My mum, bless her, put a gallon of unleaded in her diesel Kia Cee'd earlier this week.
She realised the mistake, didn't start the car and it was pushed to the adjacent workshop - a Honda franchise - and the tank flush job was done satisfactorily.
My question is what would be a reasonable charge?
I'll post the actual figure later today, but I'm a bit concerned the garage may have taken advantage of a 70-year-old woman in distress.
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Standard charge is £200-£225, or it was when SWMBO did it to our Scenic a year or so ago.
In the end, we had it done by a garage known to a friend of ours who puts a lot of business their way. They did it at "mates rate" for £125 cash, including a tow in, which I was well happy with.
Allowing for inflation, and demand, £250??
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Things became chuffin expensive when they decided to do away with the drain plug, didn't they?
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Dont they use the suction gadget they do oil changes with?
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Ifitetc, i can feel the hackles rising, pet hate of mine any taking of advantage of any of our seniors, many other groups come to that.
Well done her for spotting the mistake before a full tankfull wasted though, should imagine we'll all do it at some point, even the perfects..;)
I should hope an hours labour and some disposal charges wouldn't come to more than £130 including the dreaded vat, it would have been a more involved problem had she topped up, then i suppose the 200 might come into it, i suppose a lot depends on how easy it is to either remove the sender unit/filler pipe and get all but the dregs out.
EDIT. idea for garages, keep some old injection primer pumps from scrappers, selection of adaptor pipes, and disconnect fuel supply pipe at tank end or engine end, connect to spare battery and just pump the tank dry.
Edited by gordonbennet on 22/08/2008 at 11:59
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Piece of hosepipe: 50p. Green gallon jerry can £1.99.
Suck. Put diesel into les sensitive car. Repeat until finished.
Hey presto, several gallons free diesel to put into a less sensitive beast, value £25.
Ten minutes work, cost £10.
Net cost to mother, £12.50 cash returned to her.
I know these CR diesels are fussy, but FLUSHING the tank? 100 ml out of 50 litres is 2 parts per thousand.
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Piece of hosepipe: 50p. Green gallon jerry can £1.99. Suck.
Price of stomach pump when you inadvertantly inhale a mouthful of Derv: Priceless.
Rather get TWO bits of hosepipe, swaddle them both in cloth on the filler cap, and BLOW down the shorter one, thus forcing the fuel out of the longer one into the jerry can.
:>)
But agree - get the majority out of the tank into jerry cans, fill up with good stuff, and the 1:100 mix of petrol/diesel isn't going to hurt the car.
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Price of stomach pump when you inadvertantly inhale a mouthful of Derv: Priceless.
Crumbs. I always knew I'd been going wrong somewhere. When I inhale, it goes into my lungs; only when I swallow does it go into my stomach...
www.droughtbuster.co.uk/hand_syphon_pump.htm
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inhale/ingest... what the hell...
Still a silly thing to do.
maybe safe siphoning instructions should be part and parcel of the new driving test?
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For the one gallon of unleaded (or 4.55 litres) could you have not filled the car with diesel as it holds 53 litres?
I know petrol/diesel mixing takes place in cold climates to stop the diesel freezing and turning to a sludge - but I don't know the ratio's.
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I believe this is right. Diesel in a petrol car is a big issue and you should not run it. Petrol in a diesel though is not so bad. As Tron says, in colder climates they deliberately put some petrol in to stop 'icing' of the diesel.
Of course, there's no reason for the mother to know that. And for that matter, it's quite believable that the garage didn't know either - so I wouldn't label them a rip off on the basis of this argument.
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I believe this is right. Diesel in a petrol car is a big issue and you should not run it. Petrol in a diesel though is not so bad.
Out of date info. CR diesels rely on the fuel for lubrication. Petrol can be an expensive disaster.
Of course there's no reason for the mother to know that.
Quite so, it's not true ;-)
And for that matter it's quite believable that the garage didn't know either - so I wouldn't label them a rip off on the basis of this argument.
£200 definitely, or £4000 possibly. There's an argument to be made either way, but I know what I would do...
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>>Petrol in a diesel though is not so bad.
Not in a common rail diesel, though. It's just as fatal - worse, actually.
That said, a gallon isn't very much.
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mapmaker said "petrol in a cr diesel is fatal ". son is a vw techie on vans. a guy filled his van up in glasgow and set sail for aberdeen. got a bit up the road when the van shuddered to a halt. he realised he had filled up with petrol. van was trailered up to its home in aberdeen. son gets the job of sorting it out. drains tank, clears lines and changes filter fills it up with diesel and fires it up. van runs perfectly. son says it is a common ocurrence in both cars and vans and they sort them out as above. haven,t had any fatalities. seems that vw are more tolerant than some others or do some manufacturers use fuel contamination as an excuse for poor quality fuel pumps? jag.
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jag
Up until now VAG don't use common-rail diesels. Their PD injectors are far more tolerant of misfuelling.
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screwloose, yes i realise that is the case so maybe the much maligned vw's have something to offer although the new common rail engine will nulify the benefit. jag.
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I know petrol/diesel mixing takes place in cold climates to stop the diesel freezing and turning to a sludge - but I don't know the ratio's.
According to Ford Australia, don't ever mix petrol with diesel. tinyurl.com/6pk4nw
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tinyurl.com/6pk4nw
Ford - one of the biggest motor companies in the world
Website - looks like somebodies GCSE project
how come ?
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My mum bless her put a gallon of unleaded in her diesel Kia Cee'd
Gallon or litre?
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I think if it was only one gallon I'd have brimmed the tank with diesel - run it and frequently topped it up again with more diesel and risked it.
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I put a load of DERV in a petrol BMW a few years back, I can't state the quantities involved, but the critter wouldn't idle anymore - I ran it up and down, up and down the A30 for yonks til it was all gone, refilled with petrol and I had no bother at all - infact, the car ran better than it ever had before !
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Back to the Q - to empty the tank of the fuel within, and dispose correctly, an hour plus £30 disposal charge, so £90 + VAT.
5l in a 50l tank would have done no harm, IMHO, so long as the tank was brimmed with diesel.
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Everybody seems to be forgetting (or underestimating) the cost of the extraction equipment involved, the storage of explosive products (and its certified disposal and costs), the refilling and running and testing etc etc.
Theres a bit more to it than is being suggested (if you want it tobe done and guaranteed). Or maybe you want the garage to do it on the cheap and guarantee it too?
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I wonder if the professionals say the fuel is polluted so has no value . Where does it end up - apart from in their own vehicles?
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Where does it end up - apart from in their own vehicles?
In rusting 205ltr ex-oil drums at the back of the workshop. Nobody wants to take the stuff; but, if you stand them on earth, the drums eventually leak and it soaks into the ground....
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Back to the Q - to empty the tank of the fuel within and dispose correctly an hour plus £30 disposal charge so £90 + VAT.
A year ago that was half the "going rate" (we rang a dozen garages in our area). RAC's "standard" charge for this was £200 - they have a co-operation with a handful of local garages. All the local garages came in at around the £200 mark as well.
If I didn't know better, I'd have suspected some price fixing at play.
We had 6 litres in a 60 litre tank. It didn't even occur to us to risk it.
Cheers
DP
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I know of a few people who get free fuel for their old diesel vans/cars, by taking the contaminated fuel from their garage-owning mates. 10% petrol in diesel makes no odds to an old IDI diesel.
As has been alluded above, the kit needed amounts to little more than some tubing and a no-spark low voltage pump.
Call it two hours if you want to flush the fuel line and change the fuel filter. Still can't see more than £150 + VAT in it.
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I know of a few people who get free fuel for their old diesel vans/cars by taking the contaminated fuel from their garage-owning mates. 10% petrol in diesel makes no odds to an old IDI diesel.
Unfortunately; very few misfuels give that ratio; [those that do end up in my truck!] as, almost by definition, drivers tend to refuel their diesels when the tank is low and thus the "usual" ratio is 85/15 petrol/DERV.
Old, pre-cat, petrol cars can still take a diesel nozzle; but very few seem to oblige....
Edited by Screwloose on 22/08/2008 at 17:37
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I'd do it for nothing and take the fuel as payment. A fair price would be £50 for labour and sundries. Any more is a rip off.
As others have said, I would just top up with diesel and add RedEx or Millers Power Sport 4 for a bit of extra lubricity.
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The perfect top-up would be properly made bio-diesel, as it's high lubricity, but you need to make sure the vehicle does not have a DPF, as they don't mix.
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Thanks for the replies - the answer is £195.
Looking at some of the posts that is not as bad as I thought, although I'm sure I read somewhere either the AA or RAC use specially equipped vans and charge about £80.
The quantity mater put in was "about £6 worth, dear," - around a gallon.
I reckon that is just a bit too much to risk trying to drown it in diesel and carry on.
Edited by ifithelps on 22/08/2008 at 19:01
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"reckon that is just a bit too much to risk trying to drown it in diesel and carry on."
Depends on the size of the fuel tank of course.
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The price sounds about right to me. Perhaps even a little on the low side?
The misfueling issue is becoming big business it seems. Friends of ours who live in Surrey put petrol in their diesel car and the AA towed them to a garage that specilaised in sorting out this problem. That's all the garage does, 24/7! Cost them >£200 IRC.
(sorry mods, this ended up in another thread somehow!) {now sorted}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 22/08/2008 at 20:56
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browse to the AA webiste and search on 'fuel assist'
£176.25 (£150 plus VAT) for AA members
£199.75 (£170 plus VAT) for non-members
so she got charged about the going rate. Whether that is value for money or not is a different question ;-)
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