Petrol in a Diesel

HotRodDub

Made a bit of a mistake last week, I've had diesels for years, but last week (suffering from an awful head cold and little sleep the night before) I accidently put 2 euro of unleaded into my 1.9 TDI A4 before realising, this was then topped up with 53 euro of diesel and things have been fine so far! Has anyone else done this? or will anyone admit to it??

I want to hear from people with experience of this, because on the net the views range from 'I put a bit of petrol in mine every so often' to 'you'll need to get it pumped!'

I know it might be a different story if it was 50% filled with petrol.

mike65

Don't worry about 2 euro worth thats er 2 litres in a 55 litre tank it won't do any harm in that mix.

Mike.

prospect

HotRodDub wrote:

Made a bit of a mistake last week, I've had diesels for years, but last week (suffering from an awful head cold and little sleep the night before) I accidently put 2 euro of unleaded into my 1.9 TDI A4 before realising, this was then topped up with 53 euro of diesel and things have been fine so far! Has anyone else done this? or will anyone admit to it??

I want to hear from people with experience of this, because on the net the views range from 'I put a bit of petrol in mine every so often' to 'you'll need to get it pumped!'

I know it might be a different story if it was 50% filled with petrol.

I think that proportion should be fine.
People used to do it on purpose years ago, to 'clean out' their engines. I don't think it is necessary anymore.

Bottom line, I wouldn't worry about it.

JohnCleary

I just put in 1l petrol with 100l diesel into my boat. Helps keep the diesel thin over the winter months

CLADA

Yes Hotrod I was that man! Had €15 of petrol in the very same engine before I copped on. Filled it to the neck with diesel completed my 90 mile journey and refilled again, not a bother. Actually I think the car ran better on that fill!! No problems since that was about a year ago.

dr.bollocko

The original diesel engine was built to run on peanut oil as far as I know. A litre or two of petrol is not gonna do much harm.

pm.

i put €5 of petrol into a fill at every 10000kms , i find the car runs much better after it and i never had a problem.

Mr.Diagnostic

Hi,

It is quite true that older diesels with rotory injection pumps would not be bothered by a small amount of petrol and it was quite common to add a drop to help clean them out, but modern diesels are a different matter.

Modern common rail or PD (like the A4) rely on the diesel to lube the pumps. Even a small amount of petrol in them can cause serious damage. I have seen a few that were very bad. I have also seen a few that got away with it. If it was mine, I would flush it out. You would be amazed at the level of damage I have seen caused by this.

Edit. just reread your post. the advice i gave would only apply to the later PD engine, early A4's had an EDC pump.

pm.

Mr.Diagnostic wrote:

Hi,

It is quite true that older diesels with rotory injection pumps would not be bothered by a small amount of petrol and it was quite common to add a drop to help clean them out, but modern diesels are a different matter.

Modern common rail or PD (like the A4) rely on the diesel to lube the pumps. Even a small amount of petrol in them can cause serious damage. I have seen a few that were very bad. I have also seen a few that got away with it. If it was mine, I would flush it out. You would be amazed at the level of damage I have seen caused by this.

Edit. just reread your post. the advice i gave would only apply to the later PD engine, early A4's had an EDC pump.

how come my car went better with 5 ltrs of petrol to a fill ? its got the new 1.6 tdci engine (ford focus) and ive over 100000 kms on it now.

JohnCleary

pm. wrote:

how come my car went better with 5 ltrs of petrol to a fill ? its got the new 1.6 tdci engine (ford focus) and ive over 100000 kms on it now.

My engine is a 2005 with only 125 hours on it, ill let you know how I get on with a 1% petrol mix