petrol / diesel
motoring advice forum
 

Hello there,

I suppose I should introduce myself really. My name is Ronald Summers and I am very new to this whole “car” thing. For most of my life I have lived in the very quiet village of South Perrott in Dorset where we rarely see cars, let alone drive them! I have recently taken the huge step of moving to London to kick-start my career as a Judo Teacher / Roof designer.

Six months, four days and I suppose a couple of hours ago I finally passed my driving test. I felt quite proud actually because it was only my fourth time and my parents said that to pass on my fourth attempt wasn’t too bad at all. Some people I have met since living here don’t seem to agree but then again everyone seems to have a bit of an attitude with me here.

I am the proud owner of a 1995 red Rover Metro and up until yesterday everything has been fine with it – quite surprising really because it only set me back about £3500!! I couldn’t believe it when I saw the price! It’s also only done just over 80,000 miles – the man that sold it to me said he thought it had quite a lot of miles left in it so I went for it then and there.

Yesterday after work on my way home I went to fill up at the petrol station. For the first time since I have owned the car I chose to use diesel instead of the usual Petrol. I had recently read a small section of a magazine article while in the doctor’s surgery about the benefits and disadvantages of both petrol and diesel and I have to say – I didn’t really understand a word of it! It did persuade me to want to at least try the diesel alternative though.

After paying I set off and everything seemed fine for the first 10 seconds or so. Pretty soon after leaving the forecourt though the car started making a few strange sounds and appeared to be very “jumpy”. All of a sudden the car came to a stop and I couldn’t even start it again! I only live literally around the corner from the petrol station and could even see my house from where I had stopped – why couldn’t it have just gone that little bit further?!

Anyway, it was getting late so I just hopped out, put the handle brake down so the wheels could move freely and pushed it onto my drive - two of the old ladies that live nearby came out and helped as well – how nice is that?!

Thing is – I forgot to put the handle brake back up again and the car subsequently rolled down my drive and straight into all my flower pots. Needless to say I now have a crack in my bumper and three very unusable flower pots. So annoying.

My question really is what have I done to the car? I know it was the first time that I had used diesel but I can’t see how that would cause the car to react like it did! Is there any chance that because I have only put petrol in the car before that the engine is sort of just “used to it” and therefore got a sort of shock when I used the diesel instead? My only other thought is that I may have used the diesel that was only meant for lorries or something like that? Is the diesel that lorries use thicker or anything?

I tried the car once more this morning and it actually sounds worse that it did yesterday! The engine won’t really start at all now! I suppose it’s a good thing that so many of my students cancelled their membership with my judo class because I would have been very late this morning having no car to drive! I phoned my parents to ask their advice but my father wouldn’t even listen to what I was saying – he just wouldn’t shut-up asking about how my Judo teaching was going!

I typed “car advice uk forum” into a search engine and one of the results was this site – it looks like a fairly active forum and my previous experiences with internet forums have been very good so I hope this will be much the same.

Please could somebody give me some sort of advice as to what I should try next? I so wish I had just stuck with the usual petrol now! I am starting to regret even moving down here - It seems that maybe Mum was right and I wasn’t ready for London after all.

Thank you in advance of any responses

Ron Summers
Hi Ron

If your Metro is a petrol engine model then putting Diesel into will cause the engine to cut out as it will not run on this type of fuel. The only repair is that you will need to find a locally garage who can drain the fuel tank and replace with correct fuel.

National Motoring Help

Hi there,

thanks for your very quick response, it really is very much appreciated. I have to say though that I am unfortunately a little confused at your answer. I think you may have misunderstood me.

I am not looking for my fuel tank to be drained - I just want the car to start again as it did fine yesterday morning before I set off for my Thursday Judo class.

I am pretty sure that I am not using the wrong "type of fuel" as you put it - just a different type to what I was using before.

Also, I think you may have misread the part of my message where I said that I can no longer start the car - because of this I cannot see how I would be able to get it to a local garage if indeed you are right and it does need repair.

I know I mentioned that I pushed the car before but that was really only for a very short distance - the nearest garage that would do repairs is at least a mile away and I am not really prepared to push it that far.

Is there not anything else I could do at home in order to get the car working again?

Thanks again

Ron Summers
Hi Ron
Can you confirm that your car is a petrol model or advise what is the engine size

National Motoring Help

Hello again,

I can't confirm that my car is a "petrol model" because I am not entirely sure that I know what that means. Where would I find information like this? Unfortunately I no longer have the handbook for my car.

I don’t mind getting you the engine size if that is something that will help you to help me. What is the best way of measuring the engine?

Ron Summers
Hi Ron
You stated that before putting diesel into your car you was using petrol.
If this is the case then using Diesel which is not designed for cars which uses petrol will cause the engine to cutout.

The only method for a repair is a fuel drain, you will need to have your car towed to a local garage, who can do the fuel drain and replace with the correct fuel (petrol)

National Motoring Help

Hello for the fourth time,

You are correct that before I put the diesel into my car yesterday I was using petrol. Are you really trying to tell me that some cars work with diesel and others work only with petrol?! What a swizz!!

If you are right and I do in fact own a "petrol only" car then why wouldn’t the man who sold me the car have mentioned this when he sold it to me?!

Do you think I would have a case to go and ask for my money back? Or at least the money to get my car fixed now that it is broken?

Thanks

Ron Summers
Hi Ron
Yes there is different engines fitted to cars mainly Petrol and Diesel models you can only use the correct fuel to the engine type you have ie Petrol Fuel to Petrol engines and Diesel Fuel to Diesel engines.

National Motoring Help

Hello,

I can't believe that no-one had told me this before now - I am quite disgusted to be fair.

Too much has gone wrong for me here now anyway so I've made the decision to move back in with my parents in Dorset. So many of my Judo students have left that it's just not worth me running the classes anymore. I met up with another roof designer today and realised that I know so little about roofing that I could never make it in that profession and now my car is broken and there doesn’t appear to be a way I can get it fixed for free. I wish I had listened to my mother when she told me I wasn’t ready for London.

I thank you very much for your time

Ron Summers

Hi Ron,

Sorry to try and be the voice of reason here, but I'd have thought it blatantly obvious that if a car has only ever used petrol and not diesel it is in fact a petrol model. You can't just switch fuel types because, as I am sure you are aware now, it can do a lot of damage!

I would very much doubt that you would be entitled to your money back from the person who sold you the car as it was your mistake and not theirs (I assume he must have told you that he only ever used petrol - otherwise how would you know). It must feel very frustrating and I am sorry that your plans for London haven't worked out.

However all the best for the future,

Gemma x

Hello for what I have just realised is the sixth time,

I just thought I would pop back and say goodbye. I’ve spoken to my parents and I am moving back next Thursday.

To Gemma – I am sorry that I didn’t find it “blatantly obvious” like you must have done but I did explain in my original post that I didn’t know an awful lot about cars - I haven’t lived in London forever remember. Of course I am now aware of this and doubt it is something I will ever do again.

I don’t think I ever talked to the man I bought the car from about whether he used to use diesel or petrol – If I had done I’d hope that I wouldn’t have done what I did.

Thank you for wishing me all the best though, that’s in fact one of the nicest things anyone has said to me since moving down here. I really appreciate it.

Goodbye

Ron Summers
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