A brain fart, if you will

Anyone else finding it a little hard to get their back to normal life groove back? I said to Rob the other day it feels a little like I am in slow motion, just unable to get fully into the swing of all the tasks that are usually easy. I suppose it’s been the exhaustion from sickness, combined with a school holiday hangover. Or something.

Ever since we bought our new car last year I get a little nerfous filling up with fuel. You see, it’s Diesel (just like Johnny) and having spent my entire driving career filling up on unleaded I find myself with a little mantra in my head over and over and over again as I am waiting: use diesel fuel Beth, use diesel fuel Beth, use diesel fuel Beth, hey Beth! Use diesel fuel! And even when I do use diesel fuel I have a panic as I drive off that somehow I got it wrong and the engine will be ruined.

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I had heard so many horror stories and had been warned that if you did happen to fill it with unleaded rather than “use diesel fuel Beth” and started the car, there would be trouble. If you left the car before you realised and made sure you didn’t start it, you could drain it and not all would be lost. Except your pride of course.

So last week, in the thick of shitsville Tennessee, there may have been a member of the family who wasn’t thinking properly and maybe thought they were in our other car that actually uses unleaded fuel and instead of use diesel fuel Beth, they used unleaded.

Ruh-uh.

But! They remembered to not turn on the car so the not diesel fuel man came out and drained it, rinsed it and then fixed it all for $200. And that man said that there are lots of people forgetting to use diesel fuel Beth, so don’t beat yourself up too much.

A complete brain fart.

Have you had one lately?
Cost you much?
And how can we stop people making this mistake of not using diesel fuel Beth? Because apparently signs and mantras still don’t do the trick.

Comments

  1. Son lent his diesel car to a friend who filled it up with petrol although she kbew it was diesel and there is a sign on filler cap. She drove it quite a while before realising. It had to be towed many miles to his mechanic. Fortunately, not much damage was done and he did not pay for it to be repaired. I was very upset. He had enough things going on without that and he loves that little car.

  2. You poor thing. We also bought a new diesel car last year and I’ve always driven unleaded. I’ve filled it up once on my own but usually sweetly ask hubby to fill it for me 🙂 He always obliges, probably because he’s secretly terrified I’ll fill it up with diesel! So glad it wasn’t too costly to drain the fuel and no damage done.

  3. forgot an appointment for my son which then cost $190 and I can’t claim because we didn’t attend the session!!!

  4. I have driven diesel cars for 12 years & I still worry I’ve accidentally put the wrong fuel in! I check & then check again. You’d think I’d be used to it by now but no.

  5. I thought it was just me doing the “Diesel Diesel Diesel” mantra into the petrol station. I’ve had my car nearly a year and I am still petrified of accidentally putting unleaded in it. You’re not alone.

  6. Your car needs a name starting with D Beth. Then you can recite “Deirdre drinks Diesel” every time you fill up. I have to say “Lily the Laser likes her liquid on the left” in order to pull up with the fuel cap on the correct side. Lily the Laser is long gone but it still works for me. Good luck!

  7. Hubby doesn’t do flowers, but he will fill up my car whenever I ask. That’s his idea of a romantic gesture. And yes, it’s diesel too!

  8. I do this but the other way around and for what reason I’m unsure, I drive unleaded but still freak out and check, check and double check that I’m doing the right thing…

  9. I wish they would make the fuel opening thingy and pump different sizes so this wouldn’t happen. Our car is 2 years old and my husband did the unleaded thing in the first week we had it! And brother-in-law did it a few months ago – ugh!

  10. we all run on automatic pilot and you guys having to multi task to the max doesn’t help!
    i’m glad it wasn’t you beth! … it was actually a man!;
    I once started to try to fill up with lpg gas in my petrol car! because our other car ran on gas!
    i was thinking wtf this doesn’t fit! then I woke up! not a problem, just stupid! asleep on the job!
    lol m:)X

  11. Sarah Coughlan says

    My ex filled the brand new range rover diesel with unleaded then drove it from Bowral to Robertson and back to Bowral and by then had well and truly f%#*ed it !! When he rang his mate who worked at the dealership he said hope you didn’t drive it he said well yep driving it now his advice walk away from the car !! And bet it was the wife who filled it up ! Nope he did that all by himself!! Lucky it had insurance ! Apparently happens more often than you think.

  12. I’m SO paranoid about this and check the bowser about 30 times as I’m filling up to make sure it is!! Thank goodness it was only $200!!

  13. Happened to my hubby with his work truck last week, filled by someone else who was obviously also having a brain fart. One of the problems is the size of the nozzle…. a diesel nozzle (and hole) is bigger than the unleaded one so the unleaded nozzle fits easily into the diesel hole. One of my local servos has the diesel pump set away from the others so you’re not tempted. Dunno what else can be done really :-/

  14. Oh, this happened to my dad…twice! Each time with a new Diesel car.
    We’d know because he’d make a sheepish phone call to my hubby (who has worked as a diesel mechanic by trade) each time. We’d laugh, he’d get it fixed and all was well.
    I would have given him a real teasing the second time (I mean, hello the SECOND time) but I let it slide because my mum had just been admitted to hospital at the time and she was NOT being a cooperative patient/wife haha. Poor guy was exhausted.
    It happens!!
    (also – I think I know how you feel – I feel like I’m frustratingly always on the VERGE of feeling like I’ve got the hang of this 2016 thing but I can’t quite get there) x

  15. Cars!!! Made a big scratch on the side of the car courtesy of pole in the car park. Sadly my fancy (for me) new car reversing camera didn’t pick it up. And to top it off I managed to take a 1cm scratch out of 3 adjoining panels. Haven’t been to find out the cost yet.

  16. I have just watched the video’s on Mrs Woog’s latest post and I love the comment you made about not taking a tally in regards to chores, I’m taking that on board!

    But in regards to putting diesel or petrol in a car – *puts hand up sheepishly – I have done the reverse when I was young and mum and dad let me fill up my car from the farm fuel tanks. I put diesel in my little Ford Escort – lucky I didn’t travel far and it was easy to drain and rinse – no excuse on my behalf, brain fart sounds like a good one though! xx

  17. Maybe put a reminder sticker on the little door to your fuel tank that says “no unleaded” or even on tank cap itself.

  18. Oh Noooooo…. is there anything else but “Diesel fuel Beth”??? ha ha ha ….. we have over 100,000 litres of it here at Chardy HQ usually… so it is our whole world… without “diesel fuel Beth” we wouldn’t have power or vehicles. So glad he (I assume it was Rob) didn’t start it… what a smart man.

  19. Because of the way the staggered start days for different years worked out for my daughter she started school last Friday. Having her first day of school a Friday has completely messed with my head & I am still totally confused nearly a week later. I should probably be thankful I am not driving any more, goodness knows what I would put in the car at the moment. Hopefully I will eventually work the days out again 🙂

  20. Bahahahahahaha.
    Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh.
    Hubby had a brain fart one day. He borrowed a friends car to go buy me flowers while we were in New Zealand at a conference. I found out before him that a car had rolled down the hill, through a fence and into a paddock! Turns out he was in such a nervous flurry that he forgot to put the hand brake on!! Haha
    The flowers were gorgeous but the story was the best bit.

  21. We own a diesel and I’m paranoid about it also. The other day I was filling up and the attendant ran out and was like ‘stop, stop’ and then when he got to me he asked ‘are you sure your car is diesel?’…yes, I replied – ‘very well, keep going’. H E A R T A T T A C K for no reason!

  22. I drive a diesel but I too have learnt through my mistake, the one I made at 17 in my first car on the way to the Gold coast oopsy !! So now I go straight to the HI FLO , number 19 pump, its the nice fast one at the local. I love paying and saying yep hi flo diesel on the number 19, yep oh to be 19 again !!!

  23. Yep, another diesel driver here – 4 years on and I still double check every time!!

    Husb and I were shuffling cars the other day – move his out of the way, get mine out of garage, both jump in mine ready to go then he realises that he’s left something in the garage. Goes to get it. Jumps back in car and says where are the keys – I’m all like – you’re driving the car, you had them. Turns out he used the keys to get into the garage, then shut the garage roller door with the keys and remote safely inside. We had to break into our own house to get back into the garage to get the keys to open the garage to get back to the car. #brainfart I don’t get grumpy very often but that little episode definitely tested me.

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