The petrol fuel tank aperture and the mistake is detected early

Lately more people have been known to buy diesel powered motor vehicles instead of the traditional petrol engine cars.  Due to this swopping of vehicles, a common mistake has been noted where motorists simply forget that they need to fill up with diesel and fill up with petrol instead.  It normally does not happen that people fill diesel in a petrol vehicle as the standard diesel fuel nozzle is bigger than the petrol fuel tank aperture and the mistake is detected early.

Time to Take Action

It is common to go into panic mode when an error like this occurs as most cars are expensive and just the thought of having costly damage and facing exorbitant repair bill is enough to cause frustration. Emergency assistance engineers usually have to calm motorists down before they start working on the vehicle.  In most cases all that is needed is a simple, cheap fuel drain of the vehicle’s fuel tank. The engineers that are involved in the removal of wrong fuel are normally experienced and have a good knowledge of modern vehicles. Vehicles that are still on the forecourt of a petrol station needs to firstly be pushed out of the way of other customers.  If the vehicle has broken down somewhere on a public road, the vehicle needs to be towed to a place of safety where the engineer can work on the vehicle. If the vehicle is a more common model then the engineer can remove the petrol from the diesel fuel tank  easily. A fuel line is simply inserted into the fuel tank and the contaminated fuel is pumped into a steel container. A protective sheet is usually put over the vehicle to prevent damage to vehicle’s paintwork. After the contaminated fuel has been removed, the engineer flushes the vehicle system through with the correct type of fuel to remove any left-over fuel of the wrong type.  The vehicle can be refuelled correctly and tested.  Except for a little bit of grumbling from the engine, which can be resolved with a few revs from the accelerator, you can be assured that all is well.

How Long Will it Take

The time it takes depends mostly on what time of the day it is, your location and the time it will take before assistance arrives.  Engineers in this industry usually have a network that they work with and can get someone out to you within an hour. The other factor that may influence the time it takes is the amount of wrong fuel that was put into your vehicle. It is obvious the more full the tank is the longer it will take to remove than if there is a small amount of fuel in the vehicle.  The entire process can take anything from 20-40 minutes, depending on all the external circumstances.

The Effects on My Wallet of A Drain Clean

Some insurance companies specifically state that you can claim for a drain clean, if it doesn’t say so, you probably can’t.  A fuel drain normally costs less than the excess on your insurance so it is not worth claiming anyway.  Your vehicle’s warranty shouldn’t be effected either.