My turn to do something stupid

plastic glass

OK so its my turn now. Did smething really stupid this morning. I put about a euro worth of petrol into a 2011 Hyundai ix35 (diesel). There was about 1/4 of a tank of diesel in it and then i put another quarter in after putting the one euro of petrol in. Then i drove it (about a two miles no problems). I didnt think it was that serious if its a small amount and I didnt realise you were suppose to fill it up if you put a small amount of petrol in by mistake.

I am [EMAIL="cr@pping"]cr@pping[/EMAIL] it now that i have ruined the engine. Should i get it drained or should go get it filled up or would that do more damage?

MuppetCheck

By right you should have filled the tank to further dilute the mix. It's a very small amount so I wouldn't worry too much but if it was my car I'd still fill the tank with diesel.

plastic glass

Thanks. Yes I know I should have filled the tank but only realised after i checked on the internet after i had arrived at work. Will fill with diesel at my break, was just thinking would driving it do more harm or is whatever damage done already as I have already driven it. Also the fact that it is a newer diesel engine mean it is not as resiliant against petrol cpmpared to the older engines
The car is actually my father's so I am doubly stressed. Thanks for your advice though.

As the amount of petrol is minute, less than a liter, I would not worry about it at all. If you feel really paranoid you can add a splash of good quality 2 stroke oil in the tank.

sundodger5

plastic glass wrote: »

Thanks. Yes I know I should have filled the tank but only realised after i checked on the internet after i had arrived at work. Will fill with diesel at my break, was just thinking would driving it do more harm or is whatever damage done already as I have already driven it. Also the fact that it is a newer diesel engine mean it is not as resiliant against petrol cpmpared to the older engines
The car is actually my father's so I am doubly stressed. Thanks for your advice though.

I would say you are ok. A euro isnt even a litre of fuel in what I now understand to be a half tank of diesel.
I would fill it but the drive this morning would do no harm

00833827

so u have half a tank of diesel and less than a liter of petrol? I would think thats diluted enough. Fill it to be sure maybe? (with petrol ;-) )

plastic glass

00833827 wrote: »

so u have half a tank of diesel and less than a liter of petrol? I would think thats diluted enough. Fill it to be sure maybe? (with petrol ;-) )

Yes that is pretty much it. I am going to fill it asap. With diesel. I think I will have to write it on my hand. I am such a numptey!

Thanks everyone for your advice

00833827

plastic glass wrote: »

I think I will have to write it on my hand.

or even better

VW's adverts weren't always better than their cars

MrDerp

I've noticed a sticker saying "Diesel Only" inside the flap of some hire cars. With all the recent converts from Petrol, I don't think it's a bad idea to put the little reminder there.

Even a printer label with "DAYSUL YA BOLLIX" written in marker would do

Max Power1

at 1 euro of a 1.6 €/liter commodity, you have added 0.625 liters of petrol to the tank

I'd say fill her with daysul and she'll be grand. Sure when you add stuff like dipthane or redex to a tank it is almost at that concentration.

colm_mcm

samih wrote: »

As the amount of petrol is minute, less than a liter, I would not worry about it at all. If you feel really paranoid you can add a splash of good quality 2 stroke oil in the tank.

On a common rail with a dpf I wouldn't. I know its ok on older diesels but there's so much other crap in 2 stroke that could react with a dpf that I wouldn't bother.

JohnBoy26

colm_mcm wrote: »

On a common rail with a dpf I wouldn't. I know its ok on older diesels but there's so much other crap in 2 stroke that could react with a dpf that I wouldn't bother.

plus 1 on this. Not just for the dpf but for the engine as a whole. More damage than good could possibly be done by adding some.

OP, hope you dad's car made it over the weekend :-)

To side track: I have been sporadically adding a splash of synthetic 2 stroke in a Sprinter CDi with over 200k miles on the clock. No DPF or even a cat in that but a common rail at least. The engine seem to always run really smoothly afterwards for a couple of tanks of regular diesel. Probably a psychological thing, same as after a good service, but the extra oil seem to help the high pressure pump to run more quietly.

plastic glass

samih wrote: »

OP, hope you dad's car made it over the weekend :-)

Yes, so far anyway but I bet he is wondering why I gave him back the car with tank full.

derry

Many diesel car owners are reputed to add €5 of petrol to a full tank to help emissions and help pass the NCT


Best I can tell small amounts of Petrol wont do any harm as there will be enough diesel to lubricate the diesel pump and other parts that diesel fuel lubricates .Petrol inside the engin e will burn hotter and ensure a cleaner burn but if over done the heat can make the cat to hot and break the cat create too much heat in the engine to get rid off and overheat engine .However minute amounts would be unlikely to achieve any increase of temperature worth talking about .Some diesel resistant engine parts will react badly to petrol chemicals but small amounts like 1 euro would be unlikely to create these problems

Best I can figure out when the oil companies make diesel fuel there is in realty some petrol some paraffin some kerosene and some bunker oil and some heavy oil and some lubricating oil all in the mix and still inside the diesel fuels they sell to us .Diesel fuel is the majority Diesel with some small amounts of the other fuels in it . The same applies to petrol fuels they contain mostly petrol and some small amounts of other fuels .Modern engines are built to specs of fuels from around the world .Your adding a small amount of petrol will probably change the fuel to resemble some diesel fuel from some region like Iran or India and the car has probably been made to tolerate those fuels .Thats my best guess but filling the tank to full with diesel will always help .
Diesel engines are capable to burn the heavy lubricating oil but not sure if its gonna do that much good if it is more than trace amounts. In my work one Transit van was way over filled with lubricating oil and left the yard smoking like trooper . A few miles down the road the driver gave up and pulled in as the smoke cloud kept to follow him and he switched of the engine .The engine did not stop it kept to burn the oil from the sump and produce tons of smoke as now there was no diesel in the mix .The problem was sorted out opening the sump and dropping oil out until it was correct level .The van went onto to do many hundred thousand kilometers with work as these diesel engines are pretty robust but not sure if the particle filter had to be replaced but pretty sure it must have been broken from that event.

Most diesel engines in the third world where there are no rules on Particle filter will run them on diesels of dubious quality kerosene sweet crude oil TVO and old lubricating oil anything that is heavy oil and they lap it up it seems

I know one Irish guy ran his 1990's era Toyato Carina 2 liter non turbo non common rail engine with kerosene for 200,000 miles no ill effects to the car which continued on diesel after that for another few hundred thousand miles but the stink of kerosene is horrible

My cousin did1/3rd tank petrol to his modern diesel citreon C3 so he filed the rest with diesel and drove slowly to keep heat effects down and kept topping up every 30 kilometers
Now more than one year later no sign of any issues

Derry

ironclaw

derry wrote: »

Many diesel car owners are reputed to add €5 of petrol to a full tank to help emissions and help pass the NCT

I can safely say almost 5 litres in a (Less than full) 85 litre tank had absolutely no ill effect at all.

OP, your grand.