Hi,

I'm after some advice.....

BEC was driven to fuel station to top up with fuel. Fuel tank holds about 20 litres of fuel and was inadvertently topped up with 7 litres of Diesel.

Didn't realise at the time, so the car was driven 3 miles back home. When the ignition was turned off, it coughed and sputtered and overran. Thinking this strange, the car was started back up again and did the same thing again when ignition was switched off. Car was started for a third time and when switched off noticed a lot of black smoke coming from the engine

We're hoping this won't have damaged the engine and intend draining the fuel tank and filling with fresh fuel.

What would be your advice in this situation?

Phil

Bummer!

I've heard tell of petrol causing problems with diesel fuel systems, but not the other way around. Doesn't mean it doesn't though.

Over many years I've mis-fueled both ways and apart from cars refusing to run on the wrong fuel I've not suffered any permanent damage - more the irritation and cost of draining and refilling.

In both cases I've replaced fuel filters as part of the process. The filters are cheap and easy enough to change so worth replacing IMHO.

My last error was filling an empty diesel Passat with petrol and making it 100 metres from the pump towards home before stopping dead. Towed home and had it sorted by a local garage. Not the end of the world just pi55ed me off as I felt daft for the mistake and subsequent cost


First error was topping up a petrol Mk3 Escort with a few litres of diesel. Too busy admiring the attractive lady at the next pump to pay enough attention to what I was doing

[Edited on 2/11/18 by nick205]

Drain EVERYTHING! Put some petrol in. Try to bleed the system through and dump what goes through. When what is coming out looks like petrol put everything back together and proceed with caution. I'd be keeping the revs down and going easy for a while.
I dread doing the same thing as I have a diesel daily driver car. I go through a conscious "routine" at the pump, double checking the badge on the nozzle and the hose colour. I'm soon going to shift onto V-Power or similar so I'll be treble checking!

As spyder said ^^^^^^

Your not the first, nor the last, but only idiots can put the wrong fuel into the tank

I by the way, am also an idiot!!

I put £6 worth of diesel into my 7, by accident, so dumped the whole lot into some cans at the garage, and refilled with PETROL and drove home, it did smoke a bit, but ran allright,

Just keep the tank filled for a while and it will dilute the fuel so much, the diesel will disappear

Petrol in a diesel, is much much worse

steve

My understanding is that diesel has lubricating qualities, which diesel fuel systems make use of.

Petrol doesn't have the same lubricating qualities, hence can do harm to diesel fuel systems.

doubt it has damaged anything once you have emptied the tank and hoses should just start right up

I would just top off the fuel tank.
Some friends used to put Jet Fuel on their 1995 Nissan Pick up regularly with no apparent engine damage.
Jet fuel is for what I know a low smoke version of Diesel, lighter and less viscous.
If your car managed to run on a high Diesel to Petrol ratio, you should be OK once you dilute it by filling the tank.
I would be worried by deposits on spark plugs more than damage to the engine.
My opinion on the subject.

The other way around, Gasoline on Diesel engine it is very bad though.

i have drained hundreds of miss fueled cars, once the tank is empty just run some petrol through it, i will smoke for a bit but soon clear, it,s only late diesels that are likley to suffer damage, there is a lot of hype about doing it wrong, mainly done by garages to bump up the price of draining.

Derv in a petrol won't cause long term issues.

Drain tank, flush lines, fill (adding an injector cleaner might also help) and run it. It might take a bit of cranking to get started while it clears the injectors. When it does run you'll get some (blue) smoking and rough running. That might happen again the next time or two you run as any reisual derv can settle out to the bottom of the tank. Use up that tank and refill.

Once refilled with petrol you may find it runs better than before, the diesel will have cleaned out the injectors!

Yep diesel will do no harm. Worst case foul the spark plugs. I wouldn't even bother draining just make sure its more than 3/4 petrol and give it a run

Thanks for the advice guys, that's reassuring to know........ We'll be siphoning the fuel tank as best we can and then intend cranking the engine with the fuel pipe disconnected from the fuel rail, to clear the fuel pump, fuel lines and fuel filter. Hopefully, filling the tank with fresh fuel and re-connecting fuel pipe to rail will be sufficient.

[Edited on 5-11-18 by Hellfire]

Just as an update, we carried out the above work and started the car. Took a few starts before it would idle and lots of white smoke but it's running again....

Phil