Petrol in a diesel engine - help

agent_orange_2

I did this once, well actually, I put diesel in a petrol motor. Got about 1/2 mile up the road and then spluttered to a halt. Fortunately, diesel in a petrol isn't so bad apparently - it was just a question of draining the diesel out

Rosa49

Last year I filled up my Peugeot diesel with super unleaded petrol.Had about a quarter of a tank of diesel in it before filling. Drove home, 3 miles. Next morning drove on motorway, mix of 70+ mph, stop-start driving, absolutely fine. Then, after 200+ miles stopped at a service station, but wouldn't restart. AA relay home. Interesting that none of the 4 relay drivers diagnosed the problem. Cost nearly £400 to sort out.
I wonder if it would have been OK had I not stopped but continued another 100 miles to my destination?

kitchpoo

Lynxette wrote: »

Haha - Was just about to respond to this to correct myself!! Had emailled my brother - a halfway-through-an-apprenticeship mechanic - for advice on this and he has just emailled me to say it only really works with older cars and shouldn't be done on newer cars. :P

The rule-of-thumb tends to be if the fuel is delivered by a high pressure system injector rail (sometimes known as commonrail) - if it is and petrol is run through you will need a new set of injectors. Depending on the manufacturer it is called something different but means the same thing, eg

TDDi Fords are not high pressure but TDCi are -
JTD Fiats and Unijet Fiats are high pressure
CDTi Vauxhalls are high pressure
CRD = Common Rail Diesel

Hope this might help someone in the future.

jeannieblue

Lynxette wrote: »

Gunna cost you a bomb, I'm afraid. x.x;

Er, no - it won't.

Lets not dramatise the situation. Drain it out, flush through, change the fuel filter. Job done.

gazza975526570

Lynxette wrote: »

Good luck with that!! A lot of insurance companies definatly won't cover your own stupidity! Plus, if the wife wasn't covered on the insurance (for example, if she had a fully comp policy on another car that allowed driving additional cars on 3rdPFT) the insurance won't cover it anyway.

No luck needed! Ive worked in Insurance for 20 years and every insurer i have come across has covered this. It was an accident that the wrong fuel was put in - not on purpose and as such a claim can be made.

jeannieblue

Question...

Why mention in the first place that 'the wife put...' ?? Are you sure? Not embarrassed are we??

[Deleted User]

chateauneufdupape wrote: »

Hi,

My wife has put 10 litres of unleaded petrol in a diesel car. The car had little diesel left. Are we best filling it up with diesel and running it through or should we have it drained?

We made the same mistake many years ago in Denmark. It was a diesel rental car and we filled it up with 95 unleaded petrol. Luckily we were covered by the insurance. We still had to pay a 1000 DKK excess though (£100). The car drove fine the 3 miles from the petrol station to the car rental drop off place. Maybe diesel is heavier than unleaded. I don't know.
We try not to do the same mistake again!!

x_raphael_xx

I once put half a tank of petrol in my diesel car. It was already half full of diesel.
It ran ok, just a little sluggish on hills, I just drove it til I used up half the fuel then topped up with diesel. No lasting damage, no garage bills at all.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Depends how big the tank is, in a 60 litre tank 10 litres of unleaded won't hurt anything. If its only a small tank (say 30 litres) then yes get it drained.

Running petrol through a diesel engine, even common rail or similar, won't necessarily destroy anything. Garages that tell you you need to replace fuel lines, pumps and injectors, before any damage has occurred, are taking you for a ride. Its only the lubricating properties of diesel that the petrol lacks, and diluted diesel will still lubricate the pump and injectors long enough for any petrol content to be burnt up, petrol and diesel will mix in the tank just fine. Before anti-gelling compounds were added to diesel, drivers would regularly stick 10% of petrol in the tank during the winter months.

If it were my car I'd have just filled it up with diesel, driven it to the next garage, brimmed it up, and repeat until I was home.