Silly mistake could cost thousands!

roseydosey

Its not that old tbh.....05 registeration. I have spoken to my local garage and it should be dealt with tomorrow.........keep you posted. Thanks everyone for advice. The local VW garage mechanic advised that these cars have some sort of automatic system which shuts the system down to prevent further damage.......will have to wait and see!

gord115

peterg1965 wrote:

I thought that was the case, putting petrol in a diesel is 'better' than the other way around, but i didnt want to contradict the earlier comment, until I had some collateral!

I thought a petrol car with some diesel in it will run but be very smokey,however as far as I know petrol in a diesel car will perish the rubber on the fuel lines and cause much more damage.I could be wrong but someone at work put a couple of gallons of diesel in his petrol pegueot then realised and filled the rest of the tank with petrol and had no long term problems.

mustrum_ridcully

roseydosey - I think you needn't worry about having a common rail diesel as VW didn't announce their change to common rail until the around Nov. 2005 (chances are you have one of their PD - Pump Duse diesels).

tomstickland

I've seen people do both types of mix up in the past and always recovered the situation for no cost other than the fuel. Drained tank, refilled with correct fuel and everything was fine.

pinkpinkfizz

I hope by now you'll have discovered the costs and its not too expensive for you.. My husband (how glad am I that HE did it and not me) did this to our diesel, drove for about 2 miles and the car conked out... I said "just call our breakdown and get them to take it to the garage"... he thought he could fix it himself for free or cheap :rolleyes: and called around all his mates (3 of whom then turned up to all stand and scratch their heads together! ):think: They decided to go and get diesel to top up the tank and hopefully dilute the petrol he had put in.. almost 2 hours later, after spilling loads of diesel and ruining various items of clothing they were all wearing they thought they had enough diesel in the car to try to start it.........no it never started! so my husband admitted defeat and called breakdown.. they arrived within 20 minutes, recovered the car to our driveway (too late to go to the garage)and said to let them know where it was to be delivered to in the morning. Next morning I called our vauxhall dealer they estimated the job at £150, breakdown was back within 10 minutes of me calling to arrange to get the car taken to the garage and it was in the garage overnight and back next day more or less good as new (a few wee coughs and splutters!) and for £150 inc vat. :T

Fingers crossed for you :wave:

rosscobley

I should be fine even if it is a common rail. I would say a common rail works in the same wayish as a petrol its just a high pressure pump with injectors same as petrol. They will drain the tank and injection system then change filter and fill with diesel and prime the common rail and all should be fine.

i have heard of people adding a drop of petrol in with the diesel to clear the fuel system out on the old car

peterg1965

DO NOT add a drop of petrol to diesel engine cars!!! This advice is about 20 years out of date. This point was raised in Honest John's motoring letters in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday and that was his answer.

roseydosey

Hi,
Thanks everyone for your support/advice......it cost me $176.50 (pound sign not working) for draining unleaded petrol from the car. It was done by a local mechanic......no long term/lasting damage done to the car.......thank God.....couldn't afford the expensive/major repairs. Its up and running now!
It certainly is a lesson for me and everyone else to learn from my mistake......plse be carefu it could cost thousands!

scatz

peterg1965 wrote:

I thought that was the case, putting petrol in a diesel is 'better' than the other way around, but i didnt want to contradict the earlier comment, until I had some collateral!

Wrong. As I have now been advised the following by a mechanic from a motoring forum;

"Back in the good old days of mechanical injection, diesel engines were a lot more tolerant. Putting a reasonable proportion of petrol in with the diesel was actually a common method of stopping the fuel from waxing in low temperatures. Also, back then, it was possible to mix the fuels either way. People were just as likely to put diesel in a petrol as the other way round.

Now it's difficult to inadvertently put diesel in a petrol since they narrowed the filler neck on cars with catalytic converters. On top of that, the electronically operated high pressure systems such as 'common rail' and its equivalents rely on the lubricating properties of the diesel. Put petrol in there and the protection just dissolves.

This is where it can get really expensive on a modern diesel engine, as fragments of metal from the fuel pump can contaminate the whole system. In theory, the only guaranteed way to clear it out is to replace the whole fuel system, from the tank right through to the injectors. And of course that's not cheap."