My brother bought a 14 plate M5 last week...Still under warranty*

Today was out and about with another guy with a M5 - they filled up from Shell (petrol) - and then realized diesel went into the car.

Both cars died after a little drive, and recovered to BMW!*

Looks like shell put the wrong fuel in the tankers!

 

ouch! what sort of comeback is there for this, i guess type of fuel on receipt and security footage.

To be recovered and have the fuel system drained is not going to be cheap!

 

This is awful and one of my worst fears! Where abouts was this?

 

Some bright spark at Shell thought it was clever to place V-Power diesel and V-Power petrol pumps side by side in virtually identical colour schemes. It's all to easy to make a costly mistake.

 

Well.. My brother happened to be at a shell where another M5 (red special edition) was who only bought his car yesterday!

The other car left the petrol pump before my brother...and my brother saw it stopped and very soon after he had to pull over..

Shell have been called the pump has been closed off, and they will take 3 weeks to investigate.

Both cars recovered to BMW.


Fuel was Petrol - and he has the receipt for it as well..


Shell Abridge - London Road

 

Shouldn't be any lasting damage, will need new spark plugs and oil and filter change as a minimum, on top of the fuel tank flushed and fuel filter replaced.

 

Struggling to comprehend your 3 weeks to investigate ?
Firstly the technition ( call it tanker driver if you will ) would def loose his job over this / that's why all flanges are colour locked with key & window identified , makes it pretty damn impossible to mix up lines /
Second the tank ( under the forecourt would have to be purged / that would involve a clean tank on site / all fuel in that tank is now compromised so another tank for disposal / quite a cost , a lot more than 2 bmw by the time every thing was back to normal / wich shell would be straight on the ball as time = money & there is no way that forecourt would stand a idle tank for a period of time unless it was a complete re- fit of the forecourt .
Third , I'd expect a line of cars broken down & scattered among the local are / just 2 M5
Yea ok
If you prove me wrong & don't get my northern scepticism then I apol & will buy you flowers if you so wish ..
But my money's on
The Black V power handle sitting next to the Red V power handle ...

 

Exactly how I put diesel in my impreza :/

 

Yep, it's very easily done. Because I'm constantly in and out of different works cars all the time (petrol and diesels). I double check and triple check that I'm definitely putting petrol in the Subaru at the forecourt.

 

There's little to distinguish the V-Power Diesel pump from the V-Power Petrol pump, and they are positioned side by side. Why on earth don't Shell make the diesel pump a different colour and avoid the mix up?

 

As an ex fuel tanker driver it's impossible to fill the wrong tanks due to the systems in place, its different fittings from the fill pipes from the tank to the product fill points. But yeh its easy done as v power diesel and v power petrol as side by side and only the colour of the handle are different.

 

I was just going to say that the tanker fittings are different so doesn't sound possible.

But also, the petrol pump fittings are different too? I didn't think that you could physically fit a diesel pump into a petrol filler neck? A petrol nozzle is smaller diameter than a diesel one - it won't fit in a petrol car.

 

Could V power diesel gone into a tanker wanting V power petrol at the refinery stage though.??

 

did exactly the same thing in my car..

didnt even know there was a v power diesel, till then.

 

Easily done when discussing how awesome your new M5 is with another owner. I thought the nozzles weren't compatable with the other fuel filler neck types to try and avoid this issue? A diesel nozzle will not fit into my petrol Audi filler cap.

 

unless your blind Im not sure how you`d make such a stupid mistake,
Green or Black arent the same . . .

 

You're obviously cleverer than the rest of us, automatically knowing that green (or black) means petrol (or diesel). Not being blind (but not having this insight) I am very cautious not to make the mistake that many others have made with Shell V-Power pumps.

 

What worries me is that people can't tell that one of these is for diesel and one is for petrol..........




Yet they are able to jump in and drive a high performance vehicle.......lol......

 

I don't think its necessarily a colour issue (well hopefully not, because that's quite clear). Some peple just go into "autopilot" when at fuel stations. Especially if they have access to multiple vehicles.

 

Nope as its all done through bar code systems the loading head won't load a fuel pot and same again it has different fitments, it be very very hard to go wrong.

 

It would be more than helpful if the words 'Diesel' & 'Unleaded' were the biggest words on the handles rather than the smallest.

 

It's easily done.
When I had an impreza I filled my daily diesel with v power.
It's a case of just not thinking sometimes.
Luckily I was in green flag and they sent a fuel doctor man who moved my car to the side,fenced it off and pumped out the diesel complete with orange flashing light so everybody knew what I had done.

 

A Diesel fuel nozzle won't fit into a petrol cars filler neck.

 

I didn't think they do either. Not sure if that's manufacturer specific though...

 

Ah the shame of it! I've not done it yet but I've had that bloody diesel nozzle out of the pump several times but so far avoided stuffing it in the Impreza tank. Perhaps it won't fit but still worrying!

 

No harm done as I didn't start the car but lesson learnt how easy it is to do.

 

Well it fitted into my filler neck on my 95 import!

Bought a new filler nick from ICP and that does have the smaller hole so I dont think a diesel nozzle will fit any more.

 

I always treble check everything before pulling the trigger, so to speak. Check the logo/labelling on the actual machine, check the label/colouring on the handle... And also, IIRC, the actual hoses are colored different (black for D, red or green for P?).

But I can understand how people can easily do it e.g. not fully paying attn., rushing, etc.

 

The issues start if you have more than one car...daydreaming etc and it's easily done.
I've not done it since though

 

Totally. I can understand that.


- As already mentioned, how hard can it be for the petrochemical companies not to include bloody great, colour-coded words 'DIESEL' and 'PETROL' - standardised, in Helvetica Bold or Gill Sans Bold lol - at the very top of the handles' gubbins. FFS.

Indeed, it should be an actual law. I'm sure it'd go a long way to prevent accidental, wrong fuel fills.