Some one who shall remain nameless has put petrol in the Volvo again!

Didn't start the engine but towed the car back to the house. Was happy just to have the tank drained but am worried now that the fuel pump was circulating petrol around whilst I had the ignition on. Should have taken the fuse for fuel pump out.

What do you think I should do? Try and drain it my self or put it in to my friendly neighbourhood garage?

Fill up with diesel and it will bo OK

If I recall correctly there is no fuel pump in the tank. Only a low pressure pump at the engine driven by the crankshaft; so you should be OK.

[Edited on 22/10/10 by Breaker]

Diesels will run on petrol ok. Only difference is that the injector pump is lubricated by the diesel flowing through it. You have to run the engine on petrol for quite a long time to do any real damage.

As you didn't pump any fuel through the injector pump it should be fine to just fill up with diesel.

I know of an 03 reg Astra 1.7TD that got petrol in twice, the first time it ran that well we did'nt spot what was worng & sent it for a diagnostic work, it did 50+ miles before it was spotted! The second time I dont know the circumstances, just that it'd happened.
Recently it became hard to start, turning over a lot before it got going & the owner traded it in, it's possible the pump had suffered a bit & was struggling to make pressure at cranking speed.

I cant see you having any significant problem, I would'nt worry at all.

How much petrol is the important thing.. A litre or so in 40-80 litres of diesel might well be ok, but if it was nearly empty and you filled it...

Recently drove mine with about 25% mix, it drove OK until after 200 miles pulled up at the Dartford toll and it cut out. When I got to Brighton I filled it again and it was fine on the way home but did cut out a couple of times at junctions. I ran it to almost empty and filled again. This tme it ran perfectly and didn't cut at juntions at all. The best thing is that when I boot hard it now there's no smoke at all whereas before it would smoke at the redline!

You know I heard a little petrol in with diesel helps out, but no-one since I heard that has come that close to agreeing

as a precaution, get yourself a fresh fuel filter, fill it with Miller Diesel supplement (currently marketed as diesel power 4 i think) fill the filter with the supplement (neat) and that will give a safe a system as possible for restart.


HTH.

Greg