Thetownend.com

My car's fucked so I'm borrowing my Dad's old motor for a week. There is no handbook in it and he is abroad and not contactable.

My issue is this my friends.

I have no idea whether the fucking thing is diesel or petrol....

Look under the bonnet or put the reg in http://www.rac.co.uk/buying-a-car/rac-car-data-check/ that might tell you

https://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/app/enquiry?execution=e1s2

Put the vehicle details in there and it will tell you.

Start the engine!!!  :sherlock:

and check what comes out the exhaust

Look at the filler cap. It should tell you there.

Open the filler cap and smell it, diesel smells totally different to petrol a more earthy smell to it.

This is the best advice.  It'll be there in large, idiot proof letters on the cap.

I have a brand new diesel Astra and mine doesn't say diesel or derv on it, no clue at all, but in the main most cars do it is true.

A bloke who doesn't know who to identify whether a car is diesel or petrol?! I expected more of you DMR. Don't the badges on the back give it away?

He logged off quite soon after posting that. Either he realised he was being a bit thick or he's gone and taken a punt and filled up anyway :)

You will all be pleased to know the dilemma has been resolved

Another way of finding out, the filler hole on unleaded petrol cars is much smaller than a diesel pump nozzle, so you can't make the mistake of putting the wrong fuel in. It was originally designed like that when they made the switch from leaded to unleaded.

However you can fill a diesel with unleaded because the hole is much larger. When we changed the pool cars at work from unleaded to diesel we had quite a few filled up with petrol by people not realising...

That's a relief, just read Yeovil's suggestion which seemed to be open the bonnet and put reg in it  :(

Could have hedged your bets and put in half and half!

You didn't fill it 50/50 Petrol/Diesel did you?

Feelin' lucky, punk?

I'm curious as to whether it was petrol or diesel.

(http://cdn.meme.li/instance/300x300/39462166.jpg)

I once filled my motor with diesel, rather than unleaded....I'm red/green colour blind, and absent mindedly, took then diesel colour as being green.

In the same situation I would turn ignition on and see if one of those curly glow plug display thingies lit up

To digress slightly, did anyone else also erroneously get taught to spell dilemma with an 'n?' Apparently this is quite a widely perpetuated error for reasons that are still not entirely known. My mind still rails against the correct spelling whenever I see it.

Yes, I always thought there was an n in it. Weird.

You are not alone: http://www.dilemna.info/index.php

I saw this happen once.  It was at a filling station just north of Oxford near the bypass/Summertown.  The noise that the chap made on realising what he'd just done was similar to the noise you would imagine someone making if they caught their foreskin in the zip after a hefty zipping up.  It was an anguished yelp.  Haunting.

Try sticking the diesel pump into it - if it doesn't fit then its a petrol if it does then its diesel...

What a Dry lunch.

Yes, this site explains how you can put petrol in a diesel and not vice-versa.

http://dieselhead.co.uk/the-great-misfuel-debate/faqs/

Won't work on older cars where leaded, unleaded, diesel all had the same size nozzle. In those days they just assumed if you can drive, you knew what fuel to put in. Do they still make learners read the highway code?

 

The one that annoys me is the use of the phrase "baited breath" instead of the correct "bated breath".

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm

Not seen it happen but someone in front of me in the queue at the Ford garage service department had done it. I'm not sure sure if the mechanics were more impressed or dismayed that said person had managed to drive 26 miles from the garage it happened at to Swindon.

Mine is "I could care less" to mean "I could not care less," when it is logically necessary in that statement for you to care at least a little.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

Mine is the totally Bristolian pronunciation of idea as ideal

Also Registry Office as a place of marriage when it is Register Office

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Edit: I like him.

Yeah. I like him too.

Sounds like extreme pedantry to me. Surely they're both completely correct in every sense? :)

The original question is up there with anything 4d has come up with. Even better the master of everything posed it.

Good one Bex