To think its outrageous to be charged £250 to have my fuel tank drained?

[WotchOotErAPolis]

DH managed to fill my diesel up with petrol & subsequently broke down. We have been with a certain recovery company since the year dot & have every avaiable service under the sun with them.

The car was in an unsafe place, so all they would offer is a tow to a safe location. They refused to take the car home as DH mentioned during the call that he & a mate would drain the car themselves rather than pay £250 to have it done. The RC (recovery company) we're refusing to tow home as it's illegal to drain it yourself so they would only fulfil their legal obligations. Therefore they had us over a (fuel!!) barrel. Even after DH then said he'd take it to a garage then, as he didn't know that it was illegal, they refused as "but you have said during this call, (which is recorded of course) that you would drain it yourself".

Eventually they were persuaded to take the car home on a low loader, as DH then pointed out that he had also just said "I'll take it to a garage then".

AIBU to be furious that having spent ££ with the RC over the years, we should then lose so much money over a silly error, which is easily done and easily rectified.

(Especially, since having been told diesel is so much better but the petrol companies not having provided a foolproof mechanism to stop Joe Public making such a mistake? I know loads of people who have done just this and it seems a great money making scheme to me? You could equally say if I broke down it's my fault for not taking a full training course in vehicle maintenance!)

chic that's interesting. I guess fuel drains must still be as common and profitable as ever! The bit I like best about the AA cover is the additional repair cover where I only have to pay a £35 to the garage as if the patrol wasn't been able to fix the fault. I'll be sticking with them whilst I've still got my very unreliable Renault. Has saved me about £1000 so far.

Is it really that much?? Wow.

Dh did this in mine last year. Had a complete mental block. He realised though before he started the engine and was able to push it to the side. He then towed it himself to the garage we use. They charged us £20 to drain it. But that was all they needed to do.

Maxpepsi, we didn;'t realise until the car cut out about a mile down the road. The petrol had been through the whole system. They also needed to tow it away for us - so that will account for much of the extra cost.

I am shocked that your DP knows how to do it, cars have anti syphon pipes and it's a very tricky job.

My ex did that a few times! Once in a courtesy car that was different to the fuel in his very expensive car, and he drove it. Apparently £20K of damage that he argued with the dealership and didn't have to pay! Also he did it in my car and drove it (he insisted on filling up as he paid for car and fuel as I was SAHM). This was another new car but somehow he got my insurers to agree to put through as claim. Over £5k of damage, but a fault claim on my policy :-( . Prior to both of these with a 6 week old baby and very sleep deprived, I put petrol in a diesel car, but realised before I started it. Cost about £200 to drain.
Another time a work colleague put £10 petrol in a diesel before realising. Simply topped with diesel and all was ok.
Very common mistake!

I'd say the Recovery Company were being a bit "bossy" there. If you've paid for a recovery-to-home service in this situation then you're entitled to insist that they do just that.

It is NOT illegal to drain fuel from a car at home. There may be laws restricting the subsequent storage of the drained fuel; but it's not the job or right of the Recovery Company to prevent alleged future breach of these laws.

I would suggest that the following steps would be legal:

(1) Insist that the car be towed home.

(2) Drain or syphon the fuel into a number of suitable 20-Litre metal drums.

(3) Store the full 20-Litre metal drums away from the house, no more than 2 per address. Ask mate(s) to store them at their house(s) for now.

(4) Make estimate of how much diesel is present in the recovered petrol. If it's only 5 to 10% then add a bit (say half a gallon) to each nearly-full tank of petrol.

(5) Repeat step (4) until all the fuel is used. Obviously, check how the petrol car is running, (smoke, roughness, etc) and adjust additions respectively.

It may be necessary to wash a bit of petrol through the contaminated fuel system first and maybe do some other stripping & cleaning.

Some people may well prefer to pay £250 to avoid this hassle. Others with the time and basic knowledge & interest in engines may prefer to save £250; plus they get the original fuel back.

The Recovery Company were right to advise on the dangers & restrictions; but they were exceeding their legal powers (they don't have any legal powers!) in insisting that the £250 service was taken up. I suspect the Recovery Company operator wanted their commission!

To be fair, as other posters have stated, it's not £250 to drain the tank. It's to fully flush out the system - if he'd realised the mistake on the forecourt then it might have been less.

Personally I think the nozzle for petrol should be round and then, say, oval for diesel. So many of these situations would be avoided but doubt every car owner in Europe fancies a new filler system...

TBH £250 is cheaper than a new engine.

DH once filled up our diesel with petrol. It happened to be the time that we filled it from petrol light on to as full as it would go. Luckily I noticed as he was putting the nozzle back. I went in to pay for the full tank of petrol, then we pushed it out of the way and rang the AA. A special truck came and did his job. Cost us a couple of hundred quid. He also put a small bit of diesel in so we could drive round and back to fill it up.

Was an expensive fill up for the car, but at least it was still able to drive. We didn't go to our planned clothes shopping that day.

I did this once. It was a Friday night in winter and I was an hour from home with just DD in the car. I phoned the AA, who I had a bells-and-whistles expensive account with. They came out, but would only tow the car to the nearest garage, not home or to a garage of my choice, as apparently this is in their conditions regarding misfuelling incidents. THis left me, a lone female adult with a girl child, stuck in the dark an hour from home in a rural area with a very poor bus service. The mechanic was really embarrassed and did phone his despatcher and try to argue for us - he was willing to take us wherever we wanted (I'd have gone to my local garage) but he wasn't allowed. I did complain to the AA, but got no joy. I don't take out cover with them any more.
SO YANBU to have a moan about recovery companies, but I think YABU about the cost as it isn't just draining but work on the engine too. SOrry for hijack.

Lol, the operators don't get a commission for a fuel drain job and if you have a new car even 5/10% misfuels can cause irreparable damage and certainly invalidate any warranty. Older cars tolerate it a bit more (advice I was given was pre 96 regs) By all means if you are ever unlucky enough to be in this position ring around for a cheaper fuel drain quote (if you are in a city you might find one) but the recovery companies won't pay out for a long distance recovery for a driver error fault no matter how much you insist. You might be a 10mile bumped up to 25miles depending on circumstances and how towable your car is.

I once arranged a recovery for a hire car ( fleet customer so they pay for the recovery) with a misfuel £6k they were billing the customer for the new engine etc ( it came up in conversation). I forget the make, wouldn't have been anything too fancy though.

I'm not sure why it is treated differently from other driver error faults, though. If the oil was low/out and I broke down because of that they would recover me to wherever I wanted, and I could have prevented that, too, surely (have never done this, by the way).

Because it's too difficult to prove whether your oil leaked, was burned up or wasn't topped up properly. Eg did your engine seize because a component failed and leaked out all the oil back on the road 5 miles back or was there was no oil when you set off.

Other common driver errors are things like accidents - they'll either refer you to insurers or recover the cost themselves from the insurance provider. Lost keys - local recovery or a chargeable locksmith service. Flat tyre and no spare (if your car should have one) local recovery or charge you for a new tyre if a temporary repair like tyre weld doesn't work. Can't think of any others off top of head but they will all be listed in your t&c booklet.

DP put petrol in my diesel car - luckily he realised before we turned the engine on. We got towed to a drainage place where they drain the tank and give you a splash of diesel to get you far enough to fill up again.

Ugh zombie spam

it's a heck of a charge for a drain down!
You got off cheap, mine cost £400. Well it's a bit more than a drain down, because they then have to dispose of the (contaminated) fuel, presumably the best part of a full tank, plus flushing the fuel system with petrol that then also becomes contaminated.

This is classed as hazardous waste and businesses have to dispose of it in a fully traceable way (with a certificate every time it is handed over to the next person in the chain. it costs serious dosh.

Think yourself lucky you didn't fill the oil reservoir with screen wash fluid as my father did, he then started the car and blew up the engine!