Petrol in Diesel Car?

DubDani

I feel so stupid. I have been driving Patrol Cars for Ages, but now have a Diesel. And of course this morning I managed to put some Petrol into my Diesel.

I had filled about 8 Litres of Diesel into the tank when I realised my mistake. So I completely filled it up with Diesel, so that the Tank is now filled with 62 litres of Diesel and 8 Litres of Petrol. (the Car is a 2002 406 HDI).

I know it is ok to run a Diesel with Small Amounts of unleaded, but is this ratio still ok? So far i have made 2 miles, and not had any problems. :rolleyes:

Should it be ok if I fill the tank up with Diesel about ever 50 or 60 kilometres for the next week or two?

Cheers,
DubDani (aka Mr. Idiot)

Saruman

Should be ok but will depend on the car etc. Thats not a lot of petrol so should be fine.

matressmonkey

I thought the nozzle was larger on the diesal pump-handle that prevented you from putting it into the petrol tank to fill up? - a sort-of preventative measure. - or is that the opther way around?

Dwilly

Yeah, tis the other way around, I've also made that error..

mukki

don't feel stupid, a huge amount of poeple who have done that

alias no.9

8 litres out of 70 shouldn't pose much of a problem but given that it's a common rail, I'd keep diluting it, i.e. when it gets about 1/4 of the way down, top it up with diesel again, if you get my drift.

gyppo

You should get away with it. Afaik, the hdi is a standard rotary pump affair, as opposed to a common rail layout. Keep topping up your tank from 3/4 full for the next week or so, and you will reduce the petrol-diesel ratio more each time.

Oops - my mistake - it looks like the hdi is a common rail unit - I was thinking of the earlier ones.

Donie75

I used to drive a 1998 Passat 1.9 Tdi and I noticed it was a bit smokey. I mentioned it to a local mechanic before I went for the NCT. Most of his work is getting older cars through the NCT. He recommended that when the tank is nearly empty put in €5 of petrol & €25 of diesel. He said it would clear the soot out of the exhaust system and help the car through the emmissions test. I did it and when I pulled away from the filling station I noticed a bit of a cloud of smoke when I accellerated hard then it cleared up and the car sailed through the emmissions test. I guess the extra heat from the petrol cleaned out the diesel exhaust system.

bazz26

It could have been worse in that you could have put diesel in a petrol car. :eek:

R.O.R

bazz26 wrote:

It could have been worse in that you could have put diesel in a petrol car. :eek:

Despite the difference in nozzle size and aperture someone in a petrol station managed to do this last month to a 2 week old A6 2.0TFSi!

Luckily it was spotted before he drove off, so on to the back of an AA truck, drained and flushed and charged back to the petrol station owner (all on CCTV).


The new Mondeo and some of the Land Rovers now have a system on the fuel filler neck to prevent Petrol in to Diesel.

The only correct answer is contact a mechanic.

You could be significantly damaging or shortening the life of your engine for the sake of a few hundred quid. Is it really worth it?

Rowley Birkin QC

R.O.R wrote:

charged back to the petrol station owner (all on CCTV).

Why was it charged back to the station owner??

wet-paint

It was the attendant who filled it.

bazz26

wet-paint wrote:

It was the attendant who filled it.

Probably former attendant after the owner got the bill.

Rowley Birkin QC

wet-paint wrote:

It was the attendant who filled it.

Ah...havent been in a station where it's not self service in a long time.

alias no.9

bazz26 wrote:

Probably former attendant after the owner got the bill.

Having been a forecourt attendant in my youth, every forecourt attendant has made that mistake at least once, certainly every contemporary of mine, back then, had. The forecourt manager back then claimed to be the only one who worked there in the previous 20 years to never have made that mistake. The owner assured me that the manager had indeed made that same bubu.

gary the great

Is it really bad if the opposite happens - Diseal into a petrol?

Raytown Rocks

Got a brand new diesel ford focus about 3 months ago. ( company car)
Collected it ftom the garage, and drove to work.
Car chugged all the way. I got a feeling something was wrong so when I got to work turned off the engine and tried to restart it......and nothing.
Rang the Garage and explained what I belived was wrong...YEP
Full to the brim with petrol, and the car only had 23km on the clock.
The assistant had made a boo-boo.
Anyway had to get the AA to tow it back to the garage.
Next day it was delivered to work and all was good, no long term damage from what I can see.

alias no.9

gary the great wrote:

Is it really bad if the opposite happens - Diseal into a petrol?

Yes. The engine should not be started or if it is it should be shut off ASAP and tank will need to be drained.

TangoGolf

Buy A Bike

Darragh29

gary the great wrote:

Is it really bad if the opposite happens - Diseal into a petrol?

Had a customer in 2 weeks ago who put 30 Euro of Diesel into a Fiesta! It's dead easy to sort out if you have one of those vacuum oil extraction pumps. Just drop the hose going from the filler to the tank and draw out the diesel in the tank using the vacuum. Reconnect the hose to the tank and fill with petrol as normal. Was burning off the diesel and running rough for 5-10 minutes, once the diesel burnt off, everything was back to normal again, engine stable and no smoke. Meant to say the car wouldn't start when we recovered it so diesel had worked its way up to the combustion chamber but didn't appear to have done any damage...