Find out with FuelSure - misfuelling someone else's car - what are the consequences?

If you have a diesel rental car or a company car that you misfuel, you may be liable for the damages. Given the amount of potential damage that you could do, it is best to take a moment to at least minimise the chances of this happening. Even borrowing a car from a friend or member of the family can have unexpected consequences if you mistakenly fill up with the wrong fuel.

It is simply all too easy to continue with ingrained habits acquired while using your own car. This can range from forgetting that the fuel tank filler is on the other side of the car, to believing that you still have a good few litres left even though the ‘tank empty’ warning light came on fifty miles ago, to of course completely forgetting that the diesel engine car that you are driving must be filled up with diesel and not with petrol. Misfuelling, to paraphrase another saying, happens. Fitting FuelSure stops it.

Worse still, if your mind is on other things and by a force of habit you reach for the petrol pump gun instead of the diesel one, then on most diesel cars there is nothing to physically stop you from putting the wrong fuel into the tank and potentially causing serious damage to car’s engine. Even with a company car that you might be driving for some time, it still takes a while to get used to it at the beginning. During that time, with a different car and different fuel filler neck and cap, even a petrol pump nozzle suddenly looking rather small comparing to the tank filler may not set off any alarm bells in your mind. Let FuelSure remember for you, each time, every time.

However, if you put petrol in someone else’s diesel-engine car, you may need to prepare to meet the wrath of a friend or family, or to contribute to or even pay for all necessary repairs for misfuelling - or both. If you have borrowed the car from someone, there is no certainty that the insurance policy for that person covers damage by misfuelling, and in any case, insurance policies often have a waiver built in for the first few hundred pounds of damage when the car has been lent to another person. Fitting FuelSure costs a few per cent of that or even less.

If you have rented a car or any other vehicle that runs on diesel fuel, then ask your rental company if you are covered for misfuelling and if so to what amount. Rental companies typically make renters pay for the first few hundred pounds of any damage in any case. Some cases are simply excluded from any insurance guarantee, such as damage to the roof of a van that you might hire if you have decided to do your own house-moving. In this case, whatever you damage, you pay for. The insurance company typically puts highly visible notices in strategic places in the vehicle to prevent such occurrences. In the case of a diesel-engine car, there might be a sticker next to the fuel tank filler or on the fuel filler cap to say ‘Diesel only’, but it all depends. The absence of a sticker or a diesel misfuelling device does not excuse you either. Using FuelSure means you don’t have to worry, ever again.

Company cars suffer from misfuelling like any other category of car. In a family with the use of a diesel-engine company car for one of the parents and ownership of petrol-engine car for the other, misfuelling may be a particular risk at the beginning but never goes away afterwards either. There are numerous cases of drivers who reliably filled their diesel-engine company cars with diesel fuel, until one day, by momentarily thinking that they were driving the family car, they mistakenly filled up with petrol.

If it happens to you, your best option is to get the tank emptied there and then. Whether your company chooses to reimburse you any of the associated expense is another matter. However, knowingly driving the vehicle, even if it is to go back to your office to find out what you should do, could be construed as intentional damage. Your company could refuse to pay for the damage and demand that you pay for the repair bills, and according to the situation, you might also face disciplinary action. At this stage, FuelSure looks like an extraordinarily attractive and cost-effective option.

To avoid this kind of trouble in any of the cases above, consider the use of FuelSure, a device that prevents misfuelling, both inexpensively and effectively. It might make a thoughtful gift for a friend, especially if you borrow the car more than once. Because it is as simple to remove as it is to fit, consider asking your rental company if they have any comments about you using one with one of their rental cars, while for company cars to be driven on a longer term basis, possibly by other members of the family for example at weekends, such a device can prove to be a very modest investment that can save an enormous amount of hassle. Call us on 0845 475 8397 today or contact us to find out about preserving your bank balance and your relationships.