Posted by This is, on the face of it, a pretty simple subject. However, there are a few things to bear in mind when using filling stations.
You are likely to visit filling stations about once a week, maybe more if you drive for a living, or less if you just pop to the shops infrequently. Given that most filling stations now have shops too, there are more distractions than there used to be.
Let’s start with just filling up with fuel. First, there’s the question of which side of the pumps to pull up. Which side is your fuel filling cap? There is a simple way to tell before you arrive in the garage. If you look at your fuel gauge, you should see a small arrow that points either left or right. This points to the side your filler is on.
Did you also know that the hoses on fuel pumps are long enough to reach both sides of the average car? This does, of course, involve you being able to pull up reasonably close to the pump. Interestingly the reason that there is no standardisation for the side of the filler, is that there are often other parts inside or underneath the vehicle that mean it has to be one side or the other.
When you get out to fill up, you’ll notice various warnings on the pumps, (or at least I hope you’ve noticed them). Warnings include “Switch off your engine” and “No naked lights” or “No smoking”, and the ever-present “No mobile phones” There is a good reason behind these warnings although many people amazingly still ignore them. Having worked in the petrochemical industry, I know that it only takes around a 2.5% petrol vapour to air mixture to become explosive. All it takes is an ignition source to be present and boom, you and everything around you will go up in a very very intense fireball. I have been a victim of this. In a split second, my whole body was engulfed in a vapour explosion. It lasted about a second or two, but at around 1000 degrees centigrade, it hurt a great deal. I was very lucky to survive, and that was because the doctor that initially treated me and called for a helicopter to get me to the hospital was brilliant, but also because the doctors at the hospital were brilliant too. The explosion burned off my hair, my skin fell off in sheets and had I had any vapour in my lungs, I almost certainly would have died. Mobile phones have, as far as I’m aware, never caused an explosion in a filling station anywhere in the world, however, because they are not actually designed to be used in explosive atmospheres, it is against the law to use them while filling up your vehicle. In the shop to pay or inside the car on the forecourt is fine. The main reason for not using phones on the forecourt is simply because it makes you and others less safe because you can be distracted.
The next thing is to be sure to fill the vehicle you’re driving with the correct fuel. If you drive the same vehicle all the time, then you’re unlikely to misfuel it. However, if you buy a new car that uses different fuel to your last one, you might misfuel, and of course, loads of families have more than one vehicle, and if they run on different fuels, it’s surprisingly easy to forget which one you’re filling up, and oops, you have the wrong fuel in it. If you do happen to do this, and yes, I have, whatever you do, don’t start the car. A modern diesel engine is likely to have what’s known as a “common rail” fuel system, and if you put petrol in your tank, and then start your car. even a small amount of petrol reaching the fuel pump and injectors will probably ruin that system. The repair costs can be astronomical, and it could mean a new engine. The good news is that you’re never going to misfuel an electric vehicle if you buy one!