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Press releasesMisfuelling has mushroomed into a big problem for thousands of motorists who are:Making a fuel of themselves at the pumpsIt’s bound to happen sooner or later. The odds are simply against you!Doesn’t matter whether you drive a petrol engined car or a diesel, sooner or later you’re likely to fuel it from the wrong pump! Thousands of drivers are switching from petrol to diesel cars which can be anything up to 40% more efficient. But each year around 120,000 UK drivers suffer the keen embarrassment of calling out a breakdown service after filling up their cars with the wrong type of fuel. This type of call is easily featured in the top twenty in any breakdown services list of member calls. And the cost of draining the bad fuel and then the repairs - especially for cars with catalytic converters - can be anything from a few hundred to many thousands of pounds. In fact it is happening on average around 400 times a day in Britain, with each mistake costing up to £6,500 to fix. But it’s not always the driver’s fault, says breakdown service Autonational Rescue. “It’s so easily done. If you’re running around in someone else’s car or a fleet car from work then the likelihood of your making a mistake at the pumps increases significantly,” says Autonational’s marketing manager Ronan Hart. Diesel pumps at petrol stations are often unhelpfully positioned right next to the petrol pumps, or simply coloured slightly differently, so drivers can easily be mislead on the filling station forecourt. Added Ronan: “All kinds of costs are incurred when you misfuel – not just engine stripping and cleaning, assuming the engine doesn’t need to be replaced - but even the fuel itself is effectively wasted and has to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way at an extra cost to the driver.” There are however some products on the market which help to prevent misfuelling, the cheapest of which attaches to the inside of your fuel flap. They can also remind you that your car runs on diesel with an audible warning, so that even if you are running on “auto pilot” yourself, you will be unlikely to fill up with the wrong fuel. So what happens when you put the wrong fuel in your car? The first thing to do is DON’T PANIC! Petrol wrecks a diesel engine lubrication process, and is particularly damaging to its costly, high-pressure pump, fuel injection system and filters. So if you know you’ve made the classic mistake, don’t start the engine, don’t even unlock the doors, and urgently seek professional advice. But if you have already started the engine and driven off, then you may get half a mile or so down the road before your car gives up the ghost on you. The next step would be to call your breakdown service, or a local garage if you don’t belong to one. They won’t drain the fuel on the spot but can arrange to take the car to your dealer, and if you are especially lucky, they will be able to drain the tank and clean the hoses, purge the fuel from pumps and replace the filter. If you are not so lucky, the job will be considerably bigger (in the case of executive cars it can mean a replacement engine at a cost of up to £12,000) and then it’s a case of contacting your insurance company, fingers crossed, to see if you are covered. In principle that kind of accidental damage can be covered by comprehensive insurance, says the Association of British Insurance, but it is well worth checking your own policy as very often they are specifically excluded from motor policies, especially third party-only ones. Each year the problem is getting worse. And as the popularity of diesel grows (as a cheaper and generally greener alternative to petrol) so do the numbers of fuelling errors.
For more information about Autonational Rescue, the car breakdown service with the no claims bonus, call 07000 999 911 Issued by CPR Works
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