Wrong fuel in car

alastairq

However, diesel in a petrol apparently kills it completely.

Eventually, it just stops running. Not dead, merely dormant. I drained out all I could [more of a problem finding cans to put it all in really].....re-filled with petrol, and...click-brummm, off she went.

In the good ol' days, when carburettors ruled the roost, a drop of diseisel in the petrol tank was one way of 'cleaning' out the fuel system/combustion chambers.

Of course, in the really really good ol' days [before the good ol' days].....putting petrol in a diesel tank had a similar effect to adding rocket fuel........very briefly!

[Did that to a bus once [not me, I hasten to add, but a colleague]....by mistake luckily not filling the tank.....the old bus [a Leyland or Guy, as I recall]....went like !!!!!!-hoffa-shuffle for half a day, before exploding big style....blew a piston, leg-out-of-bed, etc...]

vikingaero

Car manuufacturers scaremonger about petrol in diesel misfuels on modern cars. Why? Because it's all about £££. Most of them will have you believe that you need to replace at a minimum the injectors, fuel pump, filter etc at a minimum which will cost you £1,500 on a decent car. On high performance cars you will be looking at closer to £5k. Some manufacturers will even go as far as wanting to do that and stripping the whole engine to keep your warranty intact.

But in the vast majority of cases you can drain/flush/replace filters with no long term damage. If you have to pay £1,500 for a half measure then you may as well just pay £150 first for a drain/flush/filter which may work just as well.

I think it was the AA that did on report on the shocking costs charged by manufacturers for engine repairs on misfuels that 95% of the time aren't needed.

facade

Chap at work had a VW (Slag of the Germans time ) big vanny 4wd people carrier thing .

Put petrol in that once and it got about 150 yards before it conked out.

Had the full stripdown and clean out at the dealers, and it never ran properly again.

Had starting difficulties, ran rough, back to dealers, they couldn't sort it, reckoned it might need a new pump.

So he traded it in elsewhere, (Like everyone does if they face a big bill;))