Note to the coppers: This is a diesel vehicle

by Jeremy Korzeniewski (RSS feed) on Oct 21st 2008 at 2:22PM

Owners of gasoline-powered vehicles couldn't possibly fill their tanks with diesel, well... unless they tried really hard, since the nozzle is larger on most diesel pumps. The problem is that the smaller nozzles from gasoline pumps fit just fine with plenty of room to spare in the filler necks of diesel cars and trucks. There have been gadgets created that are meant to keep petrol from being pumped into diesel fuel tanks, but it still happens on a regular basis every day. Even on police cars, apparently. In fact, Essex Police in the UK have reportedly filled their tanks with gasoline as opposed to diesel some 222 times over the last five years. As you would expect, this has dire consequences, as it can ruin the fuel pump, injectors or worse. The total repair bill for the Essex Police has come to £42,000. To help put an end to the problem, the Police have fitted their diesel vehicles with talking devices that clearly state, "This is a diesel vehicle," when the fuel cap is removed. That ought to help, we hope.

[Source: Autocar]

Filed under: Diesel, UK

Tags: diesel fuel, diesel police car, diesel police cars, DieselFuel, DieselPoliceCar, DieselPoliceCars, essex police, EssexPolice

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

John Rowell 4:38PM (10/21/2008)

Shouldn't it be sufficient to just have "DIESEL" emblazoned in large letters above the fuel door?

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Scott K. 6:01PM (10/21/2008)

I don't think a little sticker would help much. I work in a supermarket, and you don't know how many people ask me which is the Enter button on a credit card machine even though there's a big green button with the word ENTER on it. Didn't Top Gear show these little talking devices on their show once? It turns on whenever it senses light (when the fuel door is open) and it ended up repeating the same phrase over and over again while filling.

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OM617 2:03AM (10/24/2008)

If Renault et al built a diesel the way they should [read: OM617], it wouldn't have caused damage. They would have said, "What the bollocks is wrong with this bloody piece of shite?" The OM617 will run on just about any combustible liquid. it may run rough, but it will do it over short distances. Hit Benzworld.org forum for a few well documented instances.

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ale 7:50PM (10/21/2008)

knowing cops, it won't

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Brn 11:45AM (10/22/2008)

Yes, please stereotype cops a stupid.

Where I live, 90% of the cops have Bachelors degrees. 40% have Masters degrees. They have frequent continuing education. They're a highly motivated and intelligent group.

Where you live might be different.

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ale 9:05PM (10/22/2008)

hahaha, yea, nothin like stereotypes...

actually there are a lot of dumb ones in my area, literally, so much so that it became a scandal that the simple 9th grade math test was called discriminatory.. no joke, the police department got told to change the test.. so.. so much for virginia beach pd, but i will say there are a few above the many that are decent

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Brn 8:31AM (10/23/2008)

If that's really the case, you need to move.

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