petrol in a diesel engine

dukelamonty

My wife put petrol in a diesel engine a few days ago. Did it once myself with a previous car but fortunately realised what I had done before I restarted the car. This time round, the car (a 2006 Renault Espace) was driven until it conked out. The further bad news is that the tank was close to empty when refilled with unleaded so there wasn't much of a mix.
Anyone in the know out there can guess how much this is going to cost. Several hundred? Several thousand ?
- Duke!

Run_to_da_hills

If it is fitted with a "common rail" fuel pump it could cost a couple of K unless you can get the old one reconditioned. The fuel tank will also have to be flushed out and filters changed.

Hotwheels

Get it flushed out, tank, system and change all the fuel filters, its only when you fill up with Diesel and bleed the engine and start; will you find out if there is damage done...Sometimes you can be lucky, hope its one of those times..
Best of Luck

Darragh29

Not the end of the world. Get the petrol out for a start and get diesel in and then play it by ear...

dukelamonty

Thanks for your comments folks. The car has been left into the garage this morning. When I get the bill, I'll post it up here. I'm expecting the worst but hoping for the best.

dukelamonty

Closing off the thread here.
There was an unexpected twist to our tale yesterday. Turns out my wife hadn't put petrol in - she had convinced herself that she had. The Renault garage who were investigating the problem said it was contaminated diesel and they gave us a sample to take away. We spoke to the garage in question today (a Maxol garage) and they were nice about it and said they would send off samples back to Maxol and let us know the outcome. Total cost to us was €290 Renault garage cost + €100 of contaminated diesel. I'm relieved rather than angry.
- Peter.

Darragh29

dukelamonty wrote: »

Closing off the thread here.
There was an unexpected twist to our tale yesterday. Turns out my wife hadn't put petrol in - she had convinced herself that she had. The Renault garage who were investigating the problem said it was contaminated diesel and they gave us a sample to take away. We spoke to the garage in question today (a Maxol garage) and they were nice about it and said they would send off samples back to Maxol and let us know the outcome. Total cost to us was €290 Renault garage cost + €100 of contaminated diesel. I'm relieved rather than angry.
- Peter.

Was it contaminated with solid particles like dirt or was it some other fluid mixed in with the diesel?

290 Euro isn't bad for a main dealer job. There's a bit of rooting around to get a line into the tank and pump out the fuel...

dukelamonty

They gave us a sample which I haven't seen but they said it was contaminated with a lubricant.

ART6

dukelamonty wrote: »

Closing off the thread here.
There was an unexpected twist to our tale yesterday. Turns out my wife hadn't put petrol in - she had convinced herself that she had. The Renault garage who were investigating the problem said it was contaminated diesel and they gave us a sample to take away. We spoke to the garage in question today (a Maxol garage) and they were nice about it and said they would send off samples back to Maxol and let us know the outcome. Total cost to us was €290 Renault garage cost + €100 of contaminated diesel. I'm relieved rather than angry.
- Peter.

Glad to see your problem is not as bad as first thought, but what about the Maxol station? I wonder how many other cars fuelled there from the contaminated fuel? Moral of the story -- keep fuel receipts:rolleyes:

testicle

Name and Shame the Maxol please, so the rest of us don't suffer