Unleaded petrol mixed with Diesel in a Chrysler 2.5CRD

What's the relevance of that? In my neck of the woods (London) diesel has cost the same as or been dearer than standard 95-octane petrol for a year or more. Fuel 'duty' (tax) is the same on both now.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

What's your opinion of Mercedes and Peugeot diesel engines?

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

This was Oklahoma.

However; I'm British and used to buying bangers. You think I would buy a dangerous car? There wasn't a trace of rust on that old Eldorado's underbody/brake/fuel lines, only a scratch on the front wing and the split seats let it down.

The Eldorado was from a Chevy dealer, too. The car I had before was a

1979 Regal 2dr bought on eBay for $400 (I liked the Eldorado better, but I did do some running servicing on the Buick like replacing the PCV and ignition systems. Yeay Autozone, or something. So cheap!).

Richard

What a pity. It was raining heavily when I got home from headbanging at 2am this morning.

Huw

Welcome to the world of petrol attendants. They exist in other countries, too, even in Europe. Some also take you payment on the forecourt, so at least you get a bit more service.

DAS

Bill, I am sure you are enjoying this conversation mainly among Brits (a rate treat in the Chrysler NG) but clearly you don't yet have a full grip on the terminology... you can also fill a petrol tank with diesel... (without harming the car)... :-) (Also note the lack of swearing but occasional fine insult....)

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Well, enjoy the concert, which will no doubt be Bringing Back Memories of Your Youth..

And last night WE went to an interview of Malcolm Rifkind (he suppports David Cameron, BTW, and is my MP) by an senior Times editor, followed by dinner in a local Greek establishment...not quite headbanging but a nice treat during the week.

DAS

PS. For the non-Brits: Sir Malcolm Rifkind is a former Foreign and Defence Secretary, MP, and (until very recently) on the front bench of the Conservative opposition. Today the Conservative Party will announce its new leader and later in the week we should know whether MR will again be in the shadow government.

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Great while they go. I've a Vito CDi with a wrecked engine at the moment. Only 45000 miles. We thought at first that it had a fuel injector problem because it was slow starting and smoked a bit. It turns out that it has bent conrods among other extensive damage and effectively it needs a new engine. All these new diesels are *extremely* expensive to repair. They are also very complex compared to most petrol engines. When they do work, they work extremely well. The little Peugeot 1.4 engine exceeds the performance of most 1.6 petrol engines of less than a decade ago but its installation in cheap cars means that a fairly small repair, like injector replacement, when several years old is likely to be uneconomic. I haven't priced an injector but some can be as high as £400 *each*

Huw

Maybe you always call it a diesel tank, but I (and many others) don't.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

I thought that that was actually the case; but that the Diesel filler used a larger nozzle than gasoline, therefore it would prevent people from putting Diesel in a gasoline car but not vice versa. Remember back to when unleaded gasoline was introduced; the filler neck of vehicles with a cat had "restrictors" in them so that only the new, smaller unleaded nozzle would fit. I assume that that is still the case to this day but it has been so long since I've seen a leaded gas pump that I couldn't say for sure. It's also possible that the new, smaller nozzles are so universal that they're being used for everything, not just unleaded gasoline, but I haven't driven a Diesel vehicle in a while either.

I do remember my grandfather buying a new Chevy pickup right when this changeover was occurring; I think it was a '76 model. It ended up with a standard carburetor and exhaust system (no cat) but had the new fuel filler with the restrictor and "unleaded fuel only" stickers. Not sure if he just knocked the restrictor out with a chisel or bought a new filler; this was quite a few years ago.

Completely off topic; I recall that the truck he was replacing was a '73 that my dad ended up buying. He lost the gas cap at some point maybe 20 years later; it was a PITA to find a new gas cap, it turned out that it had a '72 model filler neck on it. Not sure how that worked; as a '72 would have had the gas tank filler in the cab but the '73 was on the pass. side rear fender, but there you have it. I also remember at some point the fender was replaced with a junkyard replacement, and apparently 74-up fenders relocated the gas filler up higher and it was much easier to refuel from that point on (didn't have to leave the pump set on the lowest flow setting to keep it from kicking off early.) Gotta love GM...

nate

filler

people

I had a vehicle come in that had been to a store where a person stole diesel and drove off with the pump handle still in the vehicle,the store put another nozzle on the pump wich was for an unleaded pump,85 vehicles got deisel fuel that day before anyone noticed.

Duh! Again - states are free to make their own laws.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Yeah - us yanks have a sloppy habit of sometimes calling any fuel tank (diesel, gasoline, or other) a gas tank, when in most other contexts having to do with vehicles, the term "gas" is short for "gasoline" (petrol) and would not be used when speciifally referring to diesel (although that happens occassionally too) - just habit in a gasoline-centric culture.

It is refreshing to read the Brit conversations - I think I needed a translator for some of the posts. Yous guys have made a mess of the English language. :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet > Bill, I am sure you are enjoying this conversation mainly among Brits (a

Being a "redneck" isn't regional. Jersey-ites can be just as redneck as anyone else.... and in fact a lot of 'em are really good at it.

My only recollection of a Peugeot diesel was back in the early 1970's when Peugeot tried to introduce their deisel cars to the U.S. A guy I was stationed with ended up getting a full refund on the vehicle after they could not solve some serious problems with the engine (design issues, or the U.S. dealer mechanics not knowing how to work on diesels?

- however Mercedes didn't have that problem with their diesels in the U.S. that I know of). Peugeot's effort was a disaster - they bought lots of them back and abandoned the effort before the second MY IIRC (or possibly midway in to the 2nd year).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Huw, you're sharp enough to know that as an engineer myself, I was talking about REASONABLE contingencies! Mixing fuels inadvertently (or even unbeknownst to the driver) is a REASONABLE contingency.

What's "modern" about a truck pulling up to a station and connecting hoses? The method hasn't changed in 2 generations. Maybe it SHOULD, but it hasn't yet.

I see you haven't been brainwashed by liberals. :) In liberal circles, "redneck" implies southern, and ignorant people don't exist above the Mason Dixon line.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I figure its just European envy again. ;-)

Actually I don't even own one of the darn things, but I think they're a very intersting and successful car in the same way the MINI is an interesting and successful car (I guess I could rub it in that the MINI is powered by a Chrysler-designed engine...). They're certainly not for everyone, and that's fine. If you want my vote for the ugliest waste of sheetmetal and plastic to curse the highways in recent years, I'd vote for the Honda Element or the Scion XB, both of which narrowly displaced the Aztek and Avalanche for bottom dishonors in my book. But those fugly boxes have their own loyal following as well. To each his own!