Green Flag Recovery

I have been a member of Green Flag for a number of years. Breakdown insurance is one of those things you hope that you never have to use, and to be fair, in all the years I have had it, I have never had to use to whether it be for the bike or the car.

Well, last night, I broke my duck I was coming back from Taunton and realised I needed some fuel quite urgently. I do not usually fill up in Motorway Services, but on this occasion knowing I stil had quite a way to go and I had to go out later today, I thought what the hell.

So pulled into Leigh Delamare, stopped at the pump, stuck in the nozzle and filled the tank. Click, tank filled, put the pump back on the cradle and the rhe realisation hit me, I had just pumped 50 litres of unleaded into my diesel tank My own fault, and I cannot even think how I made such a stupid mistake, but hey ho, too ate to worry about it now.

Good thing was, I had not started the engine, so no petrol had been sucked into the engine or injectors.

So, on the phone to Green Flag who confirmed that my policy covered missfueling and they said that it was quite busy (It was 5.45 in the evening) but they would have someone to me as quickly as possible. Their policyis to be on scene within an hour, but the text I got from them suggested nearer 1 hour 30.

Anyway, long story short, within 20 minutes breakdown van on scene, very freindly and professional technician who had the tank drained and car running within 20 minutes or so and I was on my way. My cover also included 15 litres of diesel at no additional cost, although I did fill up properly just to make sure that any residual petrol was diluted.

So within 1 hour of missfueling and making the call, I was back on the road and the car never missed a beat.

So, to Green Flag I say thank you, very impressive, freindly, profesional and expedient service, and I know they are equally good with the bikes

 

I have a mate whose filled up his Transit 3 times in 5 years with Unleaded!

Costs him approx £135 using a local 'Fuel Doctor' outfit to sort out.

Good service then from Green Flag!

 

It happens. I had to rescue the inlaw last month as he put petrol in his diesel. I nipped over to the petrol station and drained his tank into one of my drums and he tanked the car with diesel to get going again. Told him to stick the contaminated petrol in his mower and give me the drum when he's done with it. I may be waiting a while

 

Second praise to green flag.

I had minimal cover that only took me 10 miles from where I broke down (puncture actually)

But he took me 50 miles found a b&b took my bike to a garage and refused a cash in the hand payout.

Thanks green flag.

 

I once accidentally put 5 litres of petrol in my mums diesel... Realised and just decided to fill it the rest of the way with diesel... Got away with it too!!

 

Not recommended.

Can ruin the fuel pump and shorten the engine life enormously.

If you do this keep topping up with diesel as soon as you have space.

Also expect lots of smoke.

 

I used to work for an independent breakdown company and we had contracts with all the major breakdown insurers, we were always told that Green Flag customers had priority over customers from other companies, with AA having lowest priority.
Green Flag would penalise our company financially if their customer had to wait more than 60 minutes from calling for assistance.
As for mis-fuelling, we used to get lots of what we termed "contam" jobs, mostly people who had a hire car, which were the best get as 9 times out of 10 the car would have been virtually empty of fuel when they collected it and filled it up, so we would know that it would be almost pure petrol/diesel that we would drain out.
Of course we would take turns on who got to fill their car up on the drained fuel. Though obviously on our own heads be it as far as the boss was concerned.
At the time I was running a Rover 214, this is going back 20 years I might add.
Anyway, I had just got back from a long haul recovery late at night, and was heading home, I noticed that my car was low on fuel so asked the guy on night shift control if we had any decent contam kicking about.
He said there had been a couple of contam jobs that day and the drums were out in storage, though he didn't know how good the fuel was.
So I went out and had a look, sure enough a couple of 25l drums sitting there. So, using my nasal testing tool, I discovered one was diesel and one was petrol and it didn't have any diesel smell to it, so must have been a full tank jobbie.
So into the Rover it goes, and I goes away off home.
I lived about 15 miles from work, across the moors, and about 10 miles into the journey....cough splutter, loss of power but keeps chugging along.
So not as pure petrol as I though but made it home.
Chugged away back to work next day, much to the amusement of the other blokes as I drove into the yard with the car sounding like bricks in a washing machine.
Brimmed the car with clean fuel on top of the contam, after all no point chucking it out as it was still usable, just, and spent the next 7 days driving about in a petrol car that sounded like a 50 year old tractor.
It eventually quietened down when the fuel was gone, in the end my dad bought the car off me, though I never mentioned the fuel...

 

I guess you need to see my mum's car - think engine life is the least of our worries!

Knew it wasn't too smart at the time, but it's two years on and still chugging away - not passing any vw emissions tests anytime soon tho!