Petrol in Diesel car - what is prognosis?

I now have 20L of petrol and 35L of diesel mixed in my Diesel Renault Fluence. I drove just under 20kms before realizing. Car drove fine. What should I do now? Would the car survive this mix if i keep topping up with Diesel? I cant fork out 300 euro to have fuel syphoned at Dealership. Any less expensive solutions.
BTW - I feel a right eejit! Therefore no need to keep rubbing it in

pred racer

Thats alot of petrol, id consider getting it drained. If it was 10L in a full tank id chance it, but imo 20L out of 55 is too much, can you get more deisel into it or is it full?

stimpson

This crowd will drain it for €200

http://fuelrescue.ie/what-it-costs-wrong-fuel-assist-ireland/

pred racer

pred racer wrote: »

Thats alot of petrol, id consider getting it drained. If it was 10L in a full tank id chance it, but imo 20L out of 55 is too much, can you get more deisel into it or is it full?

Its full except for the 20km drive i did. What if I syphoned off half the fuel myself and then filled it up again?

MugMugs

derekeire wrote: »

pred racer wrote: »

Thats alot of petrol, id consider getting it drained. If it was 10L in a full tank id chance it, but imo 20L out of 55 is too much, can you get more deisel into it or is it full?

Its full except for the 20km drive i did. What if I syphoned off half the fuel myself and then filled it up again?

That's a lot of petrol OP. I'd consider draining

pred racer

What you can do (ive done this on other cars, not yours in particular) is open the fuel line somewhere deisel filter etc turn on your ignition( dont start it obviously) and the lift pump in the tank will try to prime the main pump and fuel will pour out, you may have to do it a few times, fill with juice, bleed the engine( this is the tricky part and ive never done it on a high pressure/ common rail system only on older tdi type engines)
Now ive no idea of the fuel system in a fluence so some research would be in order before starting.
Or keep it full with deisel and hope for the best!

George Dalton

Given the potential expense if you damage the fuel system in your car I would strongly recommend having the tank emptied.

Any independent garage will charge you far less than €300 to drain it. Any time we do this kind of job for someone it rarely costs any more than €100 including 10 litres of diesel.

mlmcelligott

I wouldnt drive it any further. Petrol could wreak your fuel pump. http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuels-and-environment/misfuelling.html

It happened to me before and all i did was go to a motor factors and get a syphon (about 5mm ID clear pipe) and an empty drum. In my case I filled the car full of petrol so all the petrol I took out was put into the GFs old petrol passat (it worked fine). In your case you'll be left with the problem of getting rid of it.

Does your insurance cover it by any chance?

pred racer

George Dalton wrote: »

Given the potential expense if you damage the fuel system in your car I would strongly recommend having the tank emptied.

Any independent garage will charge you far less than €300 to drain it. Any time we do this kind of job for someone it rarely costs any more than €100 including 10 litres of diesel.

+1

The Gride

It won't cost alot to get it drained. No need to go to a main dealer. There are lots of lads that would be only too willing to assist for a small fee. You must know somebody !

McCrack

http://fuelrescue.ie/fuel-rescue-ireland-team/


I like John Donnelly's testimonial. He give's Fuel Rescue his vote "every time".

Just how many times has he filled his honda diesel with petrol? Will he ever learn?

ballinue

no need to go to a garage all you have to do is syphon over half the fuel in
the tank into a container you can get these little syphon tubes in every market in the country where there is a little fitting on the end and all you have do is shake the end of the tube and it will start the fuel to flow out of the tank into the container or if you know how to syphon the old fashioned way you can use a piece of solid garden hose rigid enough that it does not collapse when suction is applied and is just long enough to reach the bottom of the tank inside and the ground on the outside once you have the hose in position in the tank through the the filler cap make sure it is down into the fuel most of the way inside the tank you can check this by blowing through the hose and you will hear the air bubbling inside the tank then suction is applied to the hose making sure the outlet of the hose on the outside is lower than the bottom of the tank then the fuel will flow out until empty or the fuel goes lower than the end of the hose inside the tank once you have removed more than half of the fuel you can top up with diesel and drive normally until all fuel has been used no damage will occur, at most the whole job would take no longer ten minutes.

I called fuelrescue to come out. Am not going to try any DIY cos it would end on disaster!
Is there anyway to prevent me from doing this again? This is my second time. Last time I put 50L in and the car broke down after 2 mins driving.

Miscreant

Deleted User wrote: »

Is there anyway to prevent me from doing this again? This is my second time. Last time I put 50L in and the car broke down after 2 mins driving.

You could put a sticker on the fuel cap or something to remind you that the car is a Diesel. I have seen cars out there with the sticker on the outside as a reminder too.
Or remember to use the Black handled pump instead of the green one might be another way.

Glad you got the mixed fuel out of the tank though as it would have caused you untold problems if you drove far with it.

Rich11

Deleted User wrote: »

I called fuelrescue to come out. Am not going to try any DIY cos it would end on disaster!
Is there anyway to prevent me from doing this again? This is my second time. Last time I put 50L in and the car broke down after 2 mins driving.

CONSENTRATE:D

hondasam

Deleted User wrote: »

I called fuelrescue to come out. Am not going to try any DIY cos it would end on disaster!
Is there anyway to prevent me from doing this again? This is my second time. Last time I put 50L in and the car broke down after 2 mins driving.

Change to a petrol car

I did it myself recently and drove my car ten miles before it stopped, lots of people do it at least once.

MuppetCheck

Rich11 wrote: »

CONSENTRATE:D

Or failing that, just concentrate.

Rich11

Rich11 wrote: »

CONSENTRATE:D

MuppetCheck wrote: »

Or failing that, just concentrate.

Thank you:o

jetfiremuck

You could add 1 litre of 2 stroke oil. It'll mix with the petrol and increase the lubricity of the fuel. Its the lack of lubricant that petrol has that causes scuffing etc.

Leonard Hofstadter

jetfiremuck wrote: »

You could add 1 litre of 2 stroke oil. It'll mix with the petrol and increase the lubricity of the fuel. Its the lack of lubricant that petrol has that causes scuffing etc.

And that would make things even worse - modern diesels HAVE to use proper high quality diesel, not any old 'fuel' you feel like!

Well you can follow the above advice, but don't come crying to me when you find that the injectors and fuel pump in your car are gone!

jetfiremuck

captainspeed wrote: »

And that would make things even worse - modern diesels HAVE to use proper high quality diesel, not any old 'fuel' you feel like!

Well you can follow the above advice, but don't come crying to me when you find that the injectors and fuel pump in your car are gone!

Gone Where!!!! With the adulterated diesel around where people are driving without knowing it the long term damage is way more that a one off misfuel. The diesel fuel/ petrol mix ratio isn't that bad the 2 stroke oil will take care of that.

pred racer

jetfiremuck wrote: »

You could add 1 litre of 2 stroke oil. It'll mix with the petrol and increase the lubricity of the fuel. Its the lack of lubricant that petrol has that causes scuffing etc.

The lubrication would be the least of your worries. Much higher compression in a diesel engine and a good chance that the petrol would detonate while the piston was still half way up its compression stroke, with predictable results!

Problem sorted, fuelrescue came out and drained the fuel plus flushed some diesel through. Its a 2011 car so i would not want to take any risks.
If it were a weekday i might have looked for a local garage but being a Sunday and needing the car to drop kids to school in the morning, fuelrescue was the best option.
Thanks for all the advice.

alias no.9

pred racer wrote: »

The lubrication would be the least of your worries. Much higher compression in a diesel engine and a good chance that the petrol would detonate while the piston was still half way up its compression stroke, with predictable results!

Isn't the timing of diesel injection close to tdc? IIRC for some engines it comes in multiple bursts, the first approaching tdc and the rest during the power stroke.

corglass

pred racer wrote: »

The lubrication would be the least of your worries. Much higher compression in a diesel engine and a good chance that the petrol would detonate while the piston was still half way up its compression stroke, with predictable results!

Diesels don't inject until top dead centre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9yS2xdPJSU

bob skunkhouse

My o my...ditto!
Last week I put 50 euro of petrol into a diesel Laguna (2008) - it half filled the tank. Drove about 2 miles until the car started spluttering and I realised what I'd done. Swung by my local mechanic and he advised I fill the rest of it up with diesel to dilute it. Did that and drove few extra miles home. Got second opinion from neighbour who's also a mechanic. He said he did something similar with a Renault van with a similar fuel ratio and got away with it. His initial advice was to drain but also said if I stick in ordinary engine oil I might be fine, and then to keep topping up with diesel every 1/5th quarter of a tank used up. He also said not to drive the sheet out of it. BTW - a third opinion also mentioned mix the oil in the fuel

So, I've followed his advice. I don't notice anything untoward with the car thus far. It's a bit slower to turn over in the morning, and there's a puff of white smoke initially, but other than that seems ok.

Does anyone know if the advice doesn't work, what signs I should look for that there's a problem. Also, she's due a service soon, is there anything specific I can tell the mechanic to change or look for. Final question the NCT is due soon too. There's a 2 month waiting list currently, is there anything that it can fail on for this - like emissions.

Actually final question, do I put more engine oil in - say in a weeks time, or if I think I've used up half a tank of the the initial 50/50 mix?

Cheers....

MuppetCheck

Fill it with diesel and keep topping it up daily. This will reduce the petrol to diesel ratio.

Personally with that much in the tank I would have had it drained.

Gazzmonkey

Deleted User wrote: »

I called fuelrescue to come out. Am not going to try any DIY cos it would end on disaster!
Is there anyway to prevent me from doing this again? This is my second time. Last time I put 50L in and the car broke down after 2 mins driving.

Nearly made this mistake before, but when I seen the 'Diesel Only' sticker behind the fuel flap I copped on and subsequently swapped the green pump for a black one. :rolleyes:

Don't be daydreaming when at a filling station is a good rule to follow.

Rob Thomas

With that high of a mix, I also would have drained it but it looks like you have got away with it. As advised, keep topping it up with diesel daily. Re; emmissions for the NCT, once you work it out by topping up I think you will be ok. My uncle used to put £5 of petrol in his diesel car every few months and fill it with diesel. He swore it was great to clean the engine...

My mechanic told me a story once about something like this - he took an excited call from a customer of his at 7am one morning saying he was getting fuel on the way to work and had accidently put €10 of petrol into his diesel car before realising it and stopping. He was standing at the pumps wondering what to do as the car had been virtually empty before that. Mechanic advised him to fill it to the brim with diesel and he should be ok but keep an eye on it. Hung up, back to bed and thought no more of it..... He got another call 15 minutes later from a less than impressed driver saying he was stuck on a main road because the car had conked out on him...turned out he had decided to go up the road another bit to where diesel was a little cheaper given he was filling it up !! He was real irate with the mechanic, saying you never told me to fill it up straight away!!!

Gazzmonkey

Gazzmonkey wrote: »

Nearly made this mistake before, but when I seen the 'Diesel Only' sticker behind the fuel flap I copped on and subsequently swapped the green pump for a black one. :rolleyes:

Don't be daydreaming when at a filling station is a good rule to follow.

I have trained myself to check the colour of the nozzle and the price. One or the other should get me. Luckily haven't made the same mistake in the last 2 years except once a few months ago in a Topaz, I had the nozzle in the tank and noticed the price was high. Realised my mistake so only a couple of litres went into the tank.
When my wife asks me to go fill up her car which is petrol, I point blank refuse. It's a disaster waiting to happen!

Rob Thomas

Another funny one... the keeper on our soccer team used to have a petrol car and one day arrived with his new diesel car. He gave me a seat home and there was a home made sticker on the centre of the steering wheel - saying "remember..DIESEL ONLY".....
He said he had another one stuck to the filler cap. He had nearly been caught out the first day he had it and was taking no chances...

A month later he gave me another lift and the sticker was still there.

Gazzmonkey

Maybe instead of just a green handle and a black handle at the pumps, they should make one pump triangle shape and the other square shape?

Just means existing cars would need the corresponding holes fitted.

If the pump wont fit then you cant misfuel your car!!

Gazzmonkey

Gazzmonkey wrote: »

Maybe instead of just a green handle and a black handle at the pumps, they should make one pump triangle shape and the other square shape?

Just means existing cars would need the corresponding holes fitted.

If the pump wont fit then you cant misfuel your car!!

It won't happen. Why would anyone put a common sense solution in place to address what is a lack of concentration (Me on 2 occasions). Plus the fact that everytime it happens some one makes money from it. Whether it is getting the car drained at €200 plus having to refill with fuel again. Or the rescue who comes out to tow your car after it stalls.