My daughter traded her Honda Civic (petrol) for an almost new Citroen C3 diesel.
The nice man in the Honda dealership went off and filled the tank for her.
She got halfway home (about 7 miles) when it caughed and shuddered to a stop - dead.
Phoned the dealership who came out to see what the problem was, had to lend her the Civic back while they fixed the C3 - the nice man had filled it with petrol, not diesel, didn’t do it a great deal of good.
I just talked to the shop. They claim the fuel pump is not longer working, and that they have to drop the tank to replace it. Does this sound likely? From what others have told me, it sounds like, after years of honest work, that they are finally trying to rip me off. Does a broken fuel pump sound likely?
Sounds rather unlikely, diesel isn’t that much more viscous than petrol that it would damage a fuel pump in such a short time, IMO of course - Rick may know otherwise.
Like I said, they have always been honest before and this link: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdieselvsgas.html
suggests that the fuel pump can be ruined. Should I request that the fuel pump be returned to me.
?
They should return any parts replaced to you anyway without you having to request it.
On the few occasions I have had anything done in a shop, as opposed to wrecking it myself, the parts are always returned (no guarantee they they are the actual parts from your car of course).
Wait, why did you lose four hours’ pay because of this?
Possible? Yes. Probable? I don’t know. I have never seen a fuel pump killed by diesel, but it could happen. In a modern car designed with computers, and all the wonderful engineering tools, things are being designed to what is needed and no more. It is possible that the change in viscosity between gas and diesel killed the pump. Or it could be that the plastic used in the pump is allergic to diesel. Or maybe the pump had one foot in the grave yesterday, and the other on a banana peel when she pulled into the gas station. Or it could be agents of the RIAA broke into the dealer’s lot last night and messed with your pump.
I cannot say that the dealer is trying to rip you off without seeing the car for myself. It is entirely possible for the pump to be dead. You can ask for the old parts back, and see if anything looks bad (swelled plastic etc.
NOTE: Danger Will Robinson, Danger! Danger! If you get the pump back DO NOT apply voltage to it and try to test run it. The pump is designed to be submerged in gas and uses fuel to cool the electric motor. Electric motors have sparks inside them. Trying to run the pump in air you can get a combustible fuel air ratio and the pump go BOOM!
I was working as a flat rate technician. FR techs only get paid for what they do. I also live in California which has some very strong consumer protection laws concerning auto repair. The work order in question had no diagnostic time on estimate due to my service manager being a “nice guy” to the customer. This means that I was supposed to be able to diagnose the car with a single glance. On many repairs this is not a problem. This time it was. The killer part was the complete waste of carbon told me one story that led me down the wrong path. I found many parts that were in fact bad, but not the root cause of the problem. By the time I came to the realization that it was not a worn parts issue, it was too late for me to refuse to work on the car until some diagnostic time was given. :smack:
Bottom line was I got paid for the parts I changed, and did not get paid for any of the many diagnostic tests I ran trying to find the damn problem. In total I wasted (and did not get paid for) about 4 hours in tests, scratching my head, talking to other techs to see if they had ever seen this problem, and consulting the manuals.
For a late 80’s Chevy full size Blazer, you have to drop the tank to replace the pump. So that does exist.
What kind of car is it?
Well, since the dealer has been honest in the past, I will believe him. My next favorite theory is that a rootkit placed by sony in conjunction with the RIAA not only caused my daughter to put in diesel fuel, but trashed the fuel pump as well. Honestly, thanks for all the excellent information, Rick and everyone else.
Cavalier owner checking in–mine’s an '89 but the J-bodies from mid '80s on all have in tank fuel pumps and in the case of my year they’re a little weaky. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if diesel caused it to conk out. My fuel pump’s less than 15K old and if the tank’s a bit low the fuel pump has a hard time pumping on left hand turns, which is how I know the tank is REALLY low since the gas gauge is less than accurate. :rolleyes:
Replacement of plugs should be quick and easy, regardless of whether it’s a four or six cylinder–I have a V6 which is shoehorned into the space allotted for it but it’s pretty easy to get to all the plugs, there’s just one in the back that needs a bendy extender on the wrench to get it out easily. Four cylinder is a fifteen minute slam dunk.
Flushing the fuel line is also easy since the pumps are electronic and start pumping as soon as the key is turned, before the engine starts to crank. Fuel filters are inlines and are fairly easy to replace.
Permission to borrow your sentance for a while? I love this.
Green? Is that standard for diesel in the US? Curious, it always seemed logical to have black for diesel, given that its been for so long the mucky fuel.
Green for unleaded, red for 4*, yellow or sometimes black for diesel here.
Green is diesel in the US. IIRC correctly Europe uses green for unleaded. Volvo’s used to have green gas caps, and then switched to a black cap. The reason was the adoption of green as the boot color for diesel.
Help yourself (attribution appreciated if it’s to be used as an SDMB sig line).