Petrol in a diesel car

[x Alex x]

just got a call from my dad, stranded on the A1 up scotland, he put petrol in the audi and it's a diesel, it had some diesel in it before hand ( almost a quarter tank and he put £10 unleaded in (at a dear garage ) and it cut out after a few miles, i know petrol in a diesel is bad because diesel lubricated the engine but would this have done much damage or is it hard to say? thanks alot

 

[Liam]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

bye bye Audi, cos he's ran it, it'll **** the pump, fuel lines etc, oh dear, whats the age/spec of the car?

Sounds costly.

Liam

 

[dakota]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

I'm a tad bit confused, is it a diesel engine with petrol in the tank, or a petrol engine with diesel in the tank?

If it's a diesel engine with petrol in the tank then I'm afraid the engine is most probably beyond repair.

 

[Stu DemonD]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

I remember a sticky about this:

https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/46640-filling-up-wrong-fuel-important-advice.html

although another member PM'd me to say that was a load of tosh, yet never followed it up with any facts

Shouldn't the topic be 'Petrol in a diesel car' :chin:

 

[poggy]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

just got a call from my dad, stranded on the A1 up scotland, he put petrol in the audi and it's a diesel, it had some diesel in it before hand ( almost a quarter tank and he put £10 unleaded in (at a dear garage ) and it cut out after a few miles, i know petrol in a diesel is bad because diesel lubricated the engine but would this have done much damage or is it hard to say? thanks alot

If it's a modern engine, then it will have destroyed it. It may run for a while with clean diesel but it will have damaged the diesel injection system.

The RAC don't cover you for this anymore either, they only tow you to the nearest garage not back home.

Hope it's not as bad as I think.

 

[jug]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

old diesels were happier to run on petrol (some even liked it) but modern diesels dont like it at all. last time this happened to someone i know i drained the tank (on the roadside shh ) and refilled with diesel, then after 5 mins of rough idle it was back to normal. fingers crossed your dad will be as lucky.

 

[centaur]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

If he ran the fuel for long enough to let petrol enter the complete system, then I am afraid it will be rather expensive.

You are confused as to what is what though. Is it a diesel engine car which has had £10 of unleaded petrol put into it (as you say in you actual post)

or

is it a petrol engined car which has had £10 diesel put into it?? (As you suggest in your title)

And, tbh either way, if enough of it has gone through the system it will be costly enough.

Keep us posted.

 

[poggy]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

They should have different nozzles for diesel and petrol. I think you can fit a petrol in a diesel filler but not a diesel on a petrol. They should have a square for diesel and round for petrol and it would save a lot of grief getting them mixed up.

I have a petrol car, an LPG car and a new diesel car, so I am bound to get it mixed up. The diesel is a brand new Saab and there is only a tiny sticker on the petrol cap, so this is the one which I am bound to fill up with petrol as I haven't has a diesel for years.

I guess it would do the garages out of a lot of repair work.

 

[ChrisUK]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

lol I must admit when I first bought the alfa I put the black pump in but remembered just in time and changed it to green .

 

[jug]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

They should have a square for diesel and round for petrol and it would save a lot of grief getting them mixed up.

simple yet brilliant idea. but its too late to change anything now

 

[Goldie Punto]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

If he didnt turn the key chances are you could of drained it out and flushed the tank out and it would of been fine, but because hes run it chances are its nackared the pump up.

 

[x Alex x]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

sorry, its petrol in a diesel, was in a rush, thanks for all your help, i told him to go and get bio-diesel but he couldn't be bothered

 

[Bob in disguise]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

I remember when i worked for my old man, he put £5 worth of petrol in the old transit before realising.... Topped it up to the brim with diesel and it ran fine, just smoked a bit on that tank of fuel...

Even spoke to a RAC guy at the service station it was at and he said just fill the tank to the brim with diesel, it'll smoke a bit but should stay running.

I got a feeling if you put diesel in a petrol though thats not good

 

[Trancendental]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

Diesel in a Petrol aint that bad, not as bad as the other other way round.

Petrol Engines try to brun Diesel but Diesel doesn't burn to well so a petrol engine will still run, just very poor.

Diesels work on a High Pressured Pump and Petrol is not as pumpable as Diesel so it will just sit in the Diesel engine doing nothing and will need to be drained before he tries to continue.

However, it might be tha the Diesel components are already broken because of the mistake

 

[x Alex x]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

hes been waiting for the AA since 1:45! they got the place wrong, hes at a garage and they thought he was on the road, rang up to see why they hadn't got him and the women on the phone replied "we can't be expected to check every garage"! if they had of listened in the first place!! :bang:

the plan is to get it recovered here and drain as much as we can out of the tank, am i right in thinking diesels have a bleed type thing which we can drain it out or would i have to use a big tube, thanks again everyone for your help, much appreciated! :worship:

 

[centaur]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

hes been waiting for the AA since 1:45! they got the place wrong, hes at a garage and they thought he was on the road, rang up to see why they hadn't got him and the women on the phone replied "we can't be expected to check every garage"! if they had of listened in the first place!! :bang:

the plan is to get it recovered here and drain as much as we can out of the tank, am i right in thinking diesels have a bleed type thing which we can drain it out or would i have to use a big tube, thanks again everyone for your help, much appreciated! :worship:

what is the point of draining it? get it taken straight to a garage/dealership where they will need to work on the engine and related parts to find out what is knackered and what is salvageable. Draining the petrol, and putting diesel back in is not going to help matters, just make things worse

 

[x Alex x]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

what is the point of draining it? get it taken straight to a garage/dealership where they will need to work on the engine and related parts to find out what is knackered and what is salvageable. Draining the petrol, and putting diesel back in is not going to help matters, just make things worse

how? this is what the AA bloke says, if it doesnt start then it goes to the garage, or would fuel lines etc have to be drained?

funny thing is (well not really) been down to 2 cars, mams new panda gets delivered tommorow and this happens! 2 cars again

 

[Si]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

I remember the dealer telling me when I handed over my car keys, if you do put petrol in, it's £150 if you don't start and £1500+ if you do.

Someone did it to the company vectra few weeks back, must find out what the final repair bill was.

 

[Gazza AK47]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

I have delt with these sort of problems regulary in my job (Mechanic with over 15 years experience).

Don't panic, drain the fuel system completely and use an air line to blow contaminated fuel out.

Replace the fuel filter and fill with diesel. Refill the tank fully with diesel and crack open the injector pipes. Or injector pipe if common rail, spin over and flush the diesel through. Tighten all pipes and spin her over, she will start, may sound like a bag of poo to start with, its just getting rid of the final dregs of petrol. With a VAG diesel, don't touch the throttle for at least 10 mins of they have a habit of stalling when you have changed the filter.

The modern diesel will cope with having the wrong fuel in, we had a CRV CTDi with the tank filled with 3/4 of petrol, ran like a sack of ****e, but it was fine when the fuel was drained and diesel refilled in the tank.

I have yet to come accross a diesel that is fooked from having the wrong fuel pumped in. And I have done around 15 wrong fill recoveries for customers.

Try a Tank of diesel and a new filter and she'll probably be okay.

 

[x Alex x]

Re: Diesel in a petrol car

I remember the dealer telling me when I handed over my car keys, if you do put petrol in, it's £150 if you don't start and £1500+ if you do.

Someone did it to the company vectra few weeks back, must find out what the final repair bill was.

thankyou, my uncle most likely will fix it but ill bet the parts are expensive