Put petrol in my diesel car :(

suave.4u

What was I thinking :-(.

I put EUR 80 worth of Petrol in my diesel 2014 Qashqai (so now the car has 90% petrol and 10% diesel).
I drove close to 5 kms and then it stopped.
Got it towed to the garage and they told me about this mishap.
Presently they are draining the fuel system.

What hopes do I have. I think I am screwed

FutureTeashock

"Switching on your car’s ignition will circulate this mix of petrol in diesel through your fuel system, causing further contamination to other components.
Ultimately, this could mean that the entire fuel system requires costly repairs, or replacing completely."


https://www.rac.co.uk/breakdown-cover/wrong-fuel-recovery/petrol-in-a-diesel-car


Sorry to deliver bad news!:(

Toyotafanboi

FutureTeashock wrote: »

"Switching on your car’s ignition will circulate this mix of petrol in diesel through your fuel system, causing further contamination to other components.
Ultimately, this could mean that the entire fuel system requires costly repairs, or replacing completely."


https://www.rac.co.uk/breakdown-cover/wrong-fuel-recovery/petrol-in-a-diesel-car


Sorry to deliver bad news!:(

Often enough though, draining the system, refilling with diesel and a little but of luck and the cars are ok.

It's obviously not great for the car, but people do get away with it.

FutureTeashock

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Often enough though, draining the system, refilling with diesel and a little but of luck and the cars are ok.

It's obviously not great for the car, but people do get away with it.

Let's hope so, but driving 5km more than likely did a lot of damage.

MrMusician18

FutureTeashock wrote: »

Let's hope so, but driving 5km more than likely did a lot of damage.

The injectors are probably ruined but that's about it. The car probably ran for most of the 5km on diesel that was already in the lines

colm_mcm

Don’t panic at this stage.

CoBo55

A neighbour did exactly what you did with his Juke, drained the fuel, changed the filter and it was perfect, a little bit clattery for a day or two but otherwise unharmed.

suave.4u

Cheers guys, hoping for the best..and preparing for the worst!

wyrn

This happened a family member a couple of years ago in a new Qashqai. Filled up with petrol and drove a fair bit until it got into trouble. Thankfully there wasn't any serious damage. Got it towed and drained and it was fine. Fingers crossed for you.

jmreire

Happened me one time,,put about 30 Ltrs into the tank ( tank capacity was 80 Ltrs ) and drove it 1 mile, before it cut out, just at my front gate...so I let it freewheel into the drive way, and stopped it there. I drained the tank first ( 12 V electric pump ) then the lines, fitted a new diesel filter. Put 25 ltrs fresh diesel into the tank, and sucked that through the lines . loosened the injectors and bled the system. It stared relatively easy, and never looked back. I guess that there was just enough diesel in the system to take me the 1 mile home, and then she stopped. Just to show that it's not completely hopeless...you are not the first, and for sure, will not be the last one that it happen's to. Hope that it all work's out for you, Suav.4u. Good luck.

colm_mcm

Keep the petrol for burning it out.

Nunu

Been there, done that. Had literally just joined the M11 and car cut out. The awful realisation dawned on me as I got out on hard shoulder on a cold winters night.

I don’t understand in this day an age how it shouldn’t be impossible to do this anymore?! Maybe manufacture all new diesels with a trianglular entry and install triangular spouts at service stations? Something anyway!

colm_mcm

The technology is there, Ford have it for years.

jmreire

Nunu wrote: »

Been there, done that. Had literally just joined the M11 and car cut out. The awful realisation dawned on me as I got out on hard shoulder on a cold winters night.

I don’t understand in this day an age how it shouldn’t be impossible to do this anymore?! Maybe manufacture all new diesels with a trianglular entry and install triangular spouts at service stations? Something anyway!

The only positive thing that comes out of that experience is you will be a damn sight more carefull in future...:rolleyes:

Stoolbend

We’ve never had a customer do damage by putting petrol in a diesel.

They’ve always got away with draining the tank and changing the filter.

You should be fine

mondeo

Stoolbend wrote: »

We’ve never had a customer do damage by putting petrol in a diesel.

They’ve always got away with draining the tank and changing the filter.

You should be fine

But that is not very profitable for the garage

rn

At least you didn't put dirty diesel into your electric... Would've ruined the batteries!

Same diesel petrol problem happened a mate of mine. Wouldn't mind but neither he nor his partner owned petrol for years. Like others on here, drained and it was fine again. His excuse was he got distracted by a ferrari filling up on forecourt. Not a common sight in rural Ireland.

dsaint1

suave.4u wrote: »

Cheers guys, hoping for the best..and preparing for the worst!

Did it a few years ago on a new car. There's a guy called fuel doctor (after a quick google search on side of road) who came out and flushed the system. Can't remember the exact cost but around €300 I think. Took a few hours but at least I had the car back on the road the same day and it ran perfectly. I doubt you have anything to worry about.

Wishbone Ash

jmreire wrote: »

The only positive thing that comes out of that experience is you will be a damn sight more carefull in future...:rolleyes:

I've done it twice!

Heres Johnny

Remember that Fisher price play thing for babies?
Put the square peg in the square hole, the circular peg in the circular hole, the x shape peg in the x shape hole, none of the other fit..... Why fuel nozzles don't follow this system I don't know.
We only have 2 fuels at pumps it would cut out what seems to be a common mistake.
I stopped a woman doing this one day in clondalkin, she was beside me with a 3 series BMW 2012 or 2013 reg or something, back when you couldn't really buy a petrol 3 series I saw her bring the green nozzle to her tank and just asked her was she sure it was petrol car, she said well I don't normally drive this car but I'm nearly sure it's petrol, I suggested she check with the owner.
So it can easily happen but it shouldn't be possible.
You can't do it in reverse for example, the diesel nozzle doesn't fit in a petrol

suave.4u

So I got the car back today. The mechanic drained the fuel system. He said that I was very lucky that there was no further damage.
There was additional cost for disposal of the contaminated fuel (I had filled up the tank). Total cost Eur 230. Drove couple of times today and no issues so far; fingers crossed.
I am repeatedly chanting "diesel" "diesel" when i get into the car so as to not make the same mistake again!

Melodeon

Heres Johnny wrote: »

Remember that Fisher price play thing for babies?
Put the square peg in the square hole, the circular peg in the circular hole, the x shape peg in the x shape hole, none of the other fit..... Why fuel nozzles don't follow this system I don't know.

Nature will find a way:

Sam Quentin

colm_mcm wrote: »

Keep the petrol for burning it out.

ROFL

uck51js9zml2yt

suave.4u wrote: »

So I got the car back today. The mechanic drained the fuel system. He said that I was very lucky that there was no further damage.
There was additional cost for disposal of the contaminated fuel (I had filled up the tank). Total cost Eur 230. Drove couple of times today and no issues so far; fingers crossed.
I am repeatedly chanting "diesel" "diesel" when i get into the car so as to not make the same mistake again!

I keep telling my wife that I have to get petrol for the car.
I inevitably choose the diesel pump when filling up.

That comes of driving petrol for 20 years and then buying 2 diesels for the house.

Jimmy Bottlehead

suave.4u wrote: »

.
There was additional cost for disposal of the contaminated fuel (I had filled up the tank).

Didnt realise matches were so expensive

suave.4u

diesel diesel diesel diesel diesel

jmreire

Mixing petrol with diesel or vice versa, is one thing..the car will stop, but I have seen major costs incurred when bad diesel was used in a car...that can really do a number on a modern diesel engine car. So you need to be careful not alone what you put in the tank, but where you buy it from too. Beware of "Cheap" fuel offers.....

twin_beacon

it happened me when I was in college, I filled my dads diesel octavia with petrol. my uncle is a mechanic, he had it fixed in a short amount of time. All that was going through my head was the scene from father ted, "Your grace, is your car a petrol or diesel?". I've been double checking every time I put fuel into my car now.

padyjoe

It's not always the user to blame.

It happened in Budapest 2 weeks ago: one Shell petrol station took a delivery of both fuels and petrol was pumped into diesel storage and vice versa. Until this was discovered approx. 1000 people had bought their fuel, amounting to 35000 ltrs.

Shell is blaming the haulage company for this, when the lorry driver was filling up his tanker tagged the compartments wrong. This wasn't spotted at the station either when they hook up the truck to the storage tanks as both fuels were the same quantity (For this reason a cautionary measure was introduced that the fuel orders from the station must be different quantities from now on). The storage tanks had a 3:1 mixture. The petrol pumps were stopped the day after, the diesel ones 2 days later. This long it took the complaints coming in as not a single soul knew what's going on.

It'll be a long and painful process to pay compensation to the affected motorists.

I tried my hardest to do the opposite of this recently. I was perplexed and irritated that it didn't fit. I tried a few times to get it in until I realised what was going on. If it wasn't for the fact the diesel pump wouldn't fit into the petrol tank, I would have filled it with diesel.

md23040

I put 32 litres of petrol into a Mazda 6 which at the time was a 8 month old company car. The tank held 58 litres so filled it to the neck with diesel on the advice of a mechanic that I rang. Took it for a long drive of 200 miles during an extended business trip and topped the car up twice whilst the engine running. Over the next 2 weeks continuously topped up the tank. Took it to the main dealers for a service anyway and the injectors were tested and perfect and according to the emissions test it was the cleanest and greenest diesel they'd ever seen. Very lucky escape.

jester77

suave.4u wrote: »

So I got the car back today. The mechanic drained the fuel system. He said that I was very lucky that there was no further damage.
There was additional cost for disposal of the contaminated fuel (I had filled up the tank). Total cost Eur 230. Drove couple of times today and no issues so far; fingers crossed.
I am repeatedly chanting "diesel" "diesel" when i get into the car so as to not make the same mistake again!

Put a diesel sticker on the fuel cap, like what you get with rentals.

Spook_ie

suave.4u wrote: »

So I got the car back today. The mechanic drained the fuel system. He said that I was very lucky that there was no further damage.
There was additional cost for disposal of the contaminated fuel (I had filled up the tank). Total cost Eur 230. Drove couple of times today and no issues so far; fingers crossed.
I am repeatedly chanting "diesel" "diesel" when i get into the car so as to not make the same mistake again!

Lots of cars, in particular hire cars, have a big sticker on or near the filler cap, might make you look saner by reading it rather than chanting it.

Cee-Jay-Cee

jester77 wrote: »

Put a diesel sticker on the fuel cap, like what you get with rentals.

This. Although chances are OP won’t make the same mistake again.

FutureTeashock

I want to pay tribute to the OP for not blaming this misadventure on Brexit!

MrMusician18

suave.4u wrote: »

So I got the car back today. The mechanic drained the fuel system. He said that I was very lucky that there was no further damage.
There was additional cost for disposal of the contaminated fuel (I had filled up the tank). Total cost Eur 230. Drove couple of times today and no issues so far; fingers crossed.
I am repeatedly chanting "diesel" "diesel" when i get into the car so as to not make the same mistake again!

I'm fairly sure there was damage, it just might not rear it's head for a while yet.

The risks we all take when buying a used car

wassie

The Fifth Gear did a good test on this a couple of years back - although the oil burner tested wasn't a modern common rail high pressure diesel. Still interesting enough to question validity of having the whole fuel system replaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL9-i9tcESU

Tazzimus

suave.4u wrote: »

There was additional cost for disposal of the contaminated fuel

Free fuel for his lawnmower/hedge trimmer/chainsaw etc.

Mechanics in the GF's place all do this, I doubt they're the only ones.

07Lapierre

Deleted User wrote: »

I tried my hardest to do the opposite of this recently. I was perplexed and irritated that it didn't fit. I tried a few times to get it in until I realised what was going on. If it wasn't for the fact the diesel pump wouldn't fit into the petrol tank, I would have filled it with diesel.

I had a customer who went one better. Because the diesel Nozzle was too big, he made a funnel out of a magazine he had in is car and used that to fill his petrol tank with Diesel!

ELM327

md23040 wrote: »

I put 32 litres of petrol into a Mazda 6 which at the time was a 8 month old company car. The tank held 58 litres so filled it to the neck with diesel on the advice of a mechanic that I rang. Took it for a long drive of 200 miles during an extended business trip and topped the car up twice whilst the engine running. Over the next 2 weeks continuously topped up the tank. Took it to the main dealers for a service anyway and the injectors were tested and perfect and according to the emissions test it was the cleanest and greenest diesel they'd ever seen. Very lucky escape.

Should have sent them one of my diesels. More green and red than a mayo flag