put unleaded petrol in a diesel van

confusedmix

i think it's a 2.5 TDI

vaio

Stick a pipe in the fuel filler hole, blow down your end as you push the pipe in, when you hear bubbling noises the end is in the fuel. Suck the end to start a siphon trying to avoid swallowing any of the fuel you get in your mouth (clear pipe helps so you can see it coming). Remove as much fuel as possible, as a very minimum the same volume as the petrol you put in. When you are done, fill to the brim with diesel.

Then change all the fuel filters, drain any injection pipes you can get your hands on and then use the prime system to flush a pint of fuel through from the tank. Tighten everything up, prime and start the engine and drive somewhere to dispose of the siphoned out fuel

Suddenly £190 doesn’t seem too bad

anewman

vaio wrote: »

Stick a pipe in the fuel filler hole, blow down your end as you push the pipe in, when you hear bubbling noises the end is in the fuel.

I thought most fillers had anti-syphon mechanisms in them? Unless they think the key is enough to stop it these days. My preferred method would be to either take the feed pipe to the injectors or filter off and run the fuel pump, or to remove the pump and syphon from there.

vaio

Don't know, our van is the same age and that doesn't have anti-syphon.

I'd be wary of using the car pump to empty the tank is case the pump relies on the diesel for cooling or lubrication.

cyclonebri1

Agreed. Also be very carefull and don't use any other electrical or mechanical pump to empty the tank. It's even possible to cause an explosion by compressing diesel with a pump, now it's petrol, one spark and........:eek:

I'd go with completely emptying the tank. And just letting the rest of the system drain back. It may actually be simplest to actually remove the complete tank, but I'm not familiar so take care.

You need someone to give you some assistance from what youv'e posted.;)

mikey72

Have you sorted this yet?

Sandoval

I hope this isn't the usual 'post a question, get some advice and never return' situation.

Be interesting to find out what has happened.

taz121

I did this a few year ago, exactly £20 in a £45 tank. Filled to the brim with diesel took it a burn to lose as much as possible and topped up again with diesel. Coughed and spluttered a bit but cut out the next day. syphoned the tank myself popped in some diesel and all was fine.

Don'r replace filters or drain the system unless it's totally neccessary as it wasn't with me

Just to add, my 206 HDI GTI at the time was meant to have anti-syphon, hosepipe worked just fine

taz121

Sandoval wrote: »

You have no choice really.

The van can't be driven as it's full of unleaded fuel that has to be drained. If you drive it you're going to cause a grand's worth of damage or something.

This isn't true i don't think, it's far far worse putting diesel in a petrol, the pump on a diesel will not work with petrol so will not allow the fuel through the system unless it has a diesel mix and will cough a bit and smoke a little. As above when it happened to me all it cost me was the fuel i put in the tank.

Don't worry mate, drain it and put diesel in,it will be fine

iolanthe07

it's far far worse putting diesel in a petrol

You can't. The hoses are designed to make this impossible.