Filled up with diesel
- Thread starter Miserly
- Start date
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Here’s a photo inside the fuel door. I don’t look in there often and never noticed, until today, the enormous size of the opening before the actual hole for the gas nozzle, which is an inch or so down the big opening. The passenger vehicle size diesel nozzle would fit and the truck stop size nozzle may fit as well. But there’d have to be a load of diesel spraying all over the place during the effort. 
JustAnotherPoorDriver
Active Member
This isn't a Clarity specific thing. The outer size is a standard size shared by most screw in caps (there are other caps that are quarter turn, and some where the flap is the cap). Almost all cars have that "weakness".
The smaller inner diameter dates from the early days of unleaded and was intended to stop people from putting leaded gas into cars with catalytic converters. That it prevents diesel was an unintended benefit.
The smaller inner diameter dates from the early days of unleaded and was intended to stop people from putting leaded gas into cars with catalytic converters. That it prevents diesel was an unintended benefit.
My Old school knowledge is guessing that the fuel filter or fuel injectors are clogged. As I understand, that diesel fuel is not as refine as gasolene and needs a higher compression to ignite it. I don't quite understand even why putting diesel fuel would cause compression loss let alone "replacing" something... are they saying a valve, or piston, cam lobe? They're talking about engine dismantling. Again, I do have a Clarity, but I'm not sure if you can remotely crank the gasolene engine (I would have to check)... you certainly can't just push the start button to be able to check the compression of all the cylinders. Gut feeling... get a second opinion. Edited to add... 18 K is a lot, and it is worth going to the dealer garage to check it out to diagnose the problem and may be a way less expensive remedy. And to no offense to your mechanic, if you're adamant in changing the engine, I would mark or record the serial number to confirm that it is in fact a new engine (sorry, after my run with less honorable mechanics I'm quite cynical if something doesn't add up).
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Too late for that, @Miserly had the engine replaced.
I don't think this would ever had been a problem in a Tesla. Just saying.
Grew up pumping my own gas in Florida, the only fuel I buy now is off-road diesel for my zero-turn mower ( 5 acres to maintain) and it has never crossed my mind to mis-fuel any vehicle I operate. Diesel Nozzle is MUCH bigger for a reason to prevent that problem but given enough time anything can be accomplished with enough determination.
Grew up pumping my own gas in Florida, the only fuel I buy now is off-road diesel for my zero-turn mower ( 5 acres to maintain) and it has never crossed my mind to mis-fuel any vehicle I operate. Diesel Nozzle is MUCH bigger for a reason to prevent that problem but given enough time anything can be accomplished with enough determination.
I filled up a gas truck with diesel one time while I was on a road trip. When I finished, I noticed the price of the fuel, it was a lot more than the gas price. That's when I noticed it was diesel. The nozzle I used was not green and was the same size as a gas nozzle. I called somebody and had the diesel pumped out and refilled it with gas, no problem. I won't go into detail my discussion with the manager of the station. So yeah, it can happen.
Or as Groucho Marx once said: “The problem with making something foolproof is that fools are so ingenious.”
It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility for a Tesla owner to do something stupid.