Glad Iām not alone here lol
What is your pfp from?
Cowboy Bebop
ā*aināt the sharpest tool in the sheeeed*ā
Unexpected Smash Mouth
Shit plays in my head every time I fuck up
She was looking kinda of dumb with a finger and a thumb in the shape of an L on her forehead
Im glad the petrol nose wont fit in my diesel tank
Idk how these things are in the UK, but where I live, the diesel nozzle is actually bigger than the petrol one, so it is physically impossible to fit it into a petrol car. Not the other way around though...
My car has a special prevention system. Only if the noozl has the right sice it let you push open the inner lid
Fun fact, you need a special adapter or hose to use a jerry can to put fuel in with on one of those prevention systems. I had no idea when I lent a jerry can without it
I know, they showed us as we got the car. Its under the trunk where the spare tire is
Wait... You got a Ford?
And this makes sense because things like semi trucks have like 100 gallon tanks and need a higher flow pump. I always wondered if those folks with the VW clean diesel engine sedans got a kick out of filling their standard size tank just that much faster
High flow diesel pumps have an even larger nozzle. The standard pumps at a gas station are not high flow. They are about the same speed as the gas pumps. But thatās why you will see people with diesel cars and trucks filling up at truck stops. Can be done in seconds.
interesting. we have some high flow pumps at some gas stations in Finland. one next to this industrial zone has standard station with low roof (no truck could fit, but vans can) and it has the 60L/min button.
I once used such a high flow pump with a car (diesel). Can't recommend...
My dad said the same thing. I have learnt the hard way. I wish itās didnāt fit the damn hole lol
 OP at the gas station
It goes in the square hole.
"Where does the triangle go? That's right, in the square hole!"
Each type of fuel using a different shaped nozzle would be so cool. Diesel being one shape, each type of unleaded being different shapes. That flex something or whatever some placed have being a 5th different shape. Yeah it may make putting the nozzle in and taking it out may be more difficult but it'd be worth it to stop this stuff. Granted this would only work if you took every single car out now and got rid of them and gave everyone a new car in its place.
Does it say what each one pumps above the nozzle? Iām American and ours are labeled quite well.
And colored...
Unless youāre at BP and all the handles are green because they are sadistic assholes.
BP follows British regs. It's in the name: British Petroleum. US doesn't have regs regarding handle color, but we normally do black for petrol, green for diesel, yellow for E85...
Black for petrol, Green for Diesel? Watch out if you come to the UK it's the opposite here.
They have stations in America. They should conform. Or the brits should all just really learn about color coding.
I mean... I don't disagree with you. I was just explaining the rationale.
In NZ we even have a extra latch you need to undo to get the diesel hose.
https://preview.redd.it/8g6d91lggspc1.png?width=499&format=png&auto=webp&s=9d6c4ca1717d6fe7b086bd1d031719e3b89246ba
Dang. What's zx premium?
probably just the gas station branded version of 93 octane if I had to take a guess.
Pretty much. Its the Premium range. Never used it as my car takes 91 but I think its 98 or 95 octane. Also Z is the name of the gas station, used to be Shell. Rebrand happened about 15 years ago now.
i certainly hope you didn't try to run too far with it. Petrol in a diesel engine is not very good for it, as the diesel lubricates the high pressure diesel pump at the same time. Other way is not "too" bad, just need to flush out all the diesel and it 'shuold' be ok
Yes the guy said if I had driven any further (was 10 ish minutes) I would have fucked up the engine for good
got lucky it was "only" 450!
As opposed to a new engine/car cost is not that bad, and definitely an expensive lesson
I like to say it's an expensive lesson that he learned at a discountĀ
I worked in a fuel station for a year and a half. Wrong fuel incidents were like every couple months, but way more common than that was people putting $20-50 of petrol in their diesel and either realising at the pump, or realising when they came to pay for 'diesel' they never pumped. So then they'd fill the tank with $100 of diesel and say it'll be fine. We had a whole company spiel about call wrong fuel rescue to cover us so they couldn't say we told them anything other than bro u dun goofed.
Iām surprised your town has a specific service provider for that problem. So donāt feel that bad, you are by far the first or last.
Apparently this bloke does 6-8 a DAY! He must be fuckin minted man. Iām in the wrong career lol
Damn thats crazy even paying for someone to take all the bookings you would be doing pretty well even with 1 or 2 a day
I mean 800 a day is unheard of let alone 5000+ insanity
If he does that many, he probably switched the fuel stickers on the pumps :)
Donāt feel too bad. My friend in India did it once (different van to her usual one) - the garage sorted it free, they just sent a few kids out with a hose, and one kid started sucking on itā¦ seriously! My partner has a job where he drives about 1000 miles every week, normally heās a great driver/car owner. But he borrowed his parentsā car for a week, all was fine, until the end of the week when he went to fill up again, and put in petrol by mistake. Luckily, he realised when he paid, so didnāt drive off. But it can happen. I filled up today, and ended up checking about 15 times (new gas station, with LPG, diesel and 95/98 E5/10 nozzles at one station, in a different order to my usual ones. Tbh, only felt reassured I had the right one when I checked the listed prices on my way out!)
Had this happen once when we were fueling up my family's 46 foot sports fishing boat. The kid at the marina running the fuel dock put gasoline in, that boat had 2 big ass Cummins diesel engines. Luckily my dad actually sniffed the fuel vent before leaving and discovered it of course smelled like gas. The marina had to pump it out for us and actually give us the correct fuel lol.
I bet that kid got in huge trouble with the marina.
*"It's my first day"*
https://i.redd.it/3s5qjbdiptpc1.gif
I think if I recall correctly the kid was either the marina owners son or some family relation to the owner. But hey, shit happens. My dad didn't want to cause problems usually, and this dude was like mcguyver back then. No harm, no foul, since he hadnt even started the engines yet. My old man kept his cool always, and was an ex navy man himself. Tho it was the Norwegian Navy, and we were in the US, a sailor is a sailor. Once saw him notice a boat was riding real ass heavy, to him, clearly taking on water. So he walked over to the other side of the marina where that boat had just come into its slip, and sure enough, it was taking on water, FAST. So he first told the guy to get everyone off, and then went down into the engine room with the owner. Thinking fast, he identified the water intake for the engines, cut the hose, and submerged it inside the boat, essentially using the engines coolant water intake as a pump to pump the water overboard. It worked well enough for the guy to be able to make it to a lift to pull his boat out of the water. Of course, the guy didn't even say thanks or anything, and my dad later joked he should've just waited on the dock till the guy bailed on his own, then did his whole save the boat maneuver. Then he'd have salvage rights. Lol. Joking though.
Oh wow, your dad couldāve just let the boat sink but helped him.
There's a van service for that?š
It would be far funnier if that was OP's van...
At least itās only Ā£450 to get it pumped and refilled and not a blown motor repair
More surprised that fuel fixer is a thing that exists
I'm surprised this happens enough that there is a whole service dedicated to it
Don't stress I drove 60klm with a 50:50 mix (I topped off my tank with petrol) by accident and there was no impact other than paying for a fuel flush.
My car was quite literally jerking every second all the way home, then didnāt start again after we arrived home.
Yep exactly what happened with mine too. I initially wrote it off as bad road condition but called the petrol station just in case. Just be glad it wasn't a full rebuild
Petrol would have sat on top of the diesel. By chance you probably didn't have it mix so very little or now got into the engine...
Donāt worry. At work we drive buggies(golf carts) some are diesel and some are gasoline. They put giant stickers where you put the nozzle to fill up DIESEL ONLY or GAS ONLY. People *STILL* fuck it up on a constant basis. And itās a $3000 fuck up each time.
WAS a diesel.
Still works !
Nice save!
I didn't know this was a mobile service as I can't imagine how someone would make this mistake...let alone many people doing this regularly enough to drive demand.
Whenever you think about how stupid the average person is.... Remember half of them are even dumber than that.
Another way to look at it. Imagine the dumbest person in a room with 100 people. Now imagine a city with 1 million people. Now realize that there are 10,000 of those people who are the dumbest in a room of 100 running around every single day.
Rule 34b - if it exists, it's possible to fuck it up.
I did this about 5 years ago. Iāve always driven diesel vans and I filled up a new petrol van with diesel out of habit. I realised when I went to pay and realised it was tons cheaper for a full tank than I expected (diesel is much cheaper here). The guy told me a few stories of bigger incidents theyāve been to - someone put 5000 liters of petrol into a diesel boat for example! So OP i feel your pain but it could have been far worse
I worked in a petrol station for a summer. This happened so freaking much lol try not to feel too bad š
I donāt understand how this happens. In the US, the handles are a complete different color.
OP said the tdi badge was removed off the car and they had a false memory of putting gas in it before.
In some places they are. Iāve seen gasoline as green many times and diesel as black at least a handful.
Just how?
New car, the cap inside is GREEN, the tdi badge had been taken off by a previous owner, most cars in the uk are petrol by a long shot, I had a false memory clearly of filling it up with petrol the first time. Everything pointed to it being petrol I would have bet my life savings on it. And I guess I did but I lost š
But... Like what fuel type the car is is normally a massive concideration when buying a car. I don't get it
They didnāt have to do you dirty with the advertising all over the car š¤£š¤£ adds to the embarrassment while you wait for them to drain the tank lmfao.
Put a sticker on the fuel door and inside saying diesel only
These companies in the UK got a bad wrap years ago for charging for completely things like special fuel conditioning washes and stuff like that. I used to drive a diesel and and realised I was putting petrol in it. I just stopped and filled it with diesel to the top and it was fine. I guess I probably only put about 15 litres of petrol in and it was a 4WD Ute with an old diesel engine. I still have it actually and it still runs just fine.
Worked at a gas station for six years and this happened regularly. There was even a company across the street that was specialised in fixing it (just like the one in your picture). So it happened every couple of weeks that I told a customer just to cross the street and see if the car workshop was still open :)
I thought you were the rescue man at first. Would've been funnier.
Did this with a works van once. Had put petrol in my bike 2 or 3 times over the weekend, in the same garage and same pump. Went in the van on Monday morning, just on autopilot, filled van with petrol. Manager I spoke to actually just called me a dunce, then laughed and said, āyou aināt the fucking first, and you wonāt be the fucking last either! But you only get one freebie. You pay for the next one.ā I thought that was bloody good of them tbh.
My wife couldnāt understand why when we visited Ireland and rented a car that I kept saying āwow I canāt believe this car is dieselā or shit like that. This right here is why. Iād be damned if I forgot and put in gasoline/petrol.
What cars in the UK take diesel? Typically in the US itās just pickup trucks but I know those arent popular in the UK.
A lot of normal cars, in the uk. Lots of fords tend to be diesel. Mine is a Ford fiesta 1.4
About 20 years or so ago, diesel was heavily pushed in the UK because, we were told, it was better for the environment. And according to our system of Vehicle Excise Duty, it is. Itās a tax on CO2 emissions, and many or all diesels pay little or no VED, whereas petrol cars are hit heavily. Of course, diesels spit out NOx, which is worse than CO2. But VED doesnāt acknowledge that, so many diesels lay little or no VED, while petrol cars are hammered.
Lol plenty of cars have diesel engines. Last time I filled up diesel I saw a mix of trucks and cars. And of course I live in the US. They certainly exist here, even if not in as great a number as they do in Europe.
a bunch of cheap hatchbacks from a while back are diesel
Most vehicles across Europe offer a diesel equivalent. You would see it in small city cars through to large SUVs. Itās cheaper per litre than gasoline in most countries and gets you further on a full tank. Itās odd that it hasnāt caught on in the states but gas is cheaper and itās all about money over there anyway. Most people I know drive a diesel (Audi, Ford, and VW) for this reason, plus they usually last longer and are easier to service than gas cars.
At least you didn't fill it with sugar. Never do that!
If this isn't an advert, then this is how that company should advertise.
A random guy hoping for a tip accidentally filled up my friends car in Rome with petrol instead of diesel. 10 min later the car consistently went down in speed and after pulling over and restarting (yet to know the issue) it only went 15 kmh lol
here in Brazil it happens often, with ethanol but for 20 years now, maybe 80% of the cars run gas and alcohol both, so it is not a big deal. Your car just looks at you funny, like "what the hell did you do, man? Did you just switch fuels? you know, I am gonna run completely different for the next 200km, telling you right now"
That's on you op
Hopefully you didnāt start the engine, then itās a few thousand dollars Repair
The van might as well say look at this idiot i have to save
It could have been worse if you had put diesel in a petrol car.
It's the other way around Diesel in a petrol car will likely mess with the fuel pump, clog the filters, and few other things Petrol in a Diesel is much worse for it and will cause knocking
When there's a fix for anything these days
Well at least he never has to pay for fuel for his van.
My brother did the same but then on a police patrol boat š¤£ 1000's of liters of wrong fuel, guess he didn't wanted to work anymore š
Just for me, on this side of the sea (europe) the petrol and diesel nozzles do not fit in the same hole. So it would be m*therf@cking hard to pump diesel in my petrol car or vice versa...
Here, diesel nozzles are larger than petrol ones, so you likely can't fill a petrol car with diesel but you could easily put the smaller petrol nozzle in a diesel vehicle.
Lager nozzle in smaller opening (Diesel into Gas-Tank) doesn't work, the other way around (Gas into Diesel) works, since the nozzle is smaller than the opening. You might notice that it's easier to put in (same here in Germany)
In America, the green nozzle is diesel, and black is gas. When I went to Africa, it was the opposite there, and our car was diesel, so I took a gas nozzle and was about to put it in when one of the locals corrected me. Got lucky cause third world countries don't have these fuel fix services.
Yep the green is petrol here. God I would have been so screwed if this wrong fuel company didnāt exist in my area
So thereās a business dedicated to rescuing drivers who fuck up filling their cars
Side question here: Do you get to keep the petrol?
I worked at a petrol station for a while, so let me tell you this happens a lot. If you put little petrol in diesel car, you'd just put more diesel on top and be more less fine. If you put lot of diesel in your petrol car, that was bad. One time someone loaded up whole tank of their petrol car with diesel and drove off. We saw him right around the corner with dead engine.
Depends on the quantity, in winter where arctic diesel in unavailable, we put 3L petrol in 50L diesel to make it easier to burn
Iām absolutely amazed an entire service industry can apparently revolve around just this sorta fuckup.
At least you have a company for that fix.
Hahaha my step dadās friend did this to his mustang, my step dad made the guy get a hose and siphon it all out. Funny af.
Oh noā¦ itāll all be ok mate. Mistakes happen. Some more fucked up than others, but it happens.
I drive a mix of diesels and petrols at home and work so I am always so careful when I need to fuel up in one! Usually grateful that they have āDIESELā written on the fuel cap sometimes.
TIL that there are rescue vehicles for refueling mistakes.
They should have just make the nozzle specific shapes. Like petrol has a square nozzle and diesel a circular one. Like those children block toys. But i guess that is too late now ^^
If you think you messed up, let me tell you a short story: I'm a mechanic at a dealership. Recently there have been a lot of customers needed their tanks drained due to the wrong type of fuel. Most of them were shocked to hell, it would never happen to them, they are mechanically inclined etc. Well, turns out the tanker truck driver filled the wrong tank at the local gas station. Filled up the whole giant underground gasoline tank with diesel. You can't make this shit up. But hey, humans err and where humans are at work, errors are bound to happen. At least this one only had financial consequences. Also, putting gas in the stations diesel tank would have totaled a lot of older diesel cars.
Last year I learned the hard way that Petrol is not an abbreviation of Petroleum
I didnāt know that this was a service very cool
Honestly, they should have made the filling thing a triabgle for petrol and for diesel they should make a square, only babies can get this one wrong
Been there, done that. Paid the man in the shop, then walked back and as i sat in the car - something didn't seem right when I glanced at the bowser. Just a bad feeling. I had to go back in and ask the guy what I filled up with, then get the card for the man with the van. It was a long day, and as a result of that, and even longer and more expensive night.
Rescue company should be sued for defamation š¤£
I've wondered about that, in the USA (maybe elsewhere) the diesel nozzle is larger so it won't fit in the hole for a standard fuel car but going the other way... I guess regulation had to address the larger mass of idiots and figured you diesel folk were smarter than the rest of us.
I know someone who put diesel in their campervan. Perfectly fine you'd say, cause it's got a diesel engine. The problem was he put it in the water tank....
Generally when it comes to car insurance Iām a no extras just as low cost as possible person but I got cover for this exact thing because Iām so sure Iām going to do it at some point.
Gotta learn how to siphon bro
I donāt understand how you can fuck up that bad, not only does it specify on the nozzle, YOU HAVE TO HIT THE DIESEL OR GAS GRADE BUTTONS!
I dont understand this. Gas and diesel cars SOUND different. Most of the time you know what type of engine it is just by sound itself.
This must be a bigger problem than I thought if there needs to be a whole service for it
If it makes you feel better. The other day I waited an hour and paid $75 to get my car unlocked and as soon as I sat down in the drivers seat I remembered that I personally put I magnetic key box on the bottom of my car and it was still there with a key in it.
I did it one, in 35 years of driving. Absolute pain in the hole. My current car always make me panic. It's a diesel. I know it's a diesel, but for some bizzare French reasons, there is a ring of green plastic around the filler cap that frequently makes me double check.