Well, not actually, but I was in a convenience store one day when a customer came in to say that he had done just that. The clerk told him not to hit the ignition, that he was going to have to all someone to have the tank drained.
That part makes sense, but what if he had attempted to start the car? Would it just have not worked, or might it have actually caused damage?
(Also, the customer asked the clerk for a refund on the diesel. The clerk was not particularly accommodating on that.)
The Master’s minion speaks.
WAG, but I think it wouldn’t start, unless there were sufficient undiluted gasoline already in the system…diesel isn’t volatile like gasoline (it burns but doesn’t explode). And when the fuel injectors try to suck the diesel into the engine, it’s just putting it in other parts of the system where you don’t want it, so you’d have to drain the gas tank AND anything else it got into. Sounds like a mess.
One point of reference is that you can run at least some diesels, unmodified, on vegetable oil. Much more viscous that gasoline, I think it would really gum things up.
How did the person do it? Those nozzles don’t fit a gas filler pipe, from what I’ve seen.
Thanks!.
That was my thought too – could it be a regional/state-by-state thing? I’m in NY.
Himself has done the opposite - put gas in a diesel car. It ran, IIRC, for a block or so. Then it stopped.
Yeah, I wonder the same thing. I presume that it was an older car, or an area where diesel nozzles are different than around here. Diesel nozzles in this area also have a helical wire thing wrapped around the nozzle. I haven’t personally tried it, but I believe you are going to have a hell of a time getting the diesel nozzle into the filler pipe on most recent model gas cars.
This article refers to $2.10 as “extremely high gas prices.” 
An Earth shattering Kaboom!
No actually.
I’ve done this we lent our (petrol) Transit van to a friend and he thought he’d do us a favour by filling the tank up. He assumed that it was diesel. Oops. There must have been just enough petrol in the carb to get it round the corner from the petrol station to our storage unit. When we next tried to start it it would turn over and splutter for a bit but refused to keep going.
We siphoned out the tank, put some petrol in and it was all better.
That’s what I thought, too.
Back in the day, when leaded and unleaded gas were both available, there was a difference in the diameter of the filler spout. Some people carried a plastic adapter so that they could put leaded fuel into their car.
Put leaded fuel in an unleaded-fuel car? Why? Wouldn’t that screw up the catalytic converter?
There are actually diesel nozzles that are normal sized nowadays. I drove a diesel for a while and most gas stations have a special diesel isle, but some others will have an “auto diesel” area made for cars. It’s usually on one end of the normal gas pumps and is normally a normal-sized nozzle. So just remember to look! Also, it’s almost always green.
That’s why I wondered if it was an older car. The diesel nozzle probably fits quite easily into the old leaded filler pipes.
We could be in for more permutations of this if E85 and other alternative fuels come to pass. I can envision your gas station of the future dispensing half a dozen different fuels in varying grades, with a variety of subsets which will work in various vehicles.
Backintheday, people did a workaround for that. I know guys who would somehow “bore out” the CC so the car would pass state inspection, but the CC was not functional.
Many cars will run the fuel pump for several seconds when the key is turned to “on” (not “start” - “on”). All cars will run the fuel pump during “start,” and while the engine is running. So trying to start the car will definitely get some diesel into the fuel system beyond the gas tank, and on some cars merely turning the switch on will do that. If that happens, it’s often necessary to do more than just drain the tank to solve the problem. I’d say it was good advice.
You gotta love a good combination of stupidity and feelings of entitlement.
This reminds me of the time I, in my Monday-morning stupor, poured an entire gallon of windshield wiper fluid into the oil compartment. :smack: I got about halfway down the street before the car just… stopped. It took the mechanic four rinses of oil to wash out the oil pan, but the embarrassment will never be washed away.
What’s even funnier is that it starts with “In this age of extremely high gas prices, I’ve noticed that diesel is quite a bit cheaper than regular gasoline.” Around here, diesel is at least $0.50/gal higher than regular gas.
My stepson borrowed my old beater Mazda years ago, when the car started overheating. One of his equally clueless friends suggested that he should add some water to the coolant reservoir. He took the friend’s advice, and promptly filled the brake fluid reservoir to the top with water. :smack:
I made him help me flush the brake system.
IIRC unleaded fuel was available before catalytic converters were mandatory in the UK at least. With one car Dad was able to buy leaded the few times we were in an area that didn’t stock plentiful supplies of unleaded, with another we had a hell of a time tracking down unleaded in deepest county Cork. I suppose the anecdote might have worked in a time long ago.