petrol in a diesel engine!

Geodark

just managed to stick £50 worth of petrol into my diesel engine and drop 1/2mile home before I realised! guess I will be spending tomorrow draining the tank (with the help of my neighbour) just hope I havent done any permanent damage - was supposed to be heading away fishing tomorrow as well - not good!

could be an expensive lapse of concentration

oh, its a 2007 1.7 astra cdti.

Sam_Fallow

Anyone who hasn't made that mistake will do so one day. Done it myself with a full tank while 100s of miles away on a job with a company car. :eek:
I know that sinking feeling upon realising what just happened. Did it again shortly after but with only a couple of litres. No problems that time.

Don't be too bothered about draining every last drop, it'll run fine with some left in so long as you fill it with diesel. Diesel mind!

Hope you manage to get some fishing in over the weekend.

Strider590

I'm just waiting for someone to try to fill their petrol car with electricity :rotfl:

Geodark

Strider590 wrote: »

I'm just waiting for someone to try to fill their petrol car with electricity :rotfl:

Did that once, it was a shocking experience...:rotfl:

Geodark

Sam_Fallow wrote: »

Anyone who hasn't made that mistake will do so one day. Done it myself with a full tank while 100s of miles away on a job with a company car. :eek:
I know that sinking feeling upon realising what just happened. Did it again shortly after but with only a couple of litres. No problems that time.

Don't be too bothered about draining every last drop, it'll run fine with some left in so long as you fill it with diesel. Diesel mind!

Hope you manage to get some fishing in over the weekend.

just hoping with only driving such a small distance the car will be ok, feel like a complete prat! luckily the wife has lost her voice so can't shout at me - no doubt she will have added it to the list of things for when her voice comes back!

agrinnall

Sam_Fallow wrote: »

Anyone who hasn't made that mistake will do so one day.

I've never done it and I never expect to, and I would hazard a small wager that the majority of people have never done it either.

Of course, I need to fill up soon so you can guarantee that'll be the time I'll get it wrong!

BeenThroughItAll

agrinnall wrote: »

I've never done it and I never expect to, and I would hazard a small wager that the majority of people have never done it either.

Of course, I need to fill up soon so you can guarantee that'll be the time I'll get it wrong!

Me too, never done it in almost a million miles, which is more mileage than most people do in a lifetime, and I don't intend to start anytime soon.

societys_child

Anyone who hasn't made that mistake will do so one day

Speak for yourself . . .

arcon5

If it's still running ok you'll probably get lucky if you drain flush and refill. Remember new fuel filter

Robisere

Some years ago, as a workshop foreman, my boss had a Car & Van Hire business as well as the garage. An Angling club hired a brand new Nissan diesel van from us. I instructed the driver who came to collect to use only diesel: the van had enough in the tank to reach the filling station a few miles away. That was owned by his brother, who was a Club member, so gave them free fuel. On the dash was a sign, in block letters - "DIESEL ONLY for this van!" Around the filler cap was the legend - Diesel ONLY!"

They managed to fill up the van with petrol! We recovered it and I spent my Saturday with the boss, draining the tank of petrol into drums. We disconnected and blew out the lines, filled about ¼ of the tank with diesel and started up the engine. The garage filled with smoke, cleared up and ran happily. We managed to float off the petrol and my boss gave it all to me, it ran my car for some weeks. It also earned me a day at double -time, which was nice...

We never hired out to the Angling Club again!

shaun_from_Africa

Geodark wrote: »

just hoping with only driving such a small distance the car will be ok,

Doing an extremely quick and rough calculation, I guessed the MPG at about 40 which works out at about 8 miles per litre.
As you drove 1/2 mile, you probably would have used about 1/4 litre of fuel (allowing a bit extra for starting the car).
With the diesel already in the pipe from the tank to the engine, I would think it unlikely that any of the petrol/diesel mix actually made it as far as the injectors.