So I pulled into a station to refuel and noticed that the pump I used previously was diesel only. “Was it always like that!?”, I thought. I recalled the attendant mumbling a question to which I responded, “uh, sure.” I felt about a sharp as a soggy doughnut.
Thing is, after searching, it shouldn’t have been possible for me to use use the nozzle in my car (unless '05 Ford Tauruses weren’t manufactured to coddle ditzes like me). And Mr. Adams says it should have resulted in “knocks”, which it (thankfully) had not.
So am I in the clear? Do stations occasionally switch pumps from regular to diesel?
I have heard of it before but the other way around and the pump still had the Green Nozzle on it. the station was doing some pump swapping and my friend Big Jon topped off his Diesel pickup with ethonol. He then found out what he had done when he paid and told the station manager to call a tow truck and that was going to be on his dime and so was the pumping of his tank and refill. And that is how it went without any argument.
The convenience store chain I used to work for didn’t always sell diesel fuel, but in the past couple years have been retrofitting their stores. In most cases they replace an existing pump with either a dedicated diesel pump or a multi-product pump with a separate diesel handle/hose.
I am reasonable sure that you would have experienced major problems (not just knocking) if you had mistakenly put diesel fuel into your car (assuming that is even possible, as the nozzle is significantly bigger and won’t fit into a regular gas tank). But I am not a mechanic.
a small fleet diesel nozzle will fit in any gosoline fill port at the station where i fill. now most truck stops have high flow pumps with much larger nozzels. i cautioned one of the young new EMT’s just a couple days ago to not fill the Ambulace with the high speed fill pumps and he said that is probably why he got a bath a week prior.
A graduate of the School of Hard Knocks
as for not running good is correct, but gasoline in a high compression diesel engine is disasterous.
In Europe (Belgium if it matters) about 15 years ago I had diesel put in my ‘regular’ car. After less than 1km the engine simply died, and we had to push it back to the station, siphon out as much diesel as we could (it doesn’t taste any better than petrol, FYI) and fill up with petrol. Luckily it was a rental …
I pulled into my regular forecourt on friday, and there were two vehicles pulled into the side. One was labelled “Fuel Services” and was obviously pumping out the incorrect fuel from the car belonging to the sheepish businessman standing beside it. At least he caught the error before driving off, but I can’t imagine how much he paid for the pump out (although probably less than he would pay in repairs to his engine if he hadn’t).
A pump jockey once filled my 1974 VW Westfalia with diesel. I got 3 or 4 miles down the highway before it stalled and would not start. Luckily, cell phones had been invented so friends who were going our way picked up the wife and kids and a tow was dispatched.
I had no idea what the problem was and the engine had just been rebuilt from top to bottom by an amateur mechanic (me) so I assumed every other possible problem except bad gas. Going back over the manuals, I saw that I had torqued the heads to 18ft-lbs and not the 24ft-lbs that was required so I was going to have to remove the engine and re-torque the heads. Did so and it still wouldn’t start – didn’t even cough.
I ended up leaving it for almost a year before sending it to the pros who tracked down and solved the problem for $300 or so. After draining the tank and adding some gas it ran fine although it blew a lot of smoke for a tank or two. After a year I figured the statute of limitations had run out on the pump jockey.
Working in a gas station many years ago, I filled a diesel with gasoline, then went about fixing the mistake. The inside of the fuel door had a sticker that said “Light Oil”, but what should have registered with me was the lack of an unleaded-trap.
My 91 f800 Crane Truck had the Engine Replaced because we had a Sod Buster that worked with us in the Mine that just never could get the correct fuel in the truck. I bought it later when it went up on surplus so I got a much newer engine.
