Help: Petrol in diesel engine

Celticfire

A wee boo boo at the pump, :mad: Is this a big problem? What has to be done to sort it out and will it cause any damage? Not the most mechanically inclined so any info would be great...

crosstownk

Don't start or run the engine. It all depends on your car and how sensitive the diesel pump is to contamination. You will need to get the tank drained and a new fuel filter fitted. Call your regular mechanic or better still the AA or RAC if you are a member. Hopefully it shouldn't cause any damage.

kluivert

So long as you havent switched on the ignition you should be ok. There shouldnt be any petrol in along the fuel lines, hopefully.

Just go and get the petrol drained from the tank and when empty run diesel through it.

What year and make is the car.

Borzoi

Celticfire wrote:

A wee boo boo at the pump, :mad: Is this a big problem? What has to be done to sort it out and will it cause any damage? Not the most mechanically inclined so any info would be great...

How much Diesel was in the tank? how much petrol did you put in? How big is the tank?

Celticfire

Borzoi wrote:

How much Diesel was in the tank? how much petrol did you put in? How big is the tank?

Tank was allmost empty, 60 ltrs was put into tank. The car was brought home no problem but the penny dropped today when the car was started.

Lex Luthor

:eek:

Celticfire wrote:

Tank was allmost empty, 60 ltrs was put into tank. The car was brought home no problem but the penny dropped today when the car was started.

:eek: how far did you drive?
what happened when you started it today?

kippy

The car was started-that could be a big issue.....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2005/08/27/mfdies27.xml

I think a lot will depend on the year and model of your car....
Kippy

Celticfire

Lex Luthor wrote:

:eek:
:eek: how far did you drive?
what happened when you started it today?

About 3 miles, It started ok but then it was spluttering a little bit, I thought it might have been something to do with the weather....

Celticfire

kippy wrote:

The car was started-that could be a big issue.....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2005/08/27/mfdies27.xml

I think a lot will depend on the year and model of your car....
Kippy

You just made me feel a whole lot better......... NOT!!!


AAAAARGGGGGGHHHHHHH

Ernie Ball

Why on earth do they not have differently shaped and incompatible nozzles/inlets for petrol and diesel? Would it have been so hard to agree on this given the consequences of screwing up?

When the US switched to unleaded petrol, the cars had smaller inlets so you couldn't mistakenly insert the nozzle from a leaded pump. And in that case, the only thing that would be damaged is the catalytic converter not the entire engine!

Bartonprince

Heres an idea that someone good can come up with.

you could have a censor inside the fuel pump nozzel. and also inside the hole for the nozzel to go in. If your car is Petrol unleaded, and you try to pump diesel into it, the censors won't allow it and sound a buzzer and an onscreen display on the pump will tell you you're an idiot.

Or something leike that, now bring that idea back to your engineering friends and see what they say. Would probably save people millions on Damaged engines.

Guy:Incognito

Ernie Ball wrote:

When the US switched to unleaded petrol, the cars had smaller inlets so you couldn't mistakenly insert the nozzle from a leaded pump. And in that case, the only thing that would be damaged is the catalytic converter not the entire engine!

The nozzel is bigger on a diesel pump, but that only stops someone putting diesel in a petrol car. It can't be bigger on both.

kippy

Not sure if its worth the money or the potential embarassment:
http://www.dieselguard.com/

Tobias Greeshman

My father is a mechanic and I used to work with him, I've seen this happen so many times. Normally is people putting diesel in petrol engine.

Okay get it to a mechanic pronto, the tank will have to be drained and since the petrols being pumped into the engine the fuel filter will have to be changed and all petrol sucked out of the fuel pipes.

If your lucky getting diesel into the tank and bleeding the fuel pipes and replacing the fuel filter may be enough to get the engine started. Just hope that nothing such as injectors, glow plugs need replacing.

Celticfire

Fuc@ing force of habit to grab the green nozzle..............

kluivert

What year is the car and what make is it.

Big problem as said before. Means flushing out all fluids in the car, removing the head and cleaning out the cylinders and fuel lines fuel filter and the rest.

Sorry mate, not good news, but is fixable though.

Guy:Incognito

Bartonprince wrote:

Heres an idea that someone good can come up with.

you could have a censor inside the fuel pump nozzel. and also inside the hole for the nozzel to go in. If your car is Petrol unleaded, and you try to pump diesel into it, the censors won't allow it and sound a buzzer and an onscreen display on the pump will tell you you're an idiot.

Or something leike that, now bring that idea back to your engineering friends and see what they say. Would probably save people millions on Damaged engines.

Or they could just have the diesel pumps seperate altogether. Instead of say, having 4 bays (2 pumps on each side) with 2 of each why not have the 4 petrol pumps in the first 2 bays in a 2:2 formation then the next 2 bays can be exclusivly diesel, again 2:2. So you end up with (1)(2) (3)(4) (5)(6) (7)(8) Where 1-4 are petrol and 5-8 are diesel instead of ow where its 1, 3, 5, 7 are petrol and 2, 4, 6, 8 diesel (or whatever variation)

Also have it clearly colour separated (Maybe a big box with "diesel" or "petrol" on the ground beside each pump.

Much cheaper than modifying every pump in the world and every car.

Celticfire

kluivert wrote:

What year is the car and what make is it.

Big problem as said before. Means flushing out all fluids in the car, removing the head and cleaning out the cylinders and fuel lines fuel filter and the rest.

Sorry mate, not good news, but is fixable though.

'05 Rodius, only have it a few weeks

Bartonprince

Stekelly wrote:

Or they could just have the diesel pumps seperate altogether. Instead of say, having 4 bays (2 pumps on each side) with 2 of each why not have the 4 petrol pumps in the first 2 bays in a 2:2 formation then the next 2 bays can be exclusivly diesel, again 2:2. So you end up with (1)(2) (3)(4) (5)(6) (7)(8) Where 1-4 are petrol and 5-8 are diesel instead of ow where its 1, 3, 5, 7 are petrol and 2, 4, 6, 8 diesel (or whatever variation)

Also have it clearly colour separated (Maybe a big box with "diesel" or "petrol" on the ground beside each pump.

Much cheaper than modifying every pump in the world and every car.

Yeah but... my way is fancy.....

I've e-mailed Shell Oil about it!

Tobias Greeshman

SteKelly wrote:

Also have it clearly colour separated

Petrol has a green handle, Diesel has a black handle. How could it be any better colour coded really?

cargrouch

silas wrote:

Petrol has a green handle, Diesel has a black handle. How could it be any better colour coded really?

Make petrol cars green and diesel cars black

To the OP, hard luck man, I bet that was the biggest "Oh Sh!t, what have I done" moment of your life.

alias no.9

It's been asked already but what make and model is the car, the extent of any damage will vary depending on the engine?

The somewhat reassuring news is that if you only drove 3 miles, it's unlikely that you have done too much damage. The fuel filter on most diesel cars is ~1 litre in capacity, plus the volume of the lines so very little petrol will have got as far as the injector pump. Your best bet will be to get a mechanic to drain the tank and lines, flush diesel through the lines to clean them out and replace the fuel filter. Run some injector cleaner through the injector pump (you just put the suction hose from the pump into the can and start the engine) and touch wood, everything should be ok.

alias no.9

Celticfire wrote:

'05 Rodius, only have it a few weeks

Ok, we're talking about a common rail injecton system so the potential for damage is big. Get a mechanic to it asap. Only having driven 3 miles still means any damage will be minimal. Removing the head will probably be completely unnecessary. Once you get the lines cleaned through and filter replaced etc, it will probably just need a good run to burn off any petrol in the system.

Celticfire

cargrouch wrote:

Make petrol cars green and diesel cars black

I bet that was the biggest "Oh Sh!t, what have I done" moment of your life.

Yup, somehow I've a funny feeling that it won't happen to me again.....

I hope....

Longrangedriver

I was under the impression, from a so called pro that a small amount of unleaded in a diesel tank would prevent waxing or a buildup in tank or engine.

If I'm wrong, hoping I'm not as car is still going after 85k Km's on clock on 04 Mondeo Zetec 2.0 Tdci, someone professional please advise.

Ernie Ball

Stekelly wrote:

The nozzel is bigger on a diesel pump, but that only stops someone putting diesel in a petrol car. It can't be bigger on both.

No, but one can be square and the other can be round.

peasant

Longrangedriver wrote:

I was under the impression, from a so called pro that a small amount of unleaded in a diesel tank would prevent waxing or a buildup in tank or engine.

If I'm wrong, hoping I'm not as car is still going after 85k Km's on clock on 04 Mondeo Zetec 2.0 Tdci, someone professional please advise.

Yep, that's the kind of advice an "oldtimer" would give you ...

In the old days, before they had well refined Diesel, in winter time it would coagulate or cristallize (a bit like honey) and clog up everything.
In those days, pre-hightech fuel injection pumps, people used to mix up to 1/3 petrol in their diesel during winter.

These days you're supposed to get "winter diesel" automatically from autumn onwards that is supposed to be safe as low as -20 Celsius.

Having said that ...my camper clogged up at -8 :mad:

But for modern fuel injection systems (common rail, Pumpe-Duese, etc) it is definitely NOT wise to add petrol ...these pumps rely on the diesel for lubrication and petrol breaks the lubricating film. Furthermore petrol ignites at totally different pressures and temperatures than diesel and distorts the engine management.

So don't ...

Guy:Incognito

Ernie Ball wrote:

No, but one can be square and the other can be round.

yes but that would involve changing either every petrol pump and car or every diesel pump and car in the world. Plus gettign all the manufacturers and customers of pumps and cars to agree and change.

mike65

As a rule the petrol is dispensed in a green hose and derv in a black one so is a bit damned foolish to mix them up and diesel drinkers usually have a notice inside the flap warning of which fuel to use. One can only do so much to help the silly.

Mike.

Matt Simis

Car specific of course, but Ive read about a guy that topped up his Diesel with petrol in a Mitsubishi Pajero in the BioDiesel forums. It ran "ok", then he filled it a few more times, mix of BioDiesel and Diesel. 2 refills later the power went way down on the Pajero, but because he had put so many different fuels in there, he was posting to find out where to start troubleshooting! :eek:

Diesel engines are remarkably flexible, especially old ones.


Matt

unkel

Matt Simis wrote:

Diesel engines are remarkably flexible, especially old ones.

Make that "Old Diesel engines are remarkably flexible"