Wrong fuel in car - Swiss garage response.

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Some stupid, stupid, stupid idiot forgot he was driving his daughter's petrol car, not his own diesel car, and managed to put 8.5l of diesel in with 26.5l of unleaded. So about 25%. Drove a further 5km before realising.

I... I mean, he... ok, I admit it. It was me...

I called my travel insurance, and through them talked to a garage. Of course, we're on holiday and have to move out of our holiday apartment at 10am tomorrow. A guy should turn up tomorrow morning at 9am. The car is in the apartment block car park.

I know the tank needs to be drained, refilled etc. I'm just wondering if anyone has had experience of this in Switzerland. I know in the UK it can be done in situ; do they/can they do that here?

2
My garage is located next to a Pronto. The mechanic told me they do quite a brisk business with customers who accidently fill up their car with the wrong petrol. It seems to be a common mistake.

3

can be done situ in any Carrozzeria

4
It happened to my friend Karen some years ago.

Have a look here: https://www.tcs.ch/de/testberichte-r...ch-getankt.php

If the engine was behaving weirdly, it can be expensive.

5
I didn't even know this was possible given the wider diesel nozzle.

My mother once did the reverse with my father's diesel VW Passat, luckily it was only £20 of unleaded so I just brim filled it with diesel and it was fine.

6
A new hire (another team) did that to the company car.

TBF, I don't know what kind of fuel it takes myself (I very rarely drove it).

But I think I would check. I think.

I actually double check on my own car every time, to make sure I fuel up correctly.

Ended up costing 1500 AFAIK.

TCS had to tow it (she drove it to the end).

7
They should be able to drain and refill the tank on the spot. Petrol in a diesel is much more worse than diesel in a Petrol (Diesel fuel pumps use the oiliness in diesel fuel itself for lubrication -> so petrol will make it run dry. )

I am curious to know how you managed to insert the diesel nozzle to your petrol car as it should not fit

You should be OK but remember to use petrol/fuel system cleaner after they do the tank drain and refill. Good luck!

8
Unless you have a racing intake, how on earth did you fit a diesel hose into your inlet?

Tom

9
i did it once to a hire Fiat 500 from europecar. Luckily stopped after 2l

10
@NotAllThere 8,5l isn't much, tbh I'd just top up tank fully with petrol to dilute it (so shall be ~10% diesel if tank is ~70l given you burned something) and simply drive.

11

something doesn't add up - how do you know it was 26.5l in the car? even if you filled it to the top not sure which car would have 35l reservoir?

unless board computer tells you exact fuel load left in the car, which I really doubt would be accurate...

so fiat 500 does not have narrow intake for petrol cars?

12
Our son’s car has a 35l tank. It’s a real pleasure to fill it up if we use it as it costs way less than it does to fill mine up.

13
Related:

https://www.20min.ch/story/treibstof...e-766486963749

Happens to the brightest of us, it seems...

14
Did that to the school minibus coming back from Snowdome- tank was almost empty. Same minibus, same colour, same seats, same everything - but on that day they told me to take the boarding house minibus instead of the one I usually took! I am used to driving both Diesel and petrol, and all sizes- and normally I would have felt the difference immediately when driving- but nope!

And no-one had the idea to tell me, and no sticker to say so inside petrol cap or on the dash. Expensive- had to be drained and steam cleaned!

15
The proof that it can always be worse: https://www.20min.ch/story/treibstof...e-766486963749

The tanks in the gas station itself filled incorrectly

16
Indeed, 35L is small for a car, several of my motorcycles have 25L, and two of our cars 60+!

Tom

17
Maybe a plug-in hybrid, like a BMW 225XE.

18
My car* has a fuel tank that holds 24.5 litres.

Classic mini.

19
Driving my wife’s diesel car, I filled it with petrol (into an almost empty diesel tank). I realized after driving about 4 or 5 km. Stopped, parked, had it towed, and my garage took care of the whole thing for about Fr. 200 or so. No damage to the engine...I was lucky.

20
It was no effort at all. I understand that since petrol in diesel is far worse, it's the petrol nozzle that won't fit into a diesel. I hope never to find out I'm wrong on that!

Life seldom does. It's not a screenplay, Chekhov's Gun doesn't apply. Anyway, it's a Citröen C1 - 35l tank. 8.5l/35 ~ 25% - far too much. If you top up the tank, and pay for 8.5l of fuel, you know, given a 35l tank, that's 26.6l of unleaded that was already there.

Anyway. Guy turns up with tow truck at 9:00 as promised, takes car to garage - with using the truck and our luggage packed in the car. We explored the local town. At about 11:15 our car was driven past us by the mechanic, so we knew all was well.

The recovery was paid for by insurance, but the total cost was... around 18 francs a litre. It could have been worse. As my daughter said (it's actually her car) - it could have been her making that mistake!