my mate has put about £20 of petrol in his mondeo diesel, and he drove it away.
told him it could be expensive to repair and should look on his insurance (under stupid section) and see if he is covered.
anybody else done this or know a friend, and how much to repair.
My mates dad done it and he got away with it but i have known injection pumps to fail because of petrol in them i believe it perishes the
seals.........
drain tank replace fuel filter and refill with diesel should be ok if he hasn't tried to run it to far
I did it in my old Citroen ZX. I put 15 quids worth in, thought 'bugger' as you do, then filled it up with diesel. Ran it to half way and
topped up with diesel again. No ill effects and the car is still going strong with 223000 miles on the clock.
More modern engines can be a bit more picky though. Best to drain fuel system completely an fill and prime with fresh diesel.
Marcus
Important to drain the tank or at least syphon out otherwise injection pump will get knacked --- a diesel will cope with 5% petrol in the Derv
(especially in this weather) much more than that the pump will wear out before the tank empties.
Also explosive risk from fuel tank
Maybe I was lucky but I put around 3/4 tank of petrol in my Bora TD150 just north of Brighton (coming back from Lewes) and got as far as the Heathrow
cargo junction of the M25 before it just stopped in the outside lane in the road works.
I was really stressed at the time and my head was elsewhere. Still don't know why I grabbed the petrol pump.
I pulled off into the cones and nobody came to me for 45 mins. Eventually I got a Green Flag piggy back to Crewe.
VW garage just drained it and changed the filter no problem. I must have done around 40-50 miles on the last of the deisel in the tank before it
stopped.
You've got to get it drained but other than the cost it wasn't a major problem. I hid mine in a major service and told the boss it was a
routine fuel change 
Ba55tards on the M25 wouldn't let me in from the outside lane though even though I had the hazzards on and no power
One of my less smarter days!!
[Edited on 20/11/05 by pajsh]
[Edited on 20/11/05 by pajsh]
Did it in my TDi and it was a bit rattly but coped! Apparently if you do it in the TDCi it'll be knackered though...
Got away with it about 5 years ago in my XM , seemed to go better after draining tank and changing filter perhaps it flushed out system.
If he hasnt driven it too far it will be ok.
Drain the tank and fill it up with diesel., change the fuel filter and suck the diesel through from the front so it doesnt take any more petrol
through.
Aslong as its not a common rail or a later pump it should be ok. They often run better afterwards as the petrol cleans the system. Fords are quite
good at taking a bit of petrol through them.
cost my FIL more than £400 when he did this in his omega td.
My father in law did it to his Mondeo (latest type TDCI) and it had to have at least one new injector which was expensive. He has a Ford lease car
(ex-employee) and they refused to pay for the repair.
Ford have just invented a device they will start fitting to their diesel cars which stops you being able to put petrol in a diesel.
Hi,
It is becoming more of a problem.
It has happened to a couple of customers of mine and they have called the RAC or AA who have refused to come out. But said they would tow car at cost
to the nearest workshop.
Most insurance companies don't want to know.
Running mixed fuel on a modern common rail diesel is a definate no no.
On older cars i've heard that you can put some vegatable oil in and it will lube the pump ???
P.S getting rid of the drained fuel is a nightmare. It is considered contaminated waste !. and the enviroment agency want you to fill in a waste
transfer note every time you as much as fart!!
David
quote:
Originally posted by davidwag
Hi,
It is becoming more of a problem.
It has happened to a couple of customers of mine and they have called the RAC or AA who have refused to come out. But said they would tow car at cost to the nearest workshop.
Most insurance companies don't want to know.
Running mixed fuel on a modern common rail diesel is a definate no no.
On older cars i've heard that you can put some vegatable oil in and it will lube the pump ???
P.S getting rid of the drained fuel is a nightmare. It is considered contaminated waste !. and the enviroment agency want you to fill in a waste transfer note every time you as much as fart!!
David
i was next in the queue to a guy in a beemer dealership who had put petrol in his diesel.
they told him he would have to wait 3 days before they could look at it, and it would cost 400 quid.
If he wanted to keep the bmw warranty, it needed 2k+ of work
atb
steve
[Edited on 20/11/05 by steve_gus]
I did it 6 or so weeks ago - put a gallon of unleaded in my 2.0 PDi Skoda. Immediately filled to brim with diesel - never blinked.
Waited until half full and refilled - have done that for the last 5,000 miles just to try to reduce the amount of pure petrol entering the engine.
Seems ok - do about 800-1000 miles/week. No problems so far - at all!
A guy I used to work with did this to a company car. New engine needed. He was caught the next day syphoning petrol out of another diesel pool
car.
petrol will ignite before diesel in compression. That's why petrol cars "knock" even with their lower compression. If you run a
diesel on petrol the ignition can occur so early that it tries to drive the engine backwards. This is bad. Perhaps in cold weather, with a cold
engine, with mixed fuel you can get away with it. I would strongly recommend that you drain the tank or get the AA to do it.
Military vehciles are often designed to run on either fuel or a mixture of both. This is due to them having low compression diesel engines.
Breakdown companies donate mixed fuel to them.
diesel engines use the temperature of compression to ignite the fuel. If you only drive with small throttle openings then the pressure will be lower than if you drive with the throttle wide open. I guess you are more likely to get away with it like this.
petrol will ignite before diesel in compression.
Not in a diesel engine it won't - it will ignite when it's injected!!!!
Bob
The missus has put petrol in my old Pug 405, now sold and still going I think!
Towed her home and drained the tank and filled with diesel and used the stuff I drained for my old tractor mower which ran for two summers until it
blew a hole in the crankcase... petrol engines don't like diesel!
Father in law did the same in his BX and ZX Citreon's (must run in the family) had to get towed to a garage both times.
The missus always has to stop and think hard at the service station before selecting the right pump. She even tried to put diesel into my BMW!
Thankfully it has a restrictor otherwise that would be grounds for divorce
Cheers
Jon
quote:
Originally posted by smart51
diesel engines use the temperature of compression to ignite the fuel. If you only drive with small throttle openings then the pressure will be lower than if you drive with the throttle wide open. I guess you are more likely to get away with it like this.
quote:
Originally posted by Bob C
petrol will ignite before diesel in compression.
Not in a diesel engine it won't - it will ignite when it's injected!!!!
Bob
all diesels are compression ignition, the fuel is injected at max compression & it burns. The source of ignition is the compression of the air
which raises its temperature. The glow plugs are just to aid starting. Hence the timing of the injector pump is critical - it's just like the
timing of the dizzy in a petrol car!
cheers
Bob
direct/indirect injection are just different shaped combustion chambers, the principle is the same
Also there is no petrol in the cylinder until the injector actually injects fuel
Perhaps the confusion is with experience of those little model aircraft engine diesels: - I think they work like a petrol car engine that's
"running on" - I knew of one (car engine that is) that would carry on 'ticking over' for 10 or 20 seconds after the ignition was
switched off, (actually I think that was a crossflow... though it was long long ago...)
Bob
Whats wrong with you lot. The black one is deisel and the green one is petrol. I wouldn't be that stupid.
SMUG GIT MODE
[Edited on 21/11/05 by Lightning]
quote:
Originally posted by Lightning
Whats wrong with you lot. The black one is deisel and the green one is petrol. I wouldn't be that stupid.
SMUG GIT MODE
[Edited on 21/11/05 by Lightning]
just check the price per litre when it comes up on the screen - the two fuels are a very different price, if you're a tight git like me you will
be checking that the pump price is the same as the price displayed on the sign!