I've been reading about inadvertent fuel contamination (putting petrol in your diesel tank or vice versa). The AA’s website link to "Fuel Assist" (their own mobile department for helping stranded motorists) advises against starting the car at all if one discovers they have mis-fuelled. Especially in the case of diesel engines being filled with petrol, on the basis that petrol, acting like a solvent, can do serious harm to diesel pumps that rely on the lubricating qualities of the diesel fuel to function efficiently. However, when the Fuel Assist operative attends to empty one's contaminated fuel tank, the first thing he does is connect a remote power supply to the car's battery and to the fuel pump in the car, in order to pump the contaminated fuel from the vehicle's tank through the fuel lines and fuel filter that carry the fuel to the engine bay. Is this action not in direct contradiction of their own advice, based on the fact that they are using the vehicle's fuel pump to pump out the contaminated fuel?
And subsequently, is this action of Fuel Assist not actually contributing to future damage within the fuel pump?