This morning my wife inadvertently put 25 litres of petrol into the fuel tank of our 1.9 Multijet diesel Sedici (which had about 8-10 litres of diesel still in it). She then drove six miles home and complained that the engine was "a bit noisy". I checked and it is, but it started okay and when I smelt petrol from the exhaust she realised what she had done and told me.

Question is should I risk driving it to my local garage (less than a mile) and get them to drain the system, or get the AA to deal with it – if indeed they will ? And is there likely to be any permanent, expensive damage to the engine, which has done 66k miles?

Fearing the worst but hoping for some help!

Most damage will probably have already been done now, if any.

My advise would be AA/RAC or tow to garage, do not restart it, or even turn the ignition on with the battery connected (to remove steering lock etc), as this'll prime the tank and run the pump normally.

Thanks for that.

Car is now at my (trusted) local garage who think it may be redeemed by draining the tank, replacing the fuel filter and filling with diesel: we shall see (and fingers crossed!)

Cheers – Mark

If you're unlucky you've buggered the high pressure pump but it won't show up for a while.

My garage trained and re-filled the tank and changed the fuel filter and the car "seems" fine. Performance isn't quite what it was – acceleration from lower revs is slightly inferior – but otherwise I can't tell the difference and feel we got off lightly.

However if the pump is damaged what would the signs be?

Cheers – Mark

poor starting due to lower than ideal rail pressures,

using MultiECU Scan to gauge rail figures "live" may be of comfort..,

but really there's nothing you can do to remedy it..,

just glad you didn't do hundred of miles in that condition,

Charlie

Thanks Charlie,

The car starts fine, but I'll ask my garage to check it as you suggested: I guess a new fuel pump would not be cheap!

Cheers – Mark W

markysimon said:

Thanks Charlie,


I guess a new fuel pump would not be cheap!

Cheers – Mark W

Click to expand...

No problem,


enough to potentially write the vehicle off

Low pressure pump is cheap'ish,
HP is Hundreds of pounds..,

Hopefully you've minimised the risk,

Charlie

The diesel acts as a lubricant in the pump, petrol doesn't so the pump can wear and eventually produce tiny bits of swarf which end up blocking the injectors. This was, and remains, a major problem with Mondeo diesels and when I worked at Ford the official stance after missfueling was if it had been run then to retain warranty the entire fuel system was changed except the tank & pipes which were flushed out. This worked out at just under £2000! Unfortunatly, the Delphi pumps fitted were crap anyway and produced swarf which screwed the injectors which is why so many run badly. Diesel? No thanks!

maggers said:

The diesel acts as a lubricant in the pump, petrol doesn't so the pump can wear and eventually produce tiny bits of swarf which end up blocking the injectors. This was, and remains, a major problem with Mondeo diesels and when I worked at Ford the official stance after missfueling was if it had been run then to retain warranty the entire fuel system was changed except the tank & pipes which were flushed out. This worked out at just under £2000! Unfortunatly, the Delphi pumps fitted were crap anyway and produced swarf which screwed the injectors which is why so many run badly. Diesel? No thanks!

Click to expand...

That's a rather frightening prospect, but presumably there would be deterioration in both performance and noise levels that would indicate imminent failure? Thus far at least the engine appears to be performing normally but I will, as noted earlier, get my garage to do an ECIU chack with the engine running... and keep my fingers crossed!

Yeah, if it was only run for a short time you may well get away with it. I'd ask them to take a fuel sample from the return line into a clear container then run a magnet around the bottom (on the outside!) and see if anything collects. A tiny amount is OK but if it adds up to much more than 1mm then I'd be concerned.