What To Do If A Gas Station Mistakenly Loads Diesel Fuel Into An Unleaded Car

What To Do If A Gas Station Mistakenly Loads Diesel Fuel Into An Unleaded Car

Recently, one of our WIM contributors had a gas station accidentally fill his car up with Diesel fuel, instead of Unleaded gas. Here’s his advice and tips on how to deal with this situation if it ever happens to you. Also, this is a warning to make sure you look out for what the gas station attendants are loading into your vehicle. 

Story by Haresh Daswani

Just wanted to share a story and some helpful advice.

Last night at around 6:40pm, I went to fill up gas at Shell Muntinlupa. I told them “1,000 unleaded” and the guy went to use Diesel instead.

I was able to catch him when around 30 pesos worth of diesel was put in my tank, to which I was able to stop him. For a short while, his immediate response was to deny putting it in by resetting the counter and putting the nozzle back on its base. I got pissed off but immediately demand that I talk to a manager, or superior to resolve the issue immediately.

The advice of their Team Leader and Supervisor (on the phone) was that it was ok, because you can just dilute diesel off with regular unleaded and it will be fine.

I insisted that they drain the tank and replace the compromised gas on their own expense at the soonest time possible.

My car was pushed to the service bay, during which time I had to wait for a mechanic (the 2013 VIOS does not have a drain plug on its gas tank) and was thus stuck there for 2 BLOODY HOURS.

After the entire inconvenience, the mechanic finally arrived, drained my car by siphoning out the gas, and had the gas replaced. I had my regular fill up (which I still had to pay for) and got the letter I requested which acted as an incident report as well as a warranty against any damage related to the incident.

Here are some very important lessons

1. The main reason we need to turn our engines off while filling up is because these people actually DO MISLOAD once a while.

2. In an event of a misload, GET THE GAS REPLACED

3. Do not start the car until the gas has been fully replaced

4. Always demand for an incident report

5. When filling up gas, ALWAYS CHECK WHICH NOZZLE THEY PUT IN YOUR CAR.

 

Last night’s incident reminded me that unless I strictly demand and know my rights, these guys will just push it all off.

Here are a few things they suggested, which you SHOULD NOT DO.

1. Leave your car here and take a cab if you’re in such a hurry (dude, that is Php 700 per way from Muntinlupa to Eastwood, are they crazy?)

2. Don’t worry, the gas will be diluted in the tank (no it won’t, Diesel and Petrol do not mix)

I tried calling their HQ.  Unfortunately, SHELL DOES NOT HAVE A CUSTOMER SERVICE WHO CAN HELP YOU AT NIGHT WHEN THEY MESS UP.

After speaking to some friends who had this similar incident happen, they all say that the gas station would try to brush off the incident and tell you that the diesel gas will dilute if you just fill it up. This is a scam to just get you off their property so you would not have any proof of their mistake. From people who have had this happen, they say within days or sometimes a weeks, your engine will start stalling and there may be many other problems experienced. 

Furthermore, when we drained the liquid out of my tank, you could clearly see a separation where the diesel fuel would drown to the bottom, clearly showing that it does not dilute with the gas. 

On a final note, if that is Shell’s take on this, that other liquids are ok to put into your gas tank and that it just dilutes, then what other foreign liquids is Shell putting into the gas we pay for?!?!?!

 

Story by Haresh Daswani

If you have other notes on what to do in case a similar incident happens, do comment below. 

What To Do If A Gas Station Mistakenly Loads Diesel Fuel Into An Unleaded Car