hi..

bought a audi 2014 q3 for £17.300 off Arnold clack on the 18th dec.2017

..took out one year extended warranty plus service and mot plan

...last week I put petrol in the car instead of diesel.

arnold clark recovery came and took car away...

phoned me and told me it was going to cost £2.200 to fix

...I got a friend who owns a garage to pick my car up he drained the tank and bleed the pipes ..put £15 of diesel in and the car is working perfect.

..now I have lost total trust in Arnold clark.

..and have asked them to give me my money back for the service and mot plan.

..been told they don't give refund...

...first mot not due till October where do I stand on this??

I don't think there is much you can do. I imagine that if the correct manufacturers procedures had been followed then it would have required training the system, flushing, et cetera et cetera and of course you would have had the car back with some kind of guarantee attached to the quality of it. It may not have been worth £2200 to repair – this seems high to me – but it certainly would have cost quite a lot of money.

Your friends assistance has got the car going but you may well find that he has cut corners and that the work he has done might not be approved by the manufacturers. I think the best thing you can do is give yourself a pat on the back that you took the action you did – and also by your friend a bottle of something is a big thank you.

Also, read up about extended warranties to understand what a waste of money they generally are.

As a word of warning to anyone else who wants to try this, you can put petrol in diesel cars and get away with it – maybe. If you put diesel and petrol cars, it's usually a very expensive mistake.

don't think any one would want to try this\\\\\\\

am not to bothered about the warranty...

.am more wanting my £220 a paid them upfront for the two services and two mots as i don't trust them

..having read reviews on them on trustpilot people putting their cars in for service and getting told there car need this and that...

...if a loss the £220 so be it no way would I let them touch my car now..

.just want to know if they're within their rights not to refund my money for the services and mots??

ps yes my friend got a very big bottle ..........

As a word of warning to anyone else who wants to try this, you can put petrol in diesel cars and get away with it – maybe. If you put diesel and petrol cars, it's usually a very expensive mistake.

I'm sorry BF & Alex Durie but its the other way around. Petrol in a Diesel can be very bad. There are three stages :-

1. Not started - drain and refill, will be OK.

2. Started but not more than a few miles - drain, clean out lines and replace fuel filter.

3. Started and run till stop, very bad - drain clean out lines, fuel filter, injection pump, pipes and all injectors, very bad.

Diesel oil is a lubricant which the pump and injectors need, petrol cleans the lubricant off and damages everything.

Some insurers pay for the mistake just once.

To keep on the right side of a manufacturer the car needs to be repaired correctly.

Diesel in Petrol, not so bad, smokes a lot and if you're unlucky damages the DFF but not often.

H

Oh well. I misunderstood. I had always heard that lorry drivers sometimes put a bit of petrol in their diesel tanks to stop it freezing. So I imagined that a bit of petrol wasn't really a big deal once the diesel got flowing.

Yep cleans thing out nicely

Doesn't work to well on modern car engines though

Sorry,

but as soon as you use the words Arnold Clark most people here will just sigh.

You have undoubtedly been misled about the extended warranty and you can get your money back because it is really an insurance contract that has been missold

but AC arent going to be helpful in any way

so expect to read up on this in great detail and then start legal proceedings before you get anywhere

I can't understand what OP problem is?

You mis-fuelled the car.

Just how are Arnold Clarke ripping you off?

You are lucky that the car is still running OK and they have not voided the warranty, the car has been run on the incorrect fuel.

£15 for a mis-fuelling event? You need to take the car to someone whom knows what they are doing, if you wish to avoid future problems.

 

...last week I put petrol in the car instead of diesel.

 

Blimey, was this at a garage, or from a fuel can?.

Most garages (and cars!) now have the differing nozzles / filler pipes, making it very hard to fuel up with the wrong fuel, as it becomes hard to get the nozzle in the pipe meant for the different nozzle.

The diesel nozzle is larger than unleaded petrol nozzle.

So you can still stick the green nozzle in a diesel tank, but not the other way round.

Blimey, was this at a garage, or from a fuel can?.

Most garages (and cars!) now have the differing nozzles / filler pipes, making it very hard to fuel up with the wrong fuel, as it becomes hard to get the nozzle in the pipe meant for the different nozzle.

Yes you're right here but it can be got around. I think the system is set up to prevent diesel from entering the system on diesel cars but not petrol. Some cars have mis fuel devices fitted but I'm not sure of their effectiveness.

As a general rule, if you have an older diesel car you can get away with it but if your car has a high pressure common rail system then it's a big no no. If you run the engine after a misfuel incident then it's a new high pressure fuel pump, injector change, tank and fuel line change. Any change out of 2500 quid I'd be questioning to be honest. Hammy's advice is sound and spot on.

Forgrt any warranties though.

The diesel nozzle is larger than unleaded petrol nozzle.

 

So you can still stick the green nozzle in a diesel tank, but not the other way round.

Nope, not on Ford you can't. The filler nozzle has a flap. The flap is dis-engaged by the nozzle pushing back three wedges. A smaller nozzle won't do this. That is the whole idea.

A determined individual could dribble unleaded in but it would take a very long time.

(There was a link to a YouTube Video here but someone else decided you aren't allowed to see it)

H

Hanks for putting me straight Hammy, I retired in 2009 so have no experience of these 'new fangled' do da's to prevent what was a common occurrence, petrol in a diesel.

Reminds me of when unleaded came in with the smaller orifice to protect against leaded. Friend of mine complained of a problem he had putting a spare can of petrol in the new Ford Granada Ghia he borrowed off his broth-in-law.He had run out on a journey but had his own spare can in the boot. He said he had to dribble it in!

I am not sure if he owned up when the catalytic converter had to be replaced at large cost.