petrol in a diesel car

Euphoria1z

Hi

ive just accidentally put petrol in a diesel merc, ive put in 3 litres of petrol in, realised my mistake when I thought the price of diesel was cheap and realised it was petrol I was putting in, quicky stopped and put in about 25 litres of diesel, and drove about 3 or 4 odd miles... its currently running and starting fine...

how much diesel is in your fuel lines? do you think any damage will have been done? the petrol station attendant said that 3 litres is low enough to not do any damage ...

I cant afford to get it drained and serviced ...
im going to drive it for a few more miles tomorow and hope no damage has been done.

reading on line people are saying less than 5% and should be ok, so I guess 3/25= 12%. should I just fill the tank up tomorrow to get the percentage down and hope for the best?

Richard53

Fill it again with diesel at the earliest opportunity, and then fill it again after 50 miles or so, and again soon after - each time you reduce the % of contamination. And drive gently while you are doing so. Until you get back to proper fuel, your injector pump isn't being properly lubricated.

You've probably got away with it, although you may have reduced the life of your injector pump by a few K miles. I did this with a Disco Td5, put in £20 before I realised, topped up with diesel several times, and the next week towed a caravan round France with it. It was OK.

My friend made a sticker to go next to my fuel filler: "It's diesel, you tit."

mattyprice4004

Why did you only put 25 litres in? You should have brimmed it. If your HP injector pump eats itself, you'll kick yourself for being a cheapskate in this situation

gilbert_and_sullivan

Yes you should have topped it right up with Diesel.

However there shouldn't be any lasting harm done.

cookie_monster

Anything upto 5% of what the tank can hold should be ok but keep the tank topped up to dilute the fuel.

Weird_Nev

Not ideal, but 3 litres I think you'll get away with it. As said, brim it with diesel ASAP and keep an ear out for any engine roughness.

oldbuffer

Years ago always always put a gallon of petrol in the lorry to make it start easier in the cold winter mornings. Done if for years without any problems

westwood68

Should be ok. My old Merc handbook (1991) recommended up to 20% petrol blend in winter to prevent the diesel gelling.

Modern diesels are much more sensitive but as mentioned, keep it brimmed for a while to can the % down

Norman_Castle

reading on line people are saying less than 5% and should be ok, so I guess 3/25= 12%. should I just fill the tank up tomorrow to get the percentage down and hope for the best?

25 litres plus what was already in the tank.

Jamie_Carter

oldbuffer wrote: »

Years ago always always put a gallon of petrol in the lorry to make it start easier in the cold winter mornings. Done if for years without any problems

That worked on old diesels. But with modern ones the pumps work at far higher pressures, and have far tighter limits. They need diesel to lubricate the pump.

To the OP, as others have said, keep the diesel topped up as much as possible.

facade

Nowadays a lot of diesel boys put 2 stroke oil in the tank, about 0.5% to try to keep the pump going with modern dodgy eco diesel.

You could get a little bottle from wilkinsons and add 5ml per litre of diesel in the tank.