{ "dataset": "UK misfuelling statistics", "version": "2026.1", "date_modified": "2026-10-09", "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/data/misfuelling-statistics", "cite_as": "UK Wrong Fuel Repository, UK misfuelling statistics, v2026.1, https://wrongfuel.co.uk/data/misfuelling-statistics", "count": 40, "rows": [ { "id": "uk-misfuelling-incidents-per-year-2001", "title": "Estimated UK misfuelling incidents in 2001", "value": "300,000", "unit": "incidents", "year": 2001, "source": "adams2007", "basis": "cited", "question": "How many misfuelling incidents happened in the UK in 2001?", "interpretation": "The earliest peer-reviewed estimate of national scale, and still the only one published in an academic journal with its method described. It predates the 150,000 figure that later circulated in trade press, and is roughly double it.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/uk-misfuelling-incidents-per-year-2001/" }, { "id": "uk-misfuelling-direct-cost-2001", "title": "Estimated direct cost of UK misfuelling in 2001", "value": "£35 million", "unit": "GBP per year", "year": 2001, "source": "adams2007", "basis": "cited", "question": "What does misfuelling cost the UK each year?", "interpretation": "Direct costs only: recovery, draining and repair. It excludes lost time, missed appointments and the accident risk of a vehicle failing in traffic, all of which the same study identifies as real but unpriced.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/uk-misfuelling-direct-cost-2001/" }, { "id": "uk-misfuelling-cost-2014", "title": "Estimated annual UK misfuelling cost", "value": "£40 million", "unit": "GBP per year", "year": 2014, "source": "rac2014", "basis": "cited", "question": "What is the total annual cost of misfuelling in the UK?", "interpretation": "Built from roughly 130,000 incidents at about £200 to drain and flush plus £50 of replaced fuel. The arithmetic is transparent, which is more than can be said for most figures in this field.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/uk-misfuelling-cost-2014/" }, { "id": "uk-misfuelling-incidents-extrapolated-2014", "title": "Extrapolated annual UK misfuelling incidents", "value": "130,000", "unit": "incidents", "year": 2014, "source": "rac2014", "basis": "cited", "question": "How many people misfuel each year in the UK?", "interpretation": "Extrapolated from a single recovery operator attending in excess of 30,000 misfuels a year, scaled against survey-reported prevalence. A lower bound on incidents, not a census.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/uk-misfuelling-incidents-extrapolated-2014/" }, { "id": "specialist-drain-jobs-per-year", "title": "Specialist fuel drain jobs completed per year", "value": "17,500", "unit": "jobs per year", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How many fuel drains are carried out in the UK each year?", "interpretation": "One provider. Set alongside a trade-body figure of more than 16,000 wrong fuel incidents fixed annually by another, at least 33,000 UK misfuels a year reach a specialist. Everything else is handled by garages, by breakdown patrols, or not at all.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/specialist-drain-jobs-per-year/" }, { "id": "uk-misfuel-incident-estimate-range", "title": "Working estimate of annual UK misfuelling incidents", "value": "80,000 to 130,000", "unit": "incidents per year", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How common is misfuelling in the UK?", "interpretation": "An operator estimate offered explicitly as an approximation. It is narrower and better grounded than the 150,000 figure repeated across the industry, which traces to a single 2010 press release whose method has never been published.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/uk-misfuel-incident-estimate-range/" }, { "id": "share-of-cases-wrong-fuel", "title": "Share of contamination callouts that are wrong fuel", "value": "86.7", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "What proportion of fuel contamination callouts are misfuels?", "interpretation": "Of cases where a cause was recorded. The remainder is dominated by AdBlue, with water, oil and stale fuel making up the tail.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-of-cases-wrong-fuel/" }, { "id": "share-of-cases-adblue", "title": "Share of contamination callouts that are AdBlue", "value": "9.1", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How often is AdBlue put in the diesel tank?", "interpretation": "Roughly one case in eleven. Disproportionately expensive relative to its frequency, because urea attacks fuel-system metal rather than merely failing to burn.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-of-cases-adblue/" }, { "id": "share-diesel-vehicles", "title": "Share of wrong fuel incidents involving diesel vehicles", "value": "75", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "Are diesel or petrol cars more likely to be misfuelled?", "interpretation": "Three in four. Nozzle geometry is the reason: an unleaded nozzle drops freely into a diesel filler neck, while a diesel nozzle is too wide to enter most petrol ones.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-diesel-vehicles/" }, { "id": "share-petrol-in-diesel", "title": "Share of wrong fuel cases that are petrol into a diesel", "value": "75 to 78", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "What is the most common misfuel?", "interpretation": "The dominant direction of error by a wide margin, and also the more mechanically serious of the two.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-petrol-in-diesel/" }, { "id": "share-diesel-in-petrol", "title": "Share of wrong fuel cases that are diesel into a petrol", "value": "22 to 25", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How often do people put diesel in a petrol car?", "interpretation": "Substantially higher than the 5 per cent older industry estimates give. The provider attributes the gap to a large fleet and commercial customer base, where wide-neck fillers are common.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-diesel-in-petrol/" }, { "id": "busiest-day-friday", "title": "Busiest day of the week for wrong fuel callouts", "value": "Friday, 29% above Sunday", "unit": "relative volume", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "What day do most misfuels happen?", "interpretation": "Consistent with an error of distraction rather than ignorance: Friday is the week's most rushed, most cognitively loaded refuelling day.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/busiest-day-friday/" }, { "id": "peak-months", "title": "Peak months for wrong fuel callouts", "value": "May and August, ~12% above January", "unit": "relative volume", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "What time of year does misfuelling peak?", "interpretation": "Holiday driving, unfamiliar vehicles and unfamiliar forecourts. The seasonal shape supports the ergonomic account of misfuelling rather than the carelessness account.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/peak-months/" }, { "id": "share-moved-vehicle", "title": "Share of drivers who moved the vehicle before calling for help", "value": "68.4", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "Do most people drive after putting the wrong fuel in?", "interpretation": "The single most consequential number in this repository. More than two thirds of drivers convert a drain into a potential repair before they pick up the phone.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-moved-vehicle/" }, { "id": "median-distance-driven", "title": "Median distance driven after misfuelling", "value": "1.5", "unit": "miles", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How far do people drive after putting the wrong fuel in?", "interpretation": "Short, and short is what saves most of them. Damage scales with pump running time under load, not with the fact of having moved.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/median-distance-driven/" }, { "id": "share-under-ten-miles", "title": "Share of drivers who covered ten miles or fewer", "value": "93", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How far can you drive with the wrong fuel before serious damage?", "interpretation": "Almost everybody stops early, usually because the vehicle makes the decision for them by losing power.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-under-ten-miles/" }, { "id": "median-volume-wrong-fuel", "title": "Median volume of wrong fuel added", "value": "20", "unit": "litres", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How much wrong fuel do people usually put in?", "interpretation": "More than half of cases involve 20 litres or less. In a typical 55-litre car that is around 36 per cent of the tank — far past the point where topping up with the correct fuel achieves anything.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/median-volume-wrong-fuel/" }, { "id": "median-arrival-time", "title": "Median technician arrival time", "value": "49.7", "unit": "minutes", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How long does it take for a fuel drain technician to arrive?", "interpretation": "Under an hour, with most vehicles back in service 75 to 90 minutes after the call.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/median-arrival-time/" }, { "id": "standard-drain-price", "title": "Typical all-in price of a standard fuel drain", "value": "£150 to £299", "unit": "GBP", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How much does a fuel drain cost in the UK?", "interpretation": "The market rate for a straightforward drain and flush where the engine has not run far. Quoted separately from the callout fee by most operators.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/standard-drain-price/" }, { "id": "drain-price-range-consumer", "title": "Reported range for draining and flushing a tank", "value": "£120 to £1,000", "unit": "GBP", "year": 2024, "source": "which2024", "basis": "cited", "question": "What is the cost range for draining the wrong fuel?", "interpretation": "The wide upper bound reflects vehicle size and access rather than damage. Anything above it is repair, not drainage.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/drain-price-range-consumer/" }, { "id": "pump-replacement-cost", "title": "Cost of fuel pump replacement after driving on wrong fuel", "value": "£1,000 to £3,000", "unit": "GBP", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How much does it cost to replace a fuel pump after a misfuel?", "interpretation": "The first repair threshold. Crossed by running the engine long enough for lubrication failure to score the pump.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/pump-replacement-cost/" }, { "id": "injector-and-pump-cost", "title": "Cost of injectors and pump replacement", "value": "£3,000 to £8,000", "unit": "GBP", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "How much do injectors cost after wrong fuel damage?", "interpretation": "Reached once pump debris has travelled forward into the common rail. Cleaning is not an option at this point because the contamination is metallic.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/injector-and-pump-cost/" }, { "id": "severe-case-cost", "title": "Cost in the most severe recorded cases", "value": "£5,000 to £15,000+", "unit": "GBP", "year": 2025, "source": "ff2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "What is the worst-case cost of putting the wrong fuel in?", "interpretation": "Whole fuel system, tank included, on a vehicle driven until it stopped. Rare, and almost always avoidable by not restarting.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/severe-case-cost/" }, { "id": "rac-extreme-cost", "title": "Reported extreme-case repair cost", "value": "up to £5,000", "unit": "GBP", "year": 2024, "source": "which2024", "basis": "cited", "question": "Can misfuelling write off an engine?", "interpretation": "The engine itself usually survives. What gets replaced is the fuel system, and on a modern common-rail diesel that approaches the value of an older car.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/rac-extreme-cost/" }, { "id": "share-of-uk-motorists-who-have-misfuelled", "title": "Share of UK motorists who have misfuelled at least once", "value": "29", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "gocompare2025", "basis": "cited", "question": "How many people have put the wrong fuel in their car?", "interpretation": "Well over a quarter, self-reported. Higher than the 20 per cent the same comparison site recorded a year earlier, which is more likely improved willingness to admit it than a real jump.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-of-uk-motorists-who-have-misfuelled/" }, { "id": "prevalence-2024", "title": "Share of UK motorists who have misfuelled, 2024 survey", "value": "20", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2024, "source": "gocompare2024", "basis": "cited", "question": "What percentage of drivers have misfuelled?", "interpretation": "One in five. Comparing the two survey years is a caution about self-report, not evidence of a trend.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/prevalence-2024/" }, { "id": "prevalence-men-2025", "title": "Share of men who have misfuelled", "value": "33", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "gocompare2025", "basis": "cited", "question": "Are men more likely to misfuel than women?", "interpretation": "A third of men against 23 per cent of women. Every dataset in this repository finds the same direction, and the leading explanation is exposure: higher average annual mileage means more refuelling events.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/prevalence-men-2025/" }, { "id": "prevalence-women-2025", "title": "Share of women who have misfuelled", "value": "23", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "gocompare2025", "basis": "cited", "question": "How many women have put the wrong fuel in their car?", "interpretation": "Lower than men in every survey on record, though the gap narrows once mileage is accounted for.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/prevalence-women-2025/" }, { "id": "prevalence-18-24", "title": "Share of drivers aged 18-24 who have misfuelled", "value": "54", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "gocompare2025", "basis": "cited", "question": "Which age group misfuels the most?", "interpretation": "More than half. The most striking figure in the consumer survey literature, and consistent with unfamiliarity: new drivers, borrowed cars, changing vehicles.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/prevalence-18-24/" }, { "id": "share-of-drivers-aged-55-and-over-who-have-misfuelled", "title": "Share of drivers aged 55 and over who have misfuelled", "value": "12", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "gocompare2025", "basis": "cited", "question": "Do older drivers misfuel less often?", "interpretation": "Roughly a quarter of the youngest group's rate. Long tenure with one vehicle is protective.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/share-of-drivers-aged-55-and-over-who-have-misfuelled/" }, { "id": "prevalence-london", "title": "Share of London motorists who have misfuelled", "value": "48", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "gocompare2025", "basis": "cited", "question": "Where in the UK is misfuelling most common?", "interpretation": "Nearly half, the highest of any UK region surveyed. Denser forecourts, more hire and shared vehicles, more interrupted refuelling.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/prevalence-london/" }, { "id": "men-share-of-cost", "title": "Share of the annual misfuelling bill attributable to men", "value": "£25 million of £40 million", "unit": "GBP", "year": 2014, "source": "rac2014", "basis": "cited", "question": "Who pays the most for misfuelling in the UK?", "interpretation": "A cost decomposition rather than a moral finding: it follows arithmetically from prevalence and mileage.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/men-share-of-cost/" }, { "id": "policies-excluding-cover-2025", "title": "Share of car insurance policies not covering wrong fuel damage", "value": "62", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2025, "source": "gocompare2025", "basis": "cited", "question": "Does car insurance cover putting the wrong fuel in?", "interpretation": "Most policies exclude it. Misfuelling is treated as driver error rather than an insured peril, and where cover exists it is usually a paid add-on.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/policies-excluding-cover-2025/" }, { "id": "policies-standard-cover-2024", "title": "Share of policies including misfuelling cover as standard", "value": "14", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2024, "source": "gocompare2024", "basis": "cited", "question": "How many insurance policies include misfuelling cover?", "interpretation": "Of 296 comprehensive policies analysed: 14 per cent standard, 3 per cent as an optional extra, 83 per cent excluded entirely.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/policies-standard-cover-2024/" }, { "id": "policies-standard-cover-which", "title": "Share of reviewed policies including misfuelling as standard", "value": "43", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2024, "source": "which2024", "basis": "cited", "question": "Is misfuelling covered as standard on car insurance?", "interpretation": "A different sample of 61 policies gives a much higher figure than the Defaqto analyses. The disagreement is real and unresolved, and it is why this repository reports both rather than averaging them.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/policies-standard-cover-which/" }, { "id": "breakdown-cover-standard", "title": "Share of breakdown policies including misfuelling assistance", "value": "41", "unit": "per cent", "year": 2024, "source": "which2024", "basis": "cited", "question": "Does breakdown cover include wrong fuel?", "interpretation": "Of 44 policies: 41 per cent standard, 18 per cent optional. Breakdown cover is more likely to help than motor insurance, and usually covers the drain rather than consequential damage.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/breakdown-cover-standard/" }, { "id": "search-demand-annual", "title": "Annual UK searches for what to do about wrong fuel", "value": "80,000+", "unit": "searches per year", "year": 2024, "source": "which2024", "basis": "cited", "question": "How many people search for what to do after putting the wrong fuel in?", "interpretation": "Variations on a single question. Search demand is the closest thing the UK has to a real-time misfuelling incidence indicator, since no official body records incidents.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/search-demand-annual/" }, { "id": "search-growth-2026", "title": "Quarter-on-quarter growth in wrong fuel search demand", "value": "163", "unit": "per cent increase", "year": 2026, "source": "msm2026", "basis": "cited", "question": "Is misfuelling becoming more common?", "interpretation": "A steep quarter-on-quarter rise in early 2026. Search demand is a noisy proxy, sensitive to news coverage, but the direction has been consistent.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/search-growth-2026/" }, { "id": "diesel-lubricity-wear-scar", "title": "Typical mean wear scar diameter for commercial diesel", "value": "200 to 460", "unit": "micrometres", "year": 2013, "source": "agudelo2013", "basis": "cited", "question": "Why does petrol damage a diesel fuel pump?", "interpretation": "Measured on a high-frequency reciprocating rig. Diesel's higher viscosity gives it a protective film that petrol and ethanol do not; the wear scar is the direct physical measurement of that difference, and it is the quantitative answer to why petrol in a diesel destroys pumps.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/diesel-lubricity-wear-scar/" }, { "id": "drivers-interviewed-in-the-foundational-uk-misfuelling-study", "title": "Drivers interviewed in the foundational UK misfuelling study", "value": "23 misfuellers, 17 controls", "unit": "participants", "year": 2007, "source": "adams2007", "basis": "cited", "question": "Why do people put the wrong fuel in their car?", "interpretation": "The study's conclusion is that misfuelling is a designed-in error, not a personal failing: forecourt layout, nozzle interchangeability and interrupted attention combine into an error pathway that can be broken by design. It also notes drivers conceal incidents out of embarrassment, which is why every prevalence figure here is probably an undercount.", "canonical_url": "https://wrongfuel.co.uk/repository/drivers-interviewed-in-the-foundational-uk-misfuelling-study/" } ] }