[Peter D.]

So I screwed up big time this morning!

I was in a big rush, not paying attention, and filled the tank with gasoline.:eek Same filling station and pump I always use, I guess I became complacent about double checking.

I made it about 4 blocks before the motor sputtered out, looked at my receipt and realized my mistake.

I just had the car towed to the dealer and am awaiting word on the damages. What's the worst case scenario I can expect? Keep in mind that I never shut the engine off, it just started clunking and stopped on its own. Is it dead?!

I'm not too happy here. The car only has 8500 miles!

I'll update this post when I hear back from the service department.

 

[pearlgolf]

:eek! I would wait on what the service department says but at this point it's too late to try to save anything. The fuel system is lubed by diesel. Gas isn't an oil and it could have damaged the fuel pumps and injectors. If they try to stick you with a repair bill, I'd just flush the system and buy a 3rd party extended warranty (unless they have this record to deny a claim). People who have had their fuel systems replaced due to bad pumps say it's about $8000.

 

[Peter D.]

So I got a $10,150 repair bill. jaw drops
I was told that any part that was touched by gasoline has to be replaced. So basically the entire fuel system. The parts are about $7500.

My insurance company is going over to the dealer to check it out but they will cover it under comprehensive. Either that or they will total the car.

Not a great way to start my week. I thought my days of calling a tow truck and huffing it to the train station were over when I sold my '73 bug.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

That is the best plan. The car should be fine after the repair. Technically you don't have to replace the fuel lines and fuel tank - they could be cleaned and replaced but as long as insurance pays for it, so what. The stuff like the fuel injectors and fuel pumps are best replaced, and those are the most expensive components anyways. To put it in perspective, if you bought the parts internet wholesale instead of dealer retail and did the labor yourself, it would still be in about the $4000-5000 range. I believe the pump is in the $1500-2000 range (not sure) and the injectors are not cheap.... If it were my car and insurance wasn't covering it I'd just clean/flush the system and keep driving.

 

[Webers1]

I thought the fuel nozzle was a different shape to prevent this? Or am I thinking the diesel one is too big for a gas neck?

 

[sportriderseattle]

:ugh:ugh(

I am sooooooo sorry for you. Hopefully this will help the rest of us to have a second look each time we pump our own fuel so we don't go thru what you are currently.

Best of luck. (it surely could be worse!!!!)

 

[JOHNNYWISHBONE]

greedy?

So I got a $10,150 repair bill.

if insurance pays for it, who cares? but $10,150 should be a new engine, not a questionable "repair" job. greedy? maybe. jmho, jp

 

[Peter D.]

Thanks, guys. I never thought I would make such an idiotic mistake, but it happened. I use this station all the time and the routine made me absent minded. The only positive outcome so far is that I was able to take a nice nap on the train on my way to work this morning.

A diesel nozzle won't fit into a gas filler neck. But the gas nozzle is smaller so that will fit into a diesel filler neck. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. But what really surprises me is the staggering repair bill.

The insurance adjuster is heading to the dealership this week. I hope he agrees to all the charges although I agree that replacing the gas cap, filler neck, and tank seems excessive and unnecessary. I don't see why they can't be cleaned off. The dealer service rep claims that VW HQ recommends that all these parts get replaced. We shall see what they agree to.

Since it's less than a year old and has fewer than 15k miles, if the car is declared a total loss they give me the replacement value and I get a new car. I somehow doubt that will happen...

 

[minienigma]

Ouch, that would be my nightmare as well.... I haven't taken delivery of my car yet (end of the month I'm praying) -- I'm quite a bit anxious about getting gas mixed up with diesel when I do take possession of my TDI. :/ I'm especially absent minded when it comes to doing something routine.

I'm thinking, perhaps I should make a habit of going to one particular station to get diesel only but not gas, but go to any station to get gas but not diesel. That way I'd get into the habit of driving one car to one station for diesel but drive the other cars to other stations for gas.

 

[danham]

It's convenient to have a glove to prevent smelly fuel from getting on your hand, so why not also use it as a powerful reminder of which car and pump you're using?

Stuff a small glove into the space between the fuel door and cap and when you open it, you will have to move the glove to unscrew the cap. That will certainly give it a different feel than a routine gas fillup.

-dan

 

[rookie]

Maybe they should have kept more of a diesel rattle to remind people, LOL. Since you're paying for it and not VW, do you get to keep the old parts?

 

[DslDawg]

Maybe they should have kept more of a diesel rattle to remind people, LOL. Since you're paying for it and not VW, do you get to keep the old parts?

If the old parts have any value, they would belong to the party paying for the repairs. In this case, the insurance company.

 

[Peter D.]

I went down to the dealership to retrieve a few items from the car and actually ran into the insurance adjuster while he was looking over my car. He was fearful that the engine was damaged too. If the repair comes to 80% of the car's value then it would be totaled. But the service rep assured him that the engine was okay, although they won't know for sure until they start working on it.

It's going to take about two weeks to get all the parts and do the work. In the meantime, I'm driving a really boring Pontiac G6. As long as it gets me from point A to point B I should be happy.

I'd ask for the parts but I'm not sure what I'd do with them if they're damaged. Can the fuel pumps be refurbished? I was told the ethanol in the gasoline was absorbed into the parts and they're ruined.

 

[Fluid]

How can gasoline be absorbed into metal? IMHO, all the parts should be replaced but I'm sure that if you disassembled, cleaned, and checked all parts against spec and replaced any damaged components it would be fine. In other words, rebuild it. The question is who rebuilds these pumps (probably a Bosch shop that does diesels) and who has parts? And the 2.0 engines use Bosch common rail for their direct injection, although at a lower pressure, are their pumps ruined by ethanol? I think pumps are damaged as a matter of the pump needing diesel for lubrication resulting in wear on moving parts, the gasoline leaving residue everywhere which has to be cleaned off, and any debris from the damage migrating though the fuel system.

As for the fuel tank and fuel neck, that's just a way to charge you more instead of cleanng it. They're made out of plastic and I'll bet the fuel tank is the same as a gasoline fuel tank with a different neck for the TDI.

 

[Peter D.]

What the hell, I'll ask for the parts and see what happens. If I can make a small profit, it's worth the real estate in my garage to store them. I'm not sure if there's a market for rebuilt fuel pumps just yet since these cars are so new. I'd better start researching shops.

 

[minienigma]

It's convenient to have a glove to prevent smelly fuel from getting on your hand, so why not also use it as a powerful reminder of which car and pump you're using?

Well, I keep a box of gloves in the trunk of every car I own, just in the event of smelly fuel getting on my hand while refueling. I don't think your suggestion would help me very much....

 

[danham]

Well, take one out of the box right now and put it behind the fuel door. Don't do that on your gasser(s).

-dan

 

[martroy]

It's good that the insurance company are paying but if it'd been my car I think I would have asked the dealer to drain the tank, change the fuel filter, put in 1/2 gallon of diesel and try starting her up. What would you have to lose, its not going to damage it anymore. If it did run though, I wouldn't keep it for long, the long term effect on the seals and stuff in the fuel system could be expensive. I filled a diesel Ford up with gas once but I realised my mistake before I turned the engine over, so the dealer just drained the tank, refilled it with diesel and it did another 50.000 miles trouble free.

 

[Peter D.]

I spoke to the service rep today and all the parts are in save for a few items that had to be sourced from Germany. The eruption of Eyjafjallajokull Volcano has delayed shipment. How do you pronounce that?! Anyway, it could be another week or two of driving a gas guzzling Pontiac rental car.

They agreed to give me the fuel pumps! Now I've got to figure out a way to rebuild them and make some kind of profit.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Just off the top of my head I believe the in tank electric fuel pump is the same as the older ones. The high pressure fuel pump is the intriguing one. Sent you a PM.