The color Green no longer signifies a diesel fuel pump

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Harry B

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Jan 9, 2009
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Northern AZ
I wanted to give those that have not noticed a heads up to a problem I got caught up in yesterday.
Some gas stations are changing the color of the diesel pumps or in some cases just the handles.

BP wants to be known as an ECO friendly company and has decided to go for the green color. Now the diesel pumps are black and the gasoline pump handles are green.

Hess stations are now going to the color orange for diesel pumps to indicate ULSD fuel. Never mind that ULSD is mostly all that is available these days.  So orange it is for Hess pumps

Not even giving it a second thought, I had accepted that diesel pumps (handle and/or hoses) are mostly if not always green in color and that the associated meter panel is directly above the hose being used.  The standout green color always makes it easy to spot when trying to figure out which pump has the diesel and how accessible it is to a vehicle that is combined about 60 to 65 feet long.

Well after having to dump 100 gallons of diesel and gasoline mixed together, I am not sure how green that makes them in my book.  I am going to write a letter to BP to ask if they ever thought about the problems they have now created. Needless to say I am going to avoid BP stations. This was my first visit to a BP station for diesel fuel that I can recall in 8 years of having diesel motor homes and probably my last.

I spoke with Cummins regarding the problem when at the pump. I discovered it before restarting the engine and Cummins immediately asked if I happened to be at a BP station. They apparently have been having many of these calls lately. The towing company indicated that I was the second person towed this week with the mixed gas in diesel issue and he had several more prior to this week. This for me was about an $800 joke being I didn?t start the engine. I won?t even try to guess what the expense would to be if you do start the engine. Cummins indicated I would not have made it home (2 miles). That was an expensive topping off of my tank of diesel fuel.

It looks like we now have two things to watch out for regarding non standard colors, diesel and coolant. Several months ago a FL dealer added the wrong anti freeze to my OAT coolant (but they were both red). Yep, another dump of fluids.

How is that for being ECO friendly? Perhaps from a marketing perspective, that is about it.
 
That's unfortunate, to say the least.  But thanks for the post - sometimes we look at pump colors and handles from a distance, just to see where some form of diesel might be.  Then we go look for the ULSD sticker on the pump's face.  (We can't use anything but that in our rig)

I haven't seen much consistency at BP or Exxon stations.  We seem to have better luck at Flying J and Love's.


 
We've had this discussion before.  There is no standard for pump handle colors.  I've seen diesel handles in green, yellow and black, and gas pump handles in most of those as well as red, white or blue.  If you don't see Diesel #2 on the pump, it's the wrong pump.  You can usually count on the diesel being a different color from the gas, but I wouldn't rely on that either.
 
Harry - wow!!  So sorry about that and thanks for sharing!  I had a diesel Olds Ciera back in 1983 and I totally zoned out one time when I was fueling and added gasoline.  Ouchie!!

My 'antenna' went up a while ago when I was fueling the Horizon and noticed the diesel pump handle was a different color - I'm not one for more government regulation, but I think this is a good opportunity for our paid servants to make themselves useful and issue color standards.
 
Dave,

When we are on the road I usually try to refuel at truck stops as well, with Flying J being my preferred choice.

However when we arrive back home I usually try to top off the tank to eliminate any moisture problems developing in the fuel tank (Florida has plenty of moisture to go around). This boils down to a local pump for me as the nearest truck stops being Loves and Pilot are about 70 miles away.  As you have read in my post, away from truck stops it is turning into an evolving mess as far as standardization of colors to identify the fuel pumps. This is not very helpful when driving a large vehicle into a busy pump station and trying to identify from a distance the diesel pumps.

I even looked it up online as I was starting to question my perception of green fuel pumps or handles. It is however the accepted norm for the USA. That is good enough for me as I don't travel much outside of the States anyway. When I do, there are all kinds of issues to contend with that are different and I become more aware of trying to identify those differences including the refueling process.
 
I got in the habit of following the fuel hose and checking out "the other end".
 
Something I have noticed in Canada is that many stations are manned by full service attendants.  Our last tank a nice fellow fueled us and was adding fuel before I even got out of the MH.  While waiting we had a great conversation about our trip and his one vacation to California.  Only ater finishing and then going inside to settle the bill did I mentally question whether he actually put diesel in our tank.  He had even said boy this is big and we don't see many out here.  For a moment I panicked, but yes he did fill with Diesel.  Now I am going to check and recheck...tim
 
Harry B said:
I won’t even try to guess what the expense would to be if you do start the engine. Cummins indicated I would not have made it home (2 miles). That was an expensive topping off of my tank of diesel fuel.

At least you didn't try it, Harry.  Last year (on another forum) I read of diesel owners who had made the mistake of fueling with gasoline, then adding automatic transmission fluid to the fuel tank.  I would think that would be risky, to say the least.
 
Years ago I worked at a gas station on a major highway and a tank wagon driver dumped 8,000 gallons of gasoline in our underground diesel tank. I can tell you from experience, you won't go far with gasoline in your diesel tank. We had blown diesel engines all over the highway. It's a good thing big oil companies have deep pockets. 
 

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