Fuel filler necks

[andymadmak]

Sorry for the boring thread! I need a little help from the PH massive.
I had a call from one of my employees last night after she left work. Basically she had gone to a petrol station and put the wrong fuel in her car. Now, my immediate reaction was "oh, silly person, but hey ho we all make mistakes..." BUT, the car is a brand new Nissan Note that had been given to her as a courtesy car whilst her own car was in for service and the fuels for the two cars are different.
The Note was a petrol version. BUT, she had managed to put diesel in it (but only one gallon) . Now we all know that its easy to get petrol into a diesel, but diesel into a petrol should not have been possible surely?
I whizzed down to the garage to take a look whilst she waited for the recovery services (Nissan insisted that it be recovered rather than repaired on site) When I looked into the filler neck, instead of the narrow type that is normal for petrol cars, it was just a wide neck that would accept the diesel nozzle. Also, there was no "flap" thingy in the neck that I thought all petrol cars had these days to stop diesel going in. It was just an open neck. Is this correct?
Needless to say that Nissan have charged her 200 quid for her mistake (thankfully not as much as it might have been, she was only saved because she did not start the car after the fuel was put in as she recognised her error whilst stood at the pump)

I suppose the question is - Is it not the case that the fuel restrictive filler neck should have been fitted to the car?

[mygoldfishbowl]

No. What she should have done is, not called you & called someone who could have told her to fill it up with petrol & carry on.

[andymadmak]

mygoldfishbowl said:

No. What she should have done is, not called you & called someone who could have told her to fill it up with petrol & carry on.

Actually, that was exactly my advice to her. The tank on the Note was empty and she had only put one gallon in. I told her to fill it to the brim with super unleaded and it would probably be ok. Unfortunately she had called the Nissan garage before she called me, so Nissan already knew.

[mygoldfishbowl]

That's a shame she didn't call you first, could have saved herself £200.

[nickofh]

I wonder if its down to some cost savings that all the fuel fillers are the same perhaps. On my Petrol Impreza hatch the diesel pipe does not fit which might save me or my wife a few £ in the future as our other car is a diesel.

[andymadmak]

mygoldfishbowl said:

That's a shame she didn't call you first, could have saved herself £200.

aye.. Do you have a view on what the filler neck should have been like though? I was under the impression that they all had to have the restrictor in. Certainly a quick peek into the filler necks on the cars of other members of staff this morning all show that the petrol cars have a narrow nozzle neck with a restrictor with a "flap" that the petrol pump nozzle pushes aside. A diesel pump nozzle is larger diameter and so would not get down the pipe to push the flap aside. (if you see what I mean) Yet the note just had a wide flapless neck. (despite being a petrol car) Is this allowed?

[mygoldfishbowl]

It is strange though as my ol' mums 1998 Nissan Micra had a small filler neck for the petrol. Seems a good idea to have smaller ones for petrol.

Edit. Was typing as you posted. As far as I know there is no law stating difference sizes.

Edited by mygoldfishbowl on Friday 29th August 10:31

[graham22]

Isn't the narrow neck something that has to even be fitted to grey/parallel imports under SVA regs?