Gas in Diesel

[JD PLOWER]

Well it finally happened, while my father was getting some fuel at a station he didn't pay attention to the talking monkey that FILLED THE FRONT TANK WITH GAS. He paid for the fuel and within about 3 minutes noticed the truck running teribble and the white smoke. I changed the fuel filter as soon as he got home. Luckily the front tank had a couple of gallons in it so my father switched tanks asap when he noticed the white smoke. Long story short they deny the whole thing and now I have to go to the dealer to have 20 gallons of gas drained :headwall

Some questions for anyone with experience with this.

How much do you think it will cost to have the fuel drained at a dealer?

If the truck went about two miles on the highway do you think any engine damage could have occurred?

Did the station that did it (not self serve of course) pay for the draining or did you have to go through small claims?

Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

[Pelican]

JD, I'd have another shop do the work, the less a dealer knows about this incident the better off you'll be. I think the biggest problem occurs to the injectors, they are lubricated by the diesel. If the truck's running OK back on diesel, I wouldn't get too concerned about it, you probably caught it in time. An attorney would have to advise you on what recourse you have with the filling station.

[BWhite]

I agree with Steve . The dealer shouldnt know . Did you pay with a Credit Card, if so the reciept would say unleaded, not diesel . That would be proof

[BLUEBOOMER]

I did the same thing. Get about 15 ft of garden hose. You might cut the end off to get it in the tank? shove it in the tank. siphon it out into cans. filled tank, and added 2 qts of automatick transmission fluid. that was 125,000 miles ago. Make sure the hose gets to the bottom of the tank, or count the gallons comong out. Dave

[cat320]

It took alot longer than that when i got water in my tank I change the filer about 5 times and was draing it out daily after I drained the tank but you can never get it all.

JD which truck was it not the 550 I hope.

[JD PLOWER]

Thanks for the replies. The truck I am reffering to is my 97 350 not the 550 (thank God). By going to a dealer I can have it verified that it has gas and not diesel in the front tank. I want to do this for two reasons. First I really don't want to deal with twenty gallons of contaminated gas (it has at least two gallons of diesel mixed in) and second to present this guy (the manager) with a bill from Ford and tell him to pay this now or pay me more later in small claims court. Apparently this guy is well known to the local police since he's been acused of running scams on people with uneeded repairs and just generally being a scumbag. The cops at the station where we went to file a report on this guy said " That guy again!? " Part of the reason I want this guy to pay to have this stuff removd is for ten minutes he denied the entire thing even happened there. I hate to generalize but it seems to me that 3/4 of the peolpe running gas stations are sleazy, lazy thieves.

[Pelican]

Whew!!!

I thought we were talking about the 550! That's a relief!

Your course of action makes sense in this case. Good luck!

[BWhite]

Originally posted by JD PLOWER
. I hate to generalize but it seems to me that 3/4 of the peolpe running gas stations are sleazy, lazy thieves.

We had a station nearby that tried to scam a women out of a 20K winning scratch ticket .

[CPSS]

The dealer will charge you a fortune to drain the tank. I know someone who had his new F-250 Powerstroke towed to the local dealer because his wife filled up with with unleaded. Truck died a mile out of the station. Dealer charged for 4 hours shop time, claimed they removed the tank, flushed all the lines, changed the filter, and $180 enviromental fee for disposing of the contaminated fuel. Total cost over $600.

You should just siphon the tank as best you can, add a few gallons of diesel and siphon again. Add 10 oz of Power Service diesel conditioner ( available at WalMart), change the fuel filter, and you'll be all set. Transmission oil does nothing for treating diesel oil. It's something big rig truckers did 20 years ago, but the theory lingers on that it helps.

[mattg]

Do me a favor. If you ever stop at the gas station I run, please do not associate me with the "sleazy, lazy, thieves", that are causing you problems. I run an honest shop and go out of my way to do the right thing, not the most profitable thing when there is a problem. I can also say the same for the vast majority of my loyal competition. Don't get me wrong, I am not angry at you, only at the jerks that give the rest of us a bad name. I really don't think that there are that many of them out there, but they sure as hell create a stereotype that the rest of us can't distance ourselves from.
On a different note. Give them all hell. If their man made the mistake, then they are obligated to pay for any and all repairs that result from it.
Good luck!

[JD PLOWER]

CP thanks for the heads up on the possible cost of the draining. If I drain it myself then I still have to dispose of the gas and around here you can't bring twenty gallons of fuel to your local DPW yard on waste disposal day. Draining a small amount at a time is really not practical for me. I realize the up front cost is probably going to be high but if any one other than a dealer does the work then they ( the station) can say "we could have done that" and they'd be right. A judge is more likely to side with a dealers assesment then a private repair shop.

Matt thanks for your understanding. I know we do have some decent gas station owners around here but by and large the class ( or lack of ) people that are running the stations in this area are not of the highest ethical standards, if you know what I mean :rolleyes: . I know this is a another generalization but many of them use English as a second (or third ) language. That doesn't help anyone.

[Bob Van]

I agree with everyone....

Drain or siphone all you can.

You can add several gallons of fuel to dilute what's left and re-siphone.

I fueled my diesel farm tractor and noticed what I had done when I went to hang the hose back on the diesel tank.

I drained and flushed it per the dealer.

The gas does not have the proper lubricants. Add the Power Service for diesels (not ATF) per directions.

[CPSS]

JD, the contaminated fuel could be used in your lawn mower, just mix it half and half with straight gasoline. You could get an estimate from the dealer, do the work yourself, use the estimate in court as an idea of the actual costs for the damages.

[cat320]

It will be hard to flush every drop out I got water in my tank and it took along time to get rid of it.

[CPSS]

With gasoline you don't have to get every drop out. The gas will mix with the diesel very well. As long as it's diluted enough, there will be no harm. Water doesn't mix with diesel, so it's more important to remove it.

[BWhite]

JD, How did you make out ?

[JD PLOWER]

Bill I ended up getting a friend who works at the local DPW to let me bring the truck there and drain it. Saved some aggravation since the dealer said it was going to be about a week before he could deal with it. I can and probably will sue the satation in small claims at least for the cost of the fuel and to drag this jerk in to court.