Help: Petrol in diesel engine

Guy:Incognito

Matt Simis wrote:

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

Would you be willign to do that to yours though?:)

HungryJoey

This happened my da back there a while ago in his new Passat TDI. He filled it up with Unleaded not thinking, Got about 1/2 a mile down the road until it concked out on him. He couldn't get it to start then it hit him " S**T! I put petrol in this yoke " He rang a pickup, brought it to a local garage they cleaned it all out and not a bother. Cost only a couple of quid. ( No more then 200 IIRC ) Not one problem since. So it really depends where ya go with it and what the damge is, But he drove it as far as he could till it died out so id' imagine you're ok too if you got 3miles.

Ill get a contact for you 2moro for where he got his passat done. He was thrilled..

Hj

Guy:Incognito

HungryJoey wrote:

This happened my da back there a while ago in his new Passat TDI. He filled it up with Unleaded not thinking, Got about 1/2 a mile down the road until it concked out on him. He couldn't get it to start then it hit him " S**T! I put petrol in this yoke " He rang a pickup, brought it to a local garage they cleaned it all out and not a bother. Cost only a couple of quid. ( No more then 200 IIRC ) Not one problem since. So it really depends where ya go with it and what the damge is, But he drove it as far as he could till it died out so id' imagine you're ok too if you got 3miles.

Ill get a contact for you 2moro for where he got his passat done. He was thrilled..

Hj

Did they give him money back for the petrol that probably ended uo in one of their cars?

Our man in Havana

silas wrote:

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

Except in the USA they are reversed. Green is Diesel and black is petrol. :eek:

kippy

What does everyone think of the device at http://www.dieselguard.com/

Our man in Havana

You would look like a retard pulling up at a forecourt with that thing blaring!

JackieChan

I drove for maybe 10 years with petrol cars and then moved to a diesel.
I was(and still am) so paranoid about putting petrol in by mistake I aways made doubly sure what pump I was working with.
The easiest thing to do is just fill the tank once/twice a month. Far less likely to make this mistake than if your stopping for a quick splash and dash.

MercMad

You wont do any long term harm to the engine by putting petrol in but you will need to have the fuel drained. This is easier on modern diesels as they have an electric fuel pump also. Open the lines, switch on the ignition and have a bigt container to hand !

No big deal, done it many times !

Alun

I've seen some diesel pumps (not sure where, might have been in the UK) that have a big hinged metal flap over the nozzle which you had to deliberately lift to even take the nozzle out of the pump. Seems about as far as you would need to go, personally. My diesel car was an ex rental car, so was festooned with stickers when I first bought it, which I left on for the first few months. It's second nature now.

AMurphy

Bond-007 wrote:

Except in the USA they are reversed. Green is Diesel and black is petrol. :eek:

Hmmmm, about here Green is Diesel (if you can find it) and any other color is petrol, plus the Diesel pump tends to seperate and out of the way, so larger trucks can actually reach it without hitting the roof... and the price immidiately gets your attention, it is most expensive and the nozzle is a different diameter so not go into modern cars.

Ba$tard

Actually....

Some diesel engines can cope with such an event, Skoda is the leader in it actually with their slight modifications to the censors in the normal VAG 1.9tdi.
If when you fill your tank mistakely with petrol and it is very close to empty, and I do mean very close to empty...the car will actually run fine, just a bit hotter. and will have a fair loss of torque. Experts recommend when this does happen that the car is never driven full throttle or above 50% rev range to redline. To that end, you need to carry a 5/10 litre jerry can of diesel with you and let the car run dry, obviously, when you fear its close to empty, dont be driving it, have it idling over in your driveway. When the car starts to backfire when air starts to mix with the fuel in the line, turn off the engine, fill the engine will at least 5 litres of diesel, 10 or more best and start the engine.

It may take 20 or more turnovers to get the diesel into the fuel rail before the engine will start. Ideal to have a battery charger(jump start) at hand too.

As far as your car...sorry I dont know.....Can you actually drive it right now? Does it idle over evenly?

maidhc

My mother did it accidently with the Avensis D4D before. Only put in €5 (less than 1/10 tank) when she realised what she was doing. Keary's (Main dealer) recommended the car not be stated but be filled with diesel to the brim first.

Roen

A mate of mine filled his diesel Audi A4 with petrol while he was up the country once on the way to his girlfriends house. He just pulled into the farm yard when all of a sudden the engine began screaming and the revs went straight into the red. He got a little panicky and switched off the ignition and pulled out the key, but nothing happened, the car still ran on with the engine screaming away with a steady stream of black smoke coming from the exhaust. The girlfriends brother ran out to see what the commotion was all about and immediately pissed himself laughing when he realised what had happened.
To make matters worse the neighbours in the next farm down saw the smoke and must have feared the worst because they called the local fire brigade. About 10 minutes later two fire engines arrived at the house ready for action. Cue about 10 people standing around laughing at my mate.
The car eventually conked out after running in the red for about 20 minutes. Long story short he got the engine checked out by a mechanic and incredibly it was fine. He continued to drive it for another 18 months with any problems.
So to the OP, unlucky man, but at least you didn't look like a complete tit.

Ba$tard

Roen
your mate should read his manual to see where his fuel cut-off switch is.....

Roen

Yep he sure should have, but the thing is he gets a bit flustered. He could have just stuck it in gear and stood on the brake and then let the clutch out quickly. I think.

pa daly

The other week I put 5 euro petrol into my 01 passat tdi before I realised what I was doing. Luckily there was a garage next door. He told me to put 30 euro diesel in on top of it and it will be fine. He autually told me it would do the nngine good Anyway after reading this thread I started to get worried I might have damaged the engine so I asked in a few other garages and they all said it would do no harm.

By the way I noticed no difference in the performance other than the revs going up a bit at ftraffic lights a couple of times in the days after.

Id like to hear yer opinions on this

Celticfire

Ba$tard wrote:

Actually....

Some diesel engines can cope with such an event, Skoda is the leader in it actually with their slight modifications to the censors in the normal VAG 1.9tdi.
If when you fill your tank mistakely with petrol and it is very close to empty, and I do mean very close to empty...the car will actually run fine, just a bit hotter. and will have a fair loss of torque. Experts recommend when this does happen that the car is never driven full throttle or above 50% rev range to redline. To that end, you need to carry a 5/10 litre jerry can of diesel with you and let the car run dry, obviously, when you fear its close to empty, dont be driving it, have it idling over in your driveway. When the car starts to backfire when air starts to mix with the fuel in the line, turn off the engine, fill the engine will at least 5 litres of diesel, 10 or more best and start the engine.

It may take 20 or more turnovers to get the diesel into the fuel rail before the engine will start. Ideal to have a battery charger(jump start) at hand too.

As far as your car...sorry I dont know.....Can you actually drive it right now? Does it idle over evenly?

That seems to be the way my car reacted. All sorted out, petrol just drained out, running fine but did take a few turnovers to get going.......