While you may be able to get away with putting lower octane fuel into a vehicle that requires high octane fuel, you definitely won’t get away with putting diesel fuel into a vehicle with a regular gas combustion engine. Unfortunately for about 500 Canadian drivers, they unknowingly did just that.
A Coscto in Calgary mistakenly filled the ‘Regular’ fuel pumps with diesel fuel on Boxing Day. It wasn’t until the next day that it was brought to their attention as an upset customer called to complain that his vehicle was not operating properly.
“We were initially contacted by a member who had had some issues with their vehicle and that caused us to go back and double check, and that’s when we discovered the error,” said Co-op Spokesperson Karen Allan.
Close to 500 customers were affected and were tracked down based on their Costco membership ID.
Repairing the affected vehicles can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000. Costco has already offered to cover the repair costs as well as rental vehicle costs.
