What Happens When You Fill up With the Wrong Fuel? (W/Video)

Putting regular gas into a diesel fuel tank or vice versa is never a good idea. The chances of the vehicle even running are slim, but the team at Fifth Gear decided to see if they could run their car on the wrong fuel. What could go wrong?

Fifth Gear’s Jon Bentley shares some stats, noting that hundreds of thousands of drivers accidentally fill up with the wrong type of fuel every year, and that men are more likely to make this mistake than women. Surprisingly, the people that most frequently fill up with the wrong fuel are cops.

So what happens when you put the wrong fuel in your car? When you put diesel into a gasoline-powered car, chances are it won’t even start as diesel has a higher flash point, making it harder to ignite. However, after putting in just over a gallon of diesel in the gas-powered Ford Escort, the car started and drove for a ways before it eventually started bucking and running poorly. After putting the right fuel in, the car ran nearly perfect and passed an emissions test.

But what about the reverse? Bentley put the same amount of gas into the diesel-powered Vauxhall Astra, and while it started up just fine and ran smoothly, he was worried it would damage the fuel pump. “If anything, it feels a bit quicker,” said Bentley when driving around in the Astra.

Watch the video below to see just what happens when you put in the wrong fuel into both a diesel and gas-powered car.

Source: Fifth Gear via YouTube

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