I’ve always found it a constant source of amusement that drivers can actually add the wrong fuel to their car, until today.
After a long nights working last night, I filled car with £20 of fuel on way home and then thought why is the pump nozzle green? 
Anyway, when I realised what I’d done I filled it to the brim with diesel and so far the only problems have been a slight lack of top end power and difficulty starting although it will bump start no problem.
I’ve always been very careful when filling up so it just shows how easily it can happen. 
A guy round my way makes a good living siphoning fuel tanks for those who have filled with the wrong fuel.
global.
I have to double check if I’m tired, I run a petrol car but so used to putting diesel in my truck.
In the old days you could get away with this, with a modern car the ecu might shut down if it detects a problem with the fuel but then again it might not. It’s about £300 to get one of these “fuel doctor” companies out to fix it, but you can do it yourself if you know how to bleed a diesel engine, if you get any problems then post again and I’ll talk you through it.
Radar19:
I have to double check if I’m tired, I run a petrol car but so used to putting diesel in my truck.
The diesel nozzle shouldn’t fit into a petrol car anyway.
damoq:
Radar19:
I have to double check if I’m tired, I run a petrol car but so used to putting diesel in my truck.The diesel nozzle shouldn’t fit into a petrol car anyway.
I prefer to stand staring at the pump like a lemon till I twig. 
Recovery company I do a bit of office work for get on average 6-10 call outs a week to mis-fuelled vehicles.
Radar19:
damoq:
Radar19:
I have to double check if I’m tired, I run a petrol car but so used to putting diesel in my truck.The diesel nozzle shouldn’t fit into a petrol car anyway.
I prefer to stand staring at the pump like a lemon till I twig. [emoji38]
Done that before. Was in the services fueling the truck one day when a damsel in distress came over and asked if I could help her fill her new car up. She couldn’t get the nozzle into the filler. I stood there like the lemon you describe also struggling to get the nozzle to fit. In the end up, the woman from the services came out and said we were probably trying to put the wrong fuel into the car. What a ■■■ I felt when I realised this was the case.[emoji15] [emoji15] [emoji15]
damoq:
Radar19:
I have to double check if I’m tired, I run a petrol car but so used to putting diesel in my truck.The diesel nozzle shouldn’t fit into a petrol car anyway.
It won’t on a modern one, true; but I had at least one “near miss” with my old American pick-up truck, and several more over the years with the bikes. Given that we as HGV drivers are more likely than most to grab the diesel nozzle without even thinking about it, I daresay many of us have got as far as actually picking up the wrong one if we’re honest.
I tend to make a point of just thinking for a second every time I put the nozzle in because I drive a mix of diesel and petrol cars, a bike and the truck. So far have not made a mistake. If i’d put petrol in a diesel though I’m not sure i’d have run it, may have forked out for a tank drain because petrol doesn’t compress like diesel and it could wreck a diesel engine, a bit of diesel in a petrol is fine, it just makes it run horribly and pour out smoke.
Kiowan:
If i’d put petrol in a diesel though I’m not sure i’d have run it, may have forked out for a tank drain because petrol doesn’t compress like diesel and it could wreck a diesel engine
In the days of the Volvo F12, it was quite common to add 15-20% petrol to the diesel when running in cold climates to prevent the diesel from waxing. When the FH12 was introduced, this suddenly didn’t work any more, but only because the ecu detected a fuel contamination problem and shut the (same) engine down.
It used to be an old trick in winter to mix in some petrol or paraffin into diesel to help prevent diesel waxing. If I had only put a small amount of petrol in, then I’d fill with diesel and carry on.
It does happen to HGV drivers though. One of our ladsonce managed to put around 100 odd litres of petrol in his artic unit.
In the early '90s I ran an old double-decker bus as a motor-caravan. In France one balmy morning I filled up at a rural service station where the pumps were being cleaned. Some clown had parked the cladding marked ‘gasoil’ (diesel in French) in front of a neighbouring petrol pump. So of course I started pumping petrol into my diesel tank; and, as a lorry driver I did it with confidence. The attendant, realising the impending catastrophe, came running out and stopped me. Fortunately, the old Leyland 0.600 engine was an old-fashioned and extremely tolerant beast and all that happened was that the engine ran hotter than usual for a while, but ran very lively! Boy, was I lucky. Robert 
So paranoid did i get about doing this that i’d sniff the filler nozzle to confirm all was right once i’d put a small squirt in.
Given up with Diesel cars now anyway, the modern stuff has got too complicated and expensive to put right when they go wrong, and they do.
Juddian:
Given up with Diesel cars now anyway, the modern stuff has got too complicated and expensive to put right when they go wrong, and they do.
Yea, I’ve got a proper old fashioned diesel engine, easy as anything to work on. 
Pure petrol in a diesel engine will wreck the fuel pump through lack of lubricity.
A LITTLE petrol in a diesel engine used to be a way of increasing performance…but modern diesel engines won’t tolerate it.
I am also guilty, I had the little Micra once and put in some diesel.Iusually fill up the bus and my diesel car,hardly ever use small petrol cars.
I managed to put £12 of petrol in my diesel Peugeot 308. Topped the rest (it was almost empty) with diesel and it ran just about ok.
Two tanks of diesel later oil pressure light came on. Car on.y had 30,000 miles on and full dealer service history.
Can’t see petrol in a diesel car could possibly cause this but what a coincidence. Had to get rid of the car.
Well I gave her a short blast on M25 last night at er …slightly over the speed limit and she was fine.
Starting is getting better now and just get a bit of spluttering at low speed so I think we’re getting there.
Anyway, won’t have her much longer as she’s being replaced by Audi A4 but don’t tell her, it’s a secret 
Easy way to cure the problem of “wrong” fuel would be to fit a left handed collar to diesels and a right handed collar to petrols.Same on the fuel pump nozzles.
Fit a proximity switch to the nozzle collar so that until its engaged fuel cant be pumped.Cost about 50 quid per pump.Fiver per car.
But too many folk make a lot of money from your mistake.
80 quid is about the “standard " charge and they end up with the"waste” fuel and have the bloody cheek to sell you a gallon of petrol/diesel for 10 quid.