There is an Audi commercial on tv in which a woman is filling her tank with diesel. Bystanders are dramatically yelling “no” and trying to tell her that she’s using diesel. Can anyone explain what this ad is trying to do, or what the issue is? In my experience the diesel hose is larger than the gas tank hole so that you can’t do this by accident. What’s up with this?
It’s a stupid ad because so many cars are diesel now, but you’ll damage your engine if you do it by accident so they were trying to stop her. I don’t know that all pumps are bigger since I hear about it happening often enough.
Now, if that were the first diesel car, that would make sense, but diesel cars have been ‘mainstream’ for 5 years or so. (Yes, I know they’ve been around for a lot longer then that, but they’ve only really become popular in the last few years).
There still aren’t many diesel cars in the US. Other than a few VWs, most use gasoline. Audi is just now offering a full line of diesels so the joke is that seeing someone pump diesel into an Audi would be a new sight and they think the owner is making a mistake.
No, there aren’t a lot, and yes, most of the are VW’s (and the rest, I think, are luxury imports) but I think at this point if someone was pumping diesel into their tank no one is going to try to stop them. Not like they would have 10 years ago.
Yeah, diesel cars are common enough in the U.S. now that I don’t think anyone would really be screaming at the pump about it.
I have heard of people getting diesel into their tank despite the nozzle not fitting. Usually they just push the side of the nozzle down so that it opens the little tab over the filler tube and don’t actually stick the nozzle in because it won’t fit. Number one comment I’ve heard afterwards - “I wondered why it didn’t fit right.”
While that is theoretically true, in most cases there isn’t any major damage done. Usually the car will drive a short distance while spewing large quantities of smoke out through the tailpipe and then they’ll stop. Then the car gets towed to a shop where the mechanic drains the tank and flushes the fuel system. The tow and the mechanic’s time will cost you a bit of money, and of course you have the inconvenience of having your car completely un-driveable, but I’ve never personally heard of anyone causing any real harm to their car from it.
Adverts are not always faithful to reality - in this case, the detail of the mechanics of pump nozzles is overlooked by the ad, which is trying to make the point that nobody can quite believe the car is a diesel (by which it is implied that the performance of the car must be comparable to that of an ordinary petrol engine, or implied that Audi would not have made a diesel unless it performed better than a diesel might be expected to)
You and I may know that there are a few diesel cars on the road, but I expect that the significant majority of Americans don’t. Which would make it a sensible and polite thing to warn someone you saw pumping diesel into a car.
Weird thing is, I’m sure I saw exactly this theme in an ad maybe as long as five years back - although in the ad I saw, the attendant at the till just wouldn’t activate the pump (again, implied that he couldn’t believe the car was a diesel)
For comparison - here’s a ‘banned’ VW ad making a similar point:
“Don’t forget it’s a diesel” implies that the performance of the car is such that you might forget it’s a diesel.
believing no detail is left to chance, it is overwhelmingly males deterring the female audi owner from pumping diesel.
A TV ad exaggerating to prove a point? That’s never happened before!
I’ll take your word on not harming it, but if the car is old enough and it ends up needing new injectors, or a catalytic converter you could end up totaling it.
But I’ve heard Click and Clack tell plenty of people to just drain out what they can , fill it and if it runs just keep the tank full for the next hundred miles or so.
Diesel is essentially kerosene. It may gum up your injectors a little (especially if it’s during cold weather) but it isn’t going to ruin anything. And as far as I know diesel won’t do anything to a catalytic converter (leaded gas is what will destroy them).
Now putting gasoline into a diesel engine, that can be very bad…
Diesel is an oil or lubricant, Gasoline however is a solvent. Diesel in a gas car causes pre-ignition, but the car could probably run on it for a short time.
Gas in the diesel will eat away at gaskets, especially rubber O rings, hoses, and any plastic parts that it comes in contact with.
The diesel engine will also pre-ignite and if able to run long enough, will possibly blow the heads, burn or blow out the piston rings, etc.
Mostly from memory as told by a mechanic friend who specialized in diesel engines.
Er… This part ( I bolded ) is wrong I think.
You are correct, I don’t think a gas engine can reach the pressure needed to ignite the diesel fuel.
Sorry.
Sounds like the commercial did its job just fine 
Anecdote. When my daughter was in college she filled her car with diesel by mistake (she picked it because it was cheapest). Apparently she didn’t have any trouble filling the tank because she didn’t know she had done anything wrong until the car died a half-block later. One drain/flush/refill later it was fine. This was about 5 years ago.
We still have to keep remind her of it. 
Dammit! Next thing you’re going to tell me that a cartoon rabbit isn’t really after my breakfast cereal! Stupid cereal, I knew it wasn’t really that great…
I think most of you missed one of the points of the commercial. They weren’t screaming just because she was using diesel-they were screaming because they couldn’t believe a luxury car like that could possibly be a diesel.