Fingers crossed!
Guess which idiot put petrol into the diesel car tonight....
Yep that will be me, not only that it had a complety empty tank (well about 3 litres left) before I filled it... Filled it up and didnt realise then
drove 4 miles and all was fine.
Went to start the car and it didnt.... then all of a sudden it dawned on me what I had done.
The car in question is a clio 1.5DCI... anyone ever done this to a clio and what was the damage? I'm hoping a drain and flush and it will be ok
but dreading having to replace the fuel pump and injectors etc... Oh and the cherry on the cake its not my car!
You are not an idiot.
Idiots are those who do it on their cars.
These thing happen. You will not believe how many times i go on the station, look at the pumps, check the correct pipe is where it is supposed to be.
Good luck with it. Sometimes, puting petrol on diesel cars can clean up the car. But obviously a couple of litres of petrol not the other way round.
thought I was doing him a favour filling it up for him.... doh! oh well it'll give me something to do on my week off just hope I dont need too many replacement partsfingers crossed changing the filter will be suffucient.
if its like most deisels if had to deal with, drain most of it, fill it with diesel and off you go, people put petrol in with diesel to stop it freezing in the winter, not sure on the newer stuff, but def on the older stuff you could have 1/4 a tank of petrol, i know i did once when a friend borrowed a fiesta diesel of mine and out oetrol in to say thank you, i just filled it with diesel and carried on, smoked a little but i just ran that tank low and filled with diesel again, so you should be ok, in theory a diesel will run on petrol, run crap but will run, diesel in a petrol is another story
Will fnd out tomorrow... could do without yet another bill delaying my build further Fingers crossed!
I did the same in a BMW 5. The diesel acts as a lubricant and will definitely not run on petrol.
It needed new injectors pump seals filter etc.
It was done under insurance but I was told it would have cost £5k if not.
Good luck
Modern diesel pumps start to break down when run with petrol. I've seen a car with less than 200 miles on the clock filled with petrol before,
the new owner forgot that they'd bought a diesel and brimmed it with petrol and then drove it till it stopped.
That one needed pump, injectors, lines and a tank.
Make sure you check in the tank for swarf from the pump.
[Edited on 13/9/10 by Mark G]
We have empty lot's of diesel cars filled with petrol.
Just down the road from our garage is a petrol station. We drain 1 to 2 cars every week 
and we have never had any problems after that.....and thats
on some newer cars too.
Just drain it, change the fuel filter, fill up with diesel and off you go. You be VERY unlucky if the pump is damaged.
What ever you do don't take it to the main stealer. You will be wrighting a huge check if you do, as there standard repair is to change the fuel
injector pump, fuel lines and the fuel tank.
Goog luck.
Petrol in a diesel is never a good idea. The pumps rely on the diesel to lubricate them and petrol breaks bown that lubricating effect and can (some
say will) do damage.
However, don't panic! Your not the first and you'll not be the last to do it. If you drain the tank, change the filter, flush the lines
through and fill with diesel you'll probably get away with it. Chances are you'll never see any sign of damage. The biggest problem is
disposing of the contaminated/mixed fuel.
The dealers will tell you you need a new tank, lines pump(s), injectors. Thats a nice little earner for them.
adrian
I did it on my wife's car (that we'd owned for 6 years) but realised just before the tank was filled. Because I hadn't started it,
draining the tank was enough.
I guy I worked with drove one of the company's pool cars with petrol in it. It needed a new engine. The following day he was caught syphoning
petrol out of the company's other diesel pool car. You think he'd remember.
Did it in my 200tdi 90 few of years ago with no I'll effects, like you a full tank on top of
no more than a couple of litres. Drained it and used the mix in a Rover 600 which ran fine.
Annoying though when much more damage can be caused putting petrol in a diesel than other way round the pumps and cars are set up to allow it to
happen ?
If diesel were the small nozzle/orifice it couldn't be done.
Only reason I can think of is flow rates for trucks etc.
[Edited on 13/9/10 by NigeEss]
The most annoying thing about it, is that it is usaually a full tank full as per the OP.
9 times out of 10 I fill 20-30 quids worth, the time I did it wrong was the whole tank from empty 
I sure I've seen something from the AA or RAC saying that it was still one of there most common call outs (so your deffinatly not alone)
such a big problem that I think ford were talking about making a flap in the diesel fillers that would only open for the right sized nozzle
(its already hard to put diesel in a petrol car as the diesel nozzel on the pump is to big to fit in a modern petrol car)
[Edited on 13/9/2010 by mcerd1]
I drain fuel tanks for a living now. Give us a call and say you know me and we should be able to do it a bit cheaper. Don't worry about any
damage it will be fine.
http://www.fuel-contamination.co.uk/
quote:
Originally posted by NigeEss
Annoying though when much more damage can be caused putting petrol in a diesel than other way round the pumps and cars are set up to allow it to happen ?
If diesel were the small nozzle/orifice it couldn't be done.
Only reason I can think of is flow rates for trucks etc.
New fords and jags do have a device in the filler neck that is supposed to stop you putting the wrong fuel in. They don't always work though, i've been out to loads of focuses with the device.
Did it myself but realised at the £5 quid mark and didnt run the car. this was on my Cmax
Fortunately the ford garage was next to the fuel station so the RAC guy pushed it round for me. They had a brand new 1600 diesel Cmax in the week
before that had died because they guy had run the whole tank of petrol or at least until the car died. New pump new injectors and several other bits
equalled a £2000 bill.
Thank god the guy in the petrol station was more awake than me, i was just going to fill it up with diesel on top of the petrol
Filled mine up to the brim, from almost empty, with unleaded then, for good measure, drove into a really congested bit of Cardiff at rush hour.
Almost at the point of realising ... "aaaah, that was the green coloured nozzle...", the engine cut out, the hand gestures from my fellow
motorists began and I came out in a cold sweat......
I managed to limp it into a nearby (clamper's) car park on the starter motor.
It was a Bosch-pumped Primera diesel so i feared damage.
To get it home and out of the clamper's reach, I got a short length of pipe, a gallon can of deisel and some hose clips and piped the pump to the
diesel from the can (i purged it up to the banjo connection on the injector pump first of course.)
I dont recommend running without a filter (as i did) by the way but the can/fuel/pipes were all brand new.
I got it home and drained the tank, changed the filter and flushed the pipes (using the little hand pump on the filter body)
No residual problems whatsoever except a lot of petrol (with diesel in) to get rid of!!
Filled my company volvo S40 up with petrol at Northhampton M1 jct 15a then drove 5 miles down the M1 before it started to chug, penny dropped then! called the AA out and they were brilliant, took the car home to Lincoln and the following day they came and drained 60 litres of petrol out flushed it through, primed it and it started, bit noisey at first but then perfect, cost about £150 if I recall but brilliant service, they have a dept just for this thing and the guy said he did about 3 a day!
Well i got it towed back to my unit for the price of a tank of fuel (thanks adam) anyway I removed the return hoze from the filter, attached an inline
fuel pump to the filter started pumping, took a while but eventually took 30 litres out of the tank (I put 28 litres in). Then refilled the tank with
diesel and primed the system I pumped it round to clear all petrol from the feed and return lines.
Turned it over after about 20 secs of caughing and spluttering it fired with a big ploom of smoke out the back. It ran like a bag of nails for 30
seconds after that all is running well and there does not appear to be any lasting damage, I guess time will tell.
quote:
Originally posted by Flamez
I did the same in a BMW 5. The diesel acts as a lubricant and will definitely not run on petrol.
It needed new injectors pump seals filter etc.
It was done under insurance but I was told it would have cost £5k if not.
Good luck
Bo*****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its going 'round. I've just done the same thing with a Hire Van. F*** **** Flip.
Automatic pilot is BAD BAD BAD!
quote:
Originally posted by TimC
Bo*****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its going 'round. I've just done the same thing with a Hire Van. F*** **** Flip.
Automatic pilot is BAD BAD BAD!
Sounds like you might have got away with it, 4 miles would use about half a litre? There'd have been so little petrol actually run through overall you might well be fine
[sacrcasm]how bizzare! Those who fix it themselves all find no damage, but those who take it to a dealer get told the engine is scrap and its going to
cost £5k![/sarcasm]
You'd almost think the dealer/garages were lying to make a fast buck! Perish the thought.
quote:
Originally posted by McLannahan
quote:
Originally posted by TimC
Bo*****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its going 'round. I've just done the same thing with a Hire Van. F*** **** Flip.
Automatic pilot is BAD BAD BAD!
Same way round Tim? Petrol into a diesel?
quote:
Originally posted by TimC
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
quote:
Originally posted by Benzine
quote:
Originally posted by TimC
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Was that a Senator Clay Davis 'sheeeeeeeeeeeeet'? ^_^
quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Sounds like you might have got away with it, 4 miles would use about half a litre? There'd have been so little petrol actually run through overall you might well be fine
