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Petrol in my diesel car

Lizheen

Yesterday evening, I put €20 of petrol in my diesel Fluence. Phoned a friend, was advised to fill it "to the gills" with diesel, and so I got €46 of diesel in.

Drove it around 25 miles to an event; then later 25 back.

Drove to a petrol station half a mile away and got another €5 of diesel into it today.

Am I still in danger? Should I take it to a garage on Monday? Am I likely to have done damage?

Thanks for any advice

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MAJJ

Lizheen wrote: »

Yesterday evening, I put €20 of petrol in my diesel Fluence. Phoned a friend, was advised to fill it "to the gills" with diesel, and so I got €46 of diesel in.

Drove it around 25 miles to an event; then later 25 back.

Drove to a petrol station half a mile away and got another €5 of diesel into it today.

Am I still in danger? Should I take it to a garage on Monday? Am I likely to have done damage?

Thanks for any advice

What year and engine of car will help. Older cars can be more forgiving

Lizheen

2011 Renault Fluence 1.5 DCI 90 Royle E5 4DR

CIP4

The fill it to the gills idea works if you have put a couple of litres in it and the tank is empty doesn't work so well when you put 14 litres in it thats a strong ratio especially when you consider its a modern common rail diesel engine. I would be getting it drained now and hope you haven't damaged the high pressure pump or injectors driving it around. I certainly wouldn't be starting the engine again get one of the mobile crowds out.

EPAndlee

Your friend was wrong you shouldn't have drove with that much petrol in it. See a lot of this in the workshop with a good few ending up with injector trouble

tuxy

So nearly 1/3 of the tank was petrol? wow
I'll have my fingers crossed for you.

Lizheen

Thanks for the replies.

Not assuming anyone has a crystal ball here but if I have damaged the injector, firstly, how will that problem manifest itself - or will a garage be able to check it over and know where things are at; and secondly - ballpark - what area are we talking about in terms of the repair bill?

[Deleted User]

Get it to a garage by tow truck. Needs to be drained etc. I wouldn't run the engine & you've quite likely damaged it by now but might get away with it.

Your friend is clueless BTW.

EPAndlee

Don't put the key card in the slot either that will cause the fuel pump to turn on

CIP4

Lizheen wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Not assuming anyone has a crystal ball here but if I have damaged the injector, firstly, how will that problem manifest itself - or will a garage be able to check it over and know where things are at; and secondly - ballpark - what area are we talking about in terms of the repair bill?

The important thing is don’t start it anymore get it drained and fresh diesel put in and a new filter. Injector wise may take some time to manifest but you are talking about the engine running rough or and warning on the dash. Cost wise obviously would depend what exactly goes wrong.

Tbh too late now but never take any car advice of that friend as they must not have even the slightest clue anyone with even the tiny interest in car mechanics would know it’s madness to chance trying to dillute 20 euro worth of petrol even older diesels would struggle with that mix.

honda boi

CIP4 wrote: »

The important thing is don’t start it anymore get it drained and fresh diesel put in and a new filter. Injector wise may take some time to manifest but you are talking about the engine running rough or and warning on the dash. Cost wise obviously would depend what exactly goes wrong.

Tbh too late now but never take any car advice of that friend as they must not have even the slightest clue anyone with even the tiny interest in car mechanics would know it’s madness to chance trying to dillute 20 euro worth of petrol even older diesels would struggle with that mix.

The mother in law put like €20 petrol in her 2003 1.9tdi Octavia.
Drove it a few km to my house and told us,I said your better off getting it drained.
She was like ahhh be grand and went back to the garage a few km away and filled it with diesel.
Car is still going strong today,no damage nothing

this was over a year ago.
Damn Octavia's are hard to kill!!!
But I'd say in this 2011 car won't be so forgiving

bazz26

honda boi wrote: »

The mother in law put like €20 petrol in her 2003 1.9tdi Octavia.
Drove it a few km to my house and told us,I said your better off getting it drained.
She was like ahhh be grand and went back to the garage a few km away and filled it with diesel.
Car is still going strong today,no damage nothing this was over a year ago.
Damn Octavia's are hard to kill!!!
But I'd say in this 2011 car won't be so forgiving

The 1.9 TDi is old school technology so would be more tolerable to miss fueling. 1.5 dCi engine would be more modern and way less tolerable.

mikeecho

Op, if there's damage done, there's damage done, cross that bridge if it comes.

In the mean time, you need to add some lubricant, some might recommend two stroke oil, but I would add lots of dipetane, and keep it topped up with diesel.

...hey . That's just me, others will disagree.

CIP4

mikeecho wrote: »

Op, if there's damage done, there's damage done, cross that bridge if it comes.

In the mean time, you need to add some lubricant, some might recommend two stroke oil, but I would add lots of dipetane, and keep it topped up with diesel.

...hey . That's just me, others will disagree.

Petrol + lubricating oil doesnt equal diesel the op needs to cut their losses and get the tank drained. I get the point of the oil but modern diesels are so fussy trying to add oil to off set the petrol won’t end well.

mikeecho

tuxy wrote: »

So nearly 1/3 of the tank was petrol? wow
I'll have my fingers crossed for you.

Fluency has a 67L tank
So 1L = 1.5%

Op put in €20 petrol, @ €1.459/l
That would be 13.7L (x 1.5) = 20%

So 1/5 of the tank was petrol, not a 1/3

Lizheen

Doesn't look like a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. Not feeling happy with myself at all!

Thanks for all the info.

Gonna call to the garage I normally go to and take it from there - hopefully they'll have advice on who to get to collect it etc.

There isn't - I hope - the danger of this being terminal?

shamrock55

I put between 5/10 euro worth of petrol into my 2015 fluence last year,just filled it with diesel then and kept topping up and I've had no trouble with it,I know it's alot less petrol then you put in though,
Good luck with it anyway

mr_cochise

I've done this in my 1.9tdi 2010 octavia. The car stopped within about 300metres. I had put in 25euro petrol and nothing else.
My gut feeling is that because only 1/5th of your fuel is petrol and the car has not stopped yet that you would get away with by keeping it topped with diesel.
However, the optimal thing to do is go to a mechanic and get it drained and get the fuel filter changed also.

Dartz

Top it off with diesel then stick it on Donedeal with a decent price as "Never gave an ounce of trouble" and drop that timebomb on some other poor sod.

Change your phone number soon after.

Lizheen

A bit beyond my level of ****tiness.

[Deleted User]

Lizheen wrote: »

....
There isn't - I hope - the danger of this being terminal?

If properly handled from now you should be OK. Proper handling would involve the engine not running until the fuel system is free of petrol.

You've used approx a gallon since putting in the petrol that was then topped with 1.5 times diesel. The lines were full of diesel so very little petrol potentially has been pumped and injected to your cylinders. Maybe a litre total out if veges gallon of fuel mix used.

I'd be confident you could well get away with what's happened so far.

naughtysmurf

We've an 11 reg Fluence, Mrs put petrol into not long after we bought it & drove it a few kilometres, don't drive it anymore, get it drained, new fuel filter, they are dear enough, fill it up with diesel, fingers crossed you'll be fine, we had no issues afterwards

UrbanFret

Wouldn't panic about it. I've put up to €30 of petrol in my accord 2.2. Filled her up with diesel ,fired in a bullet of 2 stroke into the tank and kept topping it up as soon as there was a bit of room in the tank. I've done this more than once. Its a 2010 car. **** the bit harm it will do her.

Doctors room ghost

mikeecho wrote: »

Fluency has a 67L tank
So 1L = 1.5%

Op put in €20 petrol, @ €1.459/l
That would be 13.7L (x 1.5) = 20%

So 1/5 of the tank was petrol, not a 1/3

The price of petrol now you'd be lucky to get the needle to stir for 20 Euro.

try_again

I did this a few weeks ago - how will I know if something is seriously wrong. I accepted the advice I was given that by filling up with diesel all would be okay. I feel a bit sick now after reading this! Exact same scenario except a 2011 Avensis.

MissTheDome

My father borrowed my car one day and rather delightedly said “ I put petrol in it for you”. Thinking he was being a wonderful daddy... I said “”ya mean diesel Dad”

We both went pale as we rang the local station to confirm it actually was petrol. He had a petrol car so simply didn’t think.

Luckily he wasn’t too generous and only put €20 in.
The tank was almost empty when the petrol went in, so we filled it to the gills with diesel (it took over €50), brought it down in drums.
Touch wood since. That was about a year ago.
Ten year, Old car, 2lr engine.

UrbanFret

try_again wrote: »

I did this a few weeks ago - how will I know if something is seriously wrong. I accepted the advice I was given that by filling up with diesel all would be okay. I feel a bit sick now after reading this! Exact same scenario except a 2011 Avensis.

For god sake stop panicking. Forget it ever happened . It will be fine.;)

BnB

Augeo wrote: »

Get it to a garage by tow truck. Needs to be drained etc. I wouldn't run the engine & you've quite likely damaged it by now but might get away with it.

Your friend is clueless BTW.

For the love of Jehovah, don't be such a bloody drama queen as this. Get a tow truck to the garage.....!!!!!!!

The right thing to do is probably to drive it to the garage and get it drained of fuel and possibly change the filters too....... However, personally, I would just drive it away, you'll be grand.

But a tow truck to the garage....... Ah here........

Lizheen

Well, I'll chat to the guys in the garage I go to: it's only a mile from my house. Will give a progress report at some stage tomorrow. Thanks for all the contributions!
Officially self-identifying as an eejit............

[Deleted User]

BnB wrote: »

For the love of Jehovah, don't be such a bloody drama queen as this. Get a tow truck to the garage.....!!!!!!!

The right thing to do is probably to drive it to the garage and get it drained of fuel and possibly change the filters too....... However, personally, I would just drive it away, you'll be grand.

But a tow truck to the garage....... Ah here........

One of us has at least a basic understanding of how diesel fuel pumps and injectors in common rail diesels dislike petrol ..... the other one of us doesn't

Green_Martian

Might be a stupid question from me, but I thought the pump nozzles were different and therefore don't fit into the incorrect tank i.e Diesel nozzle only fits into diesel car tank, and wont sit right in a petrol engine tank??

Not questioning you OP just wondering, god knows we all get distracted and it can happen to anyone

Hope you get it sorted, as the lads have said, get it towed to garage to be pumped out and new fuel filter etc.