Ask the dealer to save a jar of each car's fuel drain and label it. Take a pic of each next to a clear glass jar of diesel to show the color difference. Send them to a lab to determine the percentage of gas/diesel of each. Maybe useful data if you do run into future engine problems.

MB advisor called back, definitely gasoline in the fuel.

It will cost north of $2k to flush the 3 cars fuel systems and replace the filters.:eek:

I asked them to save samples.

Hopefully no damage beyond that.

My dad used to work for a major oil company back in the day, he says this is an all too common problem. Delivery drivers get in a hurry and put the hose in the wrong hole at the station. He was in management and had to deal with the claims against the stations for bad fuel.

Guess I need to start being like Uncle Si did in a DD I saw the other day, where he sniffs the fuel to make sure it's fresh.

Around here - Texas, green is the color of the diesel handles.

Sounds like you've got bad fuel - gasoline in your fuel.

Glad to hear the problem was IDed.

What's wrong with the petroleum industry in this country? Couldn't they standardize the color coding of the pump handles for different fuels or is there no standard? Does Europe and the rest of the world have this problem?

Why so pricey? The couple of times my kids have put gas in the tank instead of diesel, it's only cost a few hundred dollars to drain tank, bleed lines, and change filters.

It's a branding theme problem. Every company has their own color palette and they don't want to change. Or worse, avoiding having a competitor's color in their station. It's not just the fact that they don't want to remind people of their competitor, they don't want to infringe on trademarked colors.

Marketing people are very funny about this. I know a few in my company, they will argue for hours about the specific Pantone colors and the arrangement of elements on anything we do or sell. We have certain Pantone colors that are trademarked to us that no one else can use.

The shade of green that you see at a BP or the yellow in Shell is a very specific Pantone color and it is registered to those companies.

You can actually get sued if you use a color trademarked by someone else. T-Mobile tried to trademark plain old Magenta. I think they did not get away with that one, though.

The root cause of the problem is not the customer, it's the delivery truck driver. They have to make sure they are putting the right product in the right storage tank. There are no interlocks to prevent them from doing something stupid.

So we should be watching the Columbia, SC Craig's List for diesel vehicles being sold because they just don't run good anymore...

I wonder how many other vehicles filled up at that station before the mistake was discovered ?

Dealer service tech working on my 3 cars says there are 4 others in his queue from the same station.

MB dealer pricing. From the OP's posts, it sounds like he's anticipating the oil company will be paying bill. At least at this point.....

I'd like to see you post a picture of green diesel handles in a BP station...:eek:

When I'm back East (Tennessee.....:D) I see BP stations, but I fill at Murphy's Oil on Walmart Supercenter properties. I can shoot you a pic later today of a green handled diesel pump, but it won't be at a BP. We don't have 'em here.

Just picked up the W210 from the dealer. All told the oil company will be reimbursing me almost $2500 for the 3 repairs plus the cost of the 3 refills plus the cost of the 3 initial fills.

Already been in contact with their insurance company and faxed them the receipts. Yes I still have a fax machine :D

To close this up with lessons learned:

- ALWAYS get a receipt when you buy fuel. And save it until the tank of fuel is burnt plus the tank after that. The first question I got is do you have your receipt. I know we've all been there, the pump printer is jammed or out of paper, you look inside and there are 15 people in line buying lottery tickets one after the other from the one clerk while the other is texting. If I did not have my receipts I would have been up a creek.

- Fuel branding is key. This sort of thing could have happened at any station. If you go to a no-name station you might not get the response I did. Without naming names, it was the station that got its name from the hours they were originally open at their first place in the Lone Star state. They had a 24/7 call center and they were very swift and professional in their response.

- I would recommend doing an Uncle Si "I always sniff my gas to make sure it's fresh". Well maybe not bury my face in the nozzle like he did but I would definitely sample the air around the filler when you start filling. If you smell anything un-Diesel like, stop filling immediately.

- If your car starts acting weird after a fueling, don't ignore it.

Just glad all 3 cars are right again. Only waiting on the check now.

Thanks for the very clear follow-up note. I'll start making certain I detect the odor of what a pump is dispensing from here on out. There's a marked difference between diesel fuel and unleaded gasoline, that's for sure.

Follow on from 2 years ago, reminded of this with roll Guy's thread.

The oil company involved got its start in Dallas selling ice. They got their name from their original operating hours.

The oil company insurance ended up denying the claim and I got soaked for $2500. After they told me to go get them fixed and they would cover it.

They retain a corporate insurance company that is located in a suburb of Kansas City that starts with S and ends with wick. They are well known as b@stards who do everything to avoid paying claims. Including threatening to prosecute me for insurance fraud if I continued to pursue it.

Too little dollars to make it worth suing them since it's my word against theirs.