This is a first - Tesco mixes up petrol and diesel!

[Frank Hovis 41,827]

I am scrupulous about double checking that I have the right fuel nozzle but this would probably have caught me - well done Tesco for creating chaos on the roads!

Quote

 

This was the chaotic scene at one of Bristol’s busiest petrol stations this morning after claims of a mix-up between the petrol and diesel pumps left cars broken down on the roads around.

The filling station at Tesco in Eastville has been closed and police were called to deal with stricken cars that made it as far as the M32.

 

 

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/tesco-petrol-eastville-diesel-breakdown-2036452

[One percent 51,421]

6 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

I am scrupulous about double checking that I have the right fuel nozzle but this would probably have caught me - well done Tesco for creating chaos on the roads!

 

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/tesco-petrol-eastville-diesel-breakdown-2036452

Click through to the link to the update

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/why-drivers-broke-tesco-petrol-2038069

tesco arguing that it was water getting into the diesel tank

[Happy Renting 16,728]

It sounds like water in diesel, not a fuel mix-up.

[Frank Hovis 41,827]

1 minute ago, One percent said:

Click through to the link to the update

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/why-drivers-broke-tesco-petrol-2038069

tesco arguing that it was water getting into the diesel tank

Ah, let them off then.

[Happy Renting 16,728]

Just now, Frank Hovis said:

Ah, let them off then.

Well, no. They are probably making coffee with diesel in the Tesco coffee shop.

[GARCH 800]

1 minute ago, Frank Hovis said:

Ah, let them off then.

Really?  They still sold dodgy fuel the twats!

[Frank Hovis 41,827]

Just now, Happy Renting said:

Well, no. They are probably making coffee with diesel in the Tesco coffee shop.

Just now, GARCH said:

Really?  They still sold dodgy fuel the twats!

You're right - shoot them in front of their families!

[One percent 51,421]

3 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

Ah, let them off then.

Stories crop up now and again of people who blame supermarket fuel for ruining their engine. It’s normally Tesco implicated

[Happy Renting 16,728]

There was a genuine mix-up incident a few years ago. Hundreds of petrol cars were written off and the petrodiesl company had to foot the bill.

[leonardratso 3,377]

that wasasda wasbt it?

[Happy Renting 16,728]

6 minutes ago, leonardratso said:

that wasasda wasbt it?

It has to be.

[leonardratso 3,377]

yeah, water fatal to diesel, wont compress, con rod block breakout.

Could tolerate some petrol.

Doesnt big fuel filter store water?

[Happy Renting 16,728]

It is difficult to confuse diesel with petrol.

Even I can taste the difference.

[Uptherebels 841]

I think the mixing up of the underground tanks once happened at Tebay services in Cumbria a few years ago. 

[leonardratso 3,377]

hydrolock, thats something to do with farts and water isnt it?

[Hail the Tripod 10,012]

7 hours ago, Uptherebels said:

I think the mixing up of the underground tanks once happened at Tebay services in Cumbria a few years ago. 

I had always assumed the tanks had different input connectors in the same way the pumps have different output nozzles, so that this cannot happen.

[Rave 1,787]

13 hours ago, leonardratso said:

yeah, water fatal to diesel, wont compress, con rod block breakout.

Could tolerate some petrol.

Doesnt big fuel filter store water?

Liquid diesel doesn't compress either, nor petrol for that matter; if you get a cylinder full of fluid it will kipper the engine whatever the fluid happens to be. Water (or petrol) in diesel is a problem because the diesel pump is lubricated by the diesel itself; no diesel = no lubrication and so the pump shits itself in very short order.

[leonardratso 3,377]

9 minutes ago, Rave said:

Liquid diesel doesn't compress either, nor petrol for that matter; if you get a cylinder full of fluid it will kipper the engine whatever the fluid happens to be. Water (or petrol) in diesel is a problem because the diesel pump is lubricated by the diesel itself; no diesel = no lubrication and so the pump shits itself in very short order.

rubbery. saw a piston out of an ancient diesel golf once, conn rod was bent into a 'U' so big end was facing up while piston head was also facing up. Strangely wasnt even cracked (conn rod) and half big end was still a perfect semi circle so would probably have still clamped nicely onto a crankshaft. Guy told me it was water in the cylinders wot did it. Golf was ham shanked, but it looked like it probably was before the engine blew.

[Rare Bear 1,880]

56 minutes ago, Rave said:

Liquid diesel doesn't compress either, nor petrol for that matter; if you get a cylinder full of fluid it will kipper the engine whatever the fluid happens to be. Water (or petrol) in diesel is a problem because the diesel pump is lubricated by the diesel itself; no diesel = no lubrication and so the pump shits itself in very short order.

My father was a builder. Back in my school days I was in the yard with the mechanics trying to start a diesel powered mixer which had been unused over the winter. A hand cranked diesel engine has what is called a decompresser. It is just a lever that hold open the exhaust valves so that you can get it rotating with the starting handle without having to overcome the compression.

Anyway, this neglected diesel engine would not start, there was no compression at all. Not uncommon on one of these engines which had not run for a while. One of the valves, usuualy the exhaust had rusted open. The cure was well known. Just pour a little oil into the inlet manifold and try again. So we did this. Still no compression. So working on the principal that if some is good, more is better and too much must be just right, I poured in some more oil, or rather lots more oil. One of us cranked it, when it was turning nicely the decompression lever was flipped and there was compression. The problem was that instead of the engine starting the cylinder barrel and the cylinder head parted company with the crankcase. a nice demonstration of hydraulic lock.

Fortunately for us, don't forget this was back in the 60s Ireland and the two mechanics would have been fired and God know what would have happened to me there was an old dumper with the same model engine abandoned in a corner of the yard. All we had to do was to swap the necessary bits from the dumper and no one was ever the wiser.

[Rave 1,787]

1 hour ago, leonardratso said:

rubbery. saw a piston out of an ancient diesel golf once, conn rod was bent into a 'U' so big end was facing up while piston head was also facing up. Strangely wasnt even cracked (conn rod) and half big end was still a perfect semi circle so would probably have still clamped nicely onto a crankshaft. Guy told me it was water in the cylinders wot did it. Golf was ham shanked, but it looked like it probably was before the engine blew.

This still happens regularly when people attempt to drive through flood water- a typical petrol engine has a compression ratio of 10:1, diesel will be more like 17:1, so you don't need anything like a cylinder full of water to cause a hydraulic lock, probably 60cc of water in a 500cc cylinder will cause instant and probably terminal engine damage.

[Happy Renting 16,728]

I was thinking about this re water in fuel. I think that more water & diesel could accumulate in the cylinder on each stroke and not be evaporated/burnt because there would no combustion. So after a few turns there might be enough water and unburnt fuel in a cylinder to start doing damage on the compression strokes.

BTW why is diesel so fatal for petrol engines? I would have thought flushing the tank, maybe replacing a filter and relying on a fresh tank of petrol to dilute any remaining diesel would fix any problem easily enough.

[leonardratso 3,377]

vinegar strokes.

I think its because diesel is slippy and used as a lubricant in the fuel system and diesel pump, does it wax/turn to solvent when you add petrol+diesel hence wont lubricate the pump etc? Not so sure, one things for certain, once your modern diesel has a big problem, its game over for the whole car more or less, in fact looks like its game over for perfectly good diesels in the west. Yes the ones the govt use to encourage. Im gonna beat mine like the red headed step child.

 

[Happy Renting 16,728]

6 minutes ago, leonardratso said:

vinegar strokes.

Tourettes. Succinct, but Tourettes.

[leonardratso 3,377]

3 minutes ago, Happy Renting said:

Tourettes. Succinct, but Tourettes.

yar.

[Mirror Mirror 4,427]

19 minutes ago, Happy Renting said:

I was thinking about this re water in fuel. I think that more water & diesel could accumulate in the cylinder on each stroke and not be evaporated/burnt because there would no combustion. So after a few turns there might be enough water and unburnt fuel in a cylinder to start doing damage on the compression strokes.

BTW why is diesel so fatal for petrol engines? I would have thought flushing the tank, maybe replacing a filter and relying on a fresh tank of petrol to dilute any remaining diesel would fix any problem easily enough.

I dont think it is very fatal. If you somehow manage to put diesel in a petrol fuelled car, it will rapidly stop as the diesel wont atomise in a carburettor and if its fuel injected, a mix of air and diesel mix in a cylinder with a 9:1 compression ratio wont be ignited by a spark plug. Draining all the diesel out and flushing through with petrol wil sort it.

Other way round is more serious because the petrol wil be injected into the diesel engine's cylinder of highly compressed hot air just as diesel would, and it will ignite and burn much faster that diesel, leading to much higher pressures in the cylinders than the engine was designed for, and almost certainly engine damage.