Motorists who fill their vehicles with the wrong fuel risk damage bills of $10,000 or more, the state’s peak motoring body warned today. RACQ vehicle technologies executive manager Steve Spalding says “misfuelling” incidents were on the increase in Queensland for both diesel and petrol-engined vehicles.

“It’s only too easy to pick up the wrong pump nozzle, particularly if there are multiple fuel choices at the same bowser.”

Spalding says the most common misfuelling is when a diesel car is filled with petrol or vice versa but it’s not uncommon to find problems when cars made to run on premium petrol are filled with regular unleaded fuel. “As the number of diesel-powered cars on the roads was growing, so too was the incidence of misfuelling and drivers of these vehicles needed to be extra vigilant when filling up.”

“An older style diesel engine may tolerate a small amount of petrol without too much damage,” Spalding says, “but the consequences of misfuelling a late model diesel vehicle, particularly one fitted with a common-rail fuel system can be disastrous, with the repair bill reaching upwards of $10,000 if key components are damaged.”

The best advice for the motorist who misfuelled their diesel-powered vehicle was not to attempt to start the engine or even turn on the ignition. “If the vehicle has been started, stop the engine as quickly as possible to minimise damage.”

“This is one situation where the vehicle cannot be driven and must be recovered and taken to a repair shop,” says Spalding. “Providing the misfuelling problem is tackled immediately and a vehicle’s fuel system has been drained and cleaned before too much contamination has occurred, the motorist may be saved from an expensive repair bill.”

Spalding says while the incidences of motorists putting diesel into petrol-powered cars was less common, it still happened. “Generally this doesn’t cause too many problems as either the engine simply won’t run or it makes such alarming noises the driver stops the vehicle.” But this is certainly not recommended as at the very least the vehicle will have to be drained of fuel and it may also be necessary to remove fuel rails and injectors to get the last of the diesel out.

Spalding says that while premium unleaded petrol (PULP) usually wouldn’t harm a car that normally ran on regular unleaded (ULP), using the cheaper petrol in a car designed for premium brands was another matter.

“While some PULP-engined cars will operate without harm on ULP – albeit at reduced power and economy – other PULP-engined cars will not run without harm and their owners risk engine damage,” says Spalding. “The moral of the story is consult your car’s manual to double check before you decide to save the six or so cents a litre by purchasing the cheaper petrol.”

The good news is that providing a vehicle hasn’t been driven too far, it’s likely that a PULP car running on ULP will be OK once the tank has been drained.

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