Does this sound ok, not a happy bunny

naughtysmurf

So the wife has just put €35 of unleaded into my (our) 1.5dci 11 reg Fluence, realised her error and put €55 diesel in on top of it and drove 4 / 5 miles home

I rang AA assist but they don't cover stupidity but gave me the phone number of two local garages they recommended, made contact with one of them & this is what he advised

Option 1 was to wait for the engine to cool down (it wouldn't start while still warm) start it and drive away & not worry too much about it

Option 2 was to drive it over to him in the morning, they would drain 7 / 8 liters out of it, top it up with diesel and away you go

The guy I rang has been in the motor trade a long number of years, at one stage had a dealer franchise, may still do & I've no reason / mechanical knowledge to dispute what he says but does this sound like ok advice?

Thanks

colm_mcm

Get it towed and drained, don't go near the main dealer as you may have injector problems down the line

elaverty

I would suggest it will be ok to drive it on,after say 200km will it back up with diesel,and that put in the correct amount of Diptane to clean it out,,Just my opinion mind you,,

Swampy

€250 for a draining.

colm_mcm

Swampy wrote: »

€250 for a draining.

Sounds a bit steep, my mum got it done in a main dealer for less than half that.

naughtysmurf

colm_mcm wrote: »

Get it towed and drained, don't go near the main dealer as you may have injector problems down the line

He is not a main Renault dealer so it will not appear on the cars history, is that what you are alluding to there?

darragh o meara

Its an easy thing to happen and I've senn it become more common recently for some reason. Anyway in a lot of the older diesel cars mechanics recommended that you put a sup of petrol in with a tank of diesel to clean out the engine for the nct. I've done it to countless cars over the years and it never threw up any problems in fact some cars ran even better with the supp of petrol.

However with diesels becoming increasingly complex the petrol may do a bit more damage than good as it'll cause the engine to run hotter and cause problems down the road. But seen as you only put a small bit in I'd be inclined to fill it to the neck with diesel and I mean to the neck and drive on the dilution should be enough as to cause no real problems. If you filled it with petrol and drive off in it you'd be in a whole lot of bother.

Bringing it to a dealer will result in them probably dropping the tank to clean it, replacing the fuel filter and god only knows what else resulting in a high bill plus if you had a problem with the engine in the near future they'll blame it on your petrol fill.

goz83

Couldn't the OP just drain half of the tank and refill with diesel. Surely a -25ish% unleaded mix won't cause any damage. I don't know where the tank can be accessed in the fluence. Maybe under the back seat? Would save a good few quid and the drained fuel might also be used when the tank is refilled and half the juice is emptied by driving. Just a thought.

elaverty

Or Siphon it out himself,,

darragh o meara

elaverty wrote: »

Or Siphon it out himself,,

With anti siphon thingys in the tank it's not as easy as it used to be and especially to run the risk of getting a mouthful of diesel

As for draining the tank yourself well thats easier said than done even for the avid amateur DIY mechanic.

Fill onto the neck and drive it and keep the tank topped up, it'll be gone in no time.

naughtysmurf

goz83 wrote: »

Couldn't the OP just drain half of the tank and refill with diesel.

elaverty wrote: »

Or Siphon it out himself,,

I'm inclined towards draining the whole tank, €90 bucks of fuel, I assume this is doable do I need to change fuel filter or do anything else?

Car is only 16 months old & ain't no funds available for major future repairs so hope to avoid

Engine management light was on when I tried to start it before the wife confessed, will this go off automatically once correct fuel is put in?

Pottler

naughtysmurf wrote: »

I'm inclined towards draining the whole tank, €90 bucks of fuel, I assume this is doable do I need to change fuel filter or do anything else?

Car is only 16 months old & ain't no funds available for major future repairs so hope to avoid

Engine management light was on when I tried to start it before the wife confessed, will this go off automatically once correct fuel is put in?

Drain it fully, new filters, fresh fuel, if it was a banger, might be worth taking chances. 11 reg? No way jose. Suck it up, if you'll excuse the pun. There should be an in tank pump on those anyway, so if you undo a fuel filter feed line and turn on the ignition without starting, she'll pump it all out herself.

Bpmull

naughtysmurf wrote: »

I'm inclined towards draining the whole tank, €90 bucks of fuel, I assume this is doable do I need to change fuel filter or do anything else?

Car is only 16 months old & ain't no funds available for major future repairs so hope to avoid

Engine management light was on when I tried to start it before the wife confessed, will this go off automatically once correct fuel is put in?

If your going to drain the tank definitely change the fuel filter and fill it with diesel problem sorted. You're right I wouldn't chance running a new car on petrol as if anything newer engines seem to have less tolerance to the likes of diesel. If it was an older car worth a couple of thousand you might take the risk not on a 2011 though. I think your making the right call.

I would imagine the engine management light would go out wants fresh diesel is put in. Similar thing happened to a relation. He had just bought a new diesel Qashqai 3 weeks old filled it with petrol and worse drove it out the road. The engine management light came on and he realised his mistake emptied the tank put in fresh diesel the light went out and all was ok.

aujopimur

Personaly I would'nt even switch on the ignition on a misfueled modern car.

naughtysmurf

naughtysmurf wrote: »

So the wife has just put €35 of unleaded into my (our) 1.5dci 11 reg Fluence, realised her error and put €55 diesel in on top of it and drove 4 / 5 miles home..............

Anyone suggesting that it's ok to drive the car with that amount of petrol in it should really STFU and keep their advice to themselves.

I'd get an indy to drain it fully if it were my car, and I wouldn't drive it to him either.

Needles73

Agree with some of the other posters. If it got €35 euro worth of petrol its safer to have tank drained and fit new fuel filter. No need for anything drastic like dropping out tank. I wouldnt take it to a dealer though as they may go over board. A small amount of petrol is no harm in a diesel but you have over 20 litres of petrol in a 60 litre diesel tank....

Green Hornet

I put 18 litres unleaded into an Accord iDTEC on the flipping day I picked it up!! I pushed it to the diesel pump and topped up with 40 litres of diesel. I drove some short journeys below 2k revs and topped up regularly until 10% petrol remained and then ran down to 25% full and filled as required after that. I changed the fuel filter then and it was clean. No ill effects since and I've put 4k miles on since.

Not good practice though but maybe not as catostrophic as you often hear but still...

In my case there was a black handle on the pump - still a stupid mistake on my part too though.

naughtysmurf

RoverJames wrote: »

I'd get an indy to drain it fully if it were my car, and I wouldn't drive it to him either.

The indy I use for the second car, we are going to tow it to his place in the morning, drain the fuel & replace the fuel filter.

Anyone got any ideas for a suitable punishment for the missus?

naughtysmurf

naughtysmurf wrote: »

.......

Anyone got any ideas for a suitable punishment for the missus?

In fairness the says it all, not the end of the world at all

Green Hornet

Wonder why it's happening so much now. Maybe there should be a yoke that tells you 'Petrol' or 'Diesel' when you pick up the nozzle for idiots like me!

Green Hornet

Green Hornet wrote: »

Wonder why it's happening so much now..........

Lots more diesel cars about, diesel pumps won't fit on most petrol cars, petrol pumps will fit in most diesel cars. When there was less diesels and more petrols about the pokey yokey safeguard worked better as it catered for more people/cars

naughtysmurf

RoverJames wrote: »

In fairness the says it all, not the end of the world at all

Have a label maker at work so going to put a Diesel only label on the fuel cover thingy, when she opens it, another label, I SAID DIESEL ONLY,
fingers crossed after that

skyhighflyer

Just to add my 2c OP, worked at a petrol station for years as a young lad and this happened fairly regularly. We would only ever advise someone to 'chance it' if they'd put no more than 4 or 5 litres in the tank and then brimmed entirely with diesel. This was a few years ago and I understand modern diesels are made to much finer tolerances meaning you'd probably get away with even less that that now.

Don't be too hard on the wife we had a local mechanic's apprentice on standby for when this happened (at least once a fortnight). Used to be a handy €50 for him to turn up with the 'draining apparatus' (length of hose, an old fuel pump and a car battery) and he used to kick me back €10 each time for ringing him. Not a big deal as RJ says, fingers crossed no ill-effects with the car

naughtysmurf

@ skyhighflyer....yeah, over it now, hopefully sort it tomorrow morning, but don't really have bucket loads of extra cash lying around to be replacing injectors etc etc, wasn't too hard on her anyway

Years ago and I mean fado fado, got a mate of mine a job in the local garage, first evening, bloke came in and asked for the oil to be topped up, no problem sir, bloke took off the radiator cap and went off for water, by the time he got back my mate had topped up his radiator with oil

Suppose **** happens from time to time