Petrol in Diesel Engine - Advice

moesymoe

Hi,

Ok, so my dad just made a stupid mistake. I've done a few searches on this but can't find the exact same situation described. All advice appreciated.

There was very little diesel left in the car, and he put 15e petrol in so just over 10 litres. Then he tried to get it home so started the car (don't ask me why!) and drove it for 200-300 yards. He was coming up to a red light and so shut the engine off and coasted to a stop. At that point, he tried once to start the engine again and it didn't start. It was then towed from there home.

Questions

- What options are there now?
- Would such a short journey have caused significant damage to the engine?
- What parts of the engine are likely to be damaged?
- Approx how much should this cost to fix?

Car - 2005 1.9 VW Passat
Dad - Stupid

Many thanks,
Moe

-Corkie-

He is definitley after doing damage. Why didnt he brim it with diesel after making the mistake. He would have got away with it then.

richardsheil

You don't really know.

The only good thing is that the 1.9 Tdi is a lot more forgiving (PD engine) than the 2.0.

Needs to go to a good local garage for investigation and drain and refill etc.

You might just get away with it. Hard to say.

crosstownk

richardsheil wrote: »

You don't really know.

The only good thing is that the 1.9 Tdi is a lot more forgiving (PD engine) than the 2.0.

Needs to go to a good local garage for investigation and drain and refill etc.

You might just get away with it. Hard to say.

I'd have to agree with this - you'll most likely get away with it.

I've seen it happen to plenty of 1.9TDi and after a drain and refill it was fine with subsequent problems.

ted1

he should have topped it up with diesel. It would have been grand.

taintabird

Have it drained replace the fuel filter and flush the lines and it should be fine fill it to the top with clean diesel to dilute any reaming petrol that may be in the system , as others have said 1.9 tdi pd is fairly forgiving unlike some of the common rail engines its highly unlikley thats there is any damage done

golfbgud

I have an '05 TDI and put 10 euros petrol in it one day at pumps. Rang a friend when I noticed my mistake. He told me to just go head and fill it to the neck with diesel and drive on!

That was more than a year ago and about 25Kms younger! No issues.

simoniz

put 11lts of petrol on D4d engine any suggestions? diesel maybe 15lts left. Just notice when filling the petrol so car engine never turn on then, just rang a friend to tow me back home. Tomorrow We wikk try to fix it.
any suggestion?

PaulKK

moesymoe wrote: »

Hi,
He was coming up to a red light and so shut the engine off and coasted to a stop.

Eh... anyone read this!!?

Dangerous habit much?

You would not have power steering or ABS while coasting.

Is this not extremely unwise, not to mention in a car with no manual handbrake?!

coylemj

PaulKK wrote: »

Eh... anyone read this!!?

Dangerous habit much?

You would not have power steering or ABS while coasting.

Is this not extremely unwise, not to mention in a car with no manual handbrake?!

ABS only cuts in when you floor the brakes hard and there's a danger of wheel lock and skidding, if he was coasting to a red light he wouldn't be anywhere near needing ABS. On the steering, traffic lights are on relatively straight stretches of road so he'd not be too handicapped by the lack of power steering.

The biggest risk is the one that you didn't mention - lack of power-assisted (servo) brakes. If he wasn't taking this into account he mightn't press hard enough on the brakes to compensate for the lack of power-assistance and overshoot the stop line.

Solnskaya

Naafing to wurry abourt. Syphon out the offending benzine, replace fuel filter, brim with diesel, bleed filter and proceed with vigour. Much is made of the harmful effects of mis-fueling, but muppets who work for me have done this to brand new motors and vans, (always deny having done it, but a sniff reveals all.) Have always just towed back to base, let the tank pump pump out the petrol into a jerry can, changed the filter(s) and re-filled with diesel. Never noticed any long term harm. Sheat happens. Sweat it not.
edit, don't try this with Mondeos, they don't like it and will react badly, very badly-I'd forgotten that time I brimmed the mondeo with unleaded and then conked out just as I pulled up to the toll plaza on the M4, it was never the same again, as in it never ran again, my bad.(probably why I never shout at anyone else who does it, when you are tired/distracted, all nozzels look the same)
edit/edit. You could be in trouble, if it has a streak of mondeo in it.Ignore my first point.

ray1972

The scaremongering that goes on on most sites about misfuelling is unreal!!!! I filled my BMW 320D 2006 model (remapped to 212 bhp) with unleaded petrol to the brim (85 Euros worth!!) from an almost empty tank 12 months ago. I drove out of the filling station and after about 2 miles the car started to judder and misfire. I began to think i had just been sold dodgy diesel. I pulled the car in before it cut out and switched off the engine. At that point i began to think "jesus, did i just fill this thing up with unleaded. Opened fuel cap and unleaded started pissing out of it and attacking me!! (Diesel tank is pressurised). Phoned fuelrescue.ie and they came within 40 mins and drained out the tank, they ran some diesel through the system and put in 10 litres of diesel. It cost 200 plus VAT i.e. 227 Euro. Car started fine and i drove away. It was on a Friday afternoon of a bank holiday weekend. On the Sunday i put 100ml of Millers Diesel injector cleaner in her. Drove 200 miles in total over the weekend and went to local BMW dealership on the Tuesday all worried that there would be hidden damage to the car which will manifest later. Spoke to the Senior mechanic at the BMW Garage. He told me that they get BMW diesel cars in all the time who have misfuelled with unleaded. He told me that mostly they just need to be drained and refilled with diesel. Has never had a car come back after this. He says, If the car is still under warranty they will tell you that you need to replace the whole fuel system which can be costly, but that this is suggested just to cover themselves. He told me that my car would be fine as it was running with no problems since the "incident". My car has had no problems whatsoever since. So, if you have misfuelled, it is not necessarily the end of the world or your car.