my sister in law put petrol in her diesel car when it was empty by mistake and ran it till it stopped basically, what i want to know is what kind of damage would that cause?

 

depends on the car...

eg bmw about 5k


The fact she drove it till it stopped usually means the pump is dead.

Alex

 

not good.

what car is it.

 

its an 04 plate laguna

 

Commam Rail Diesel I take it? I know when my mum did it to my dad it caused alot of problems and even when fixed it was never the same. She did it a second time but we towed it home and we drained it direct from the tank and it was fine. I think newer diesels are alot more sensitive.

 

"Might" be lucky though.

Drain the tank (I find drilling a small hole in the bottom the best way, then plugging it with a self tapping screw*)
Blow through the feed and return lines
Change the filter
Bung in some Diesel, bleed it through and see what happens.

If it is fucked then it wont make any difference but you may find it will be ok.


* No, not really

 

i work for a recovery company and we get atleast 5 a week in, 99% of the time petrol in diesel, in the 3 years ive been here ive never had 1 car damaged providing its drained properly, tank and filters emptied, if you take it to a dealer they will baffle ur brains with bullshit saying pump is knackered ect... aslong as diesel is drawn through with a vacuum feed to the injector pump inlet pipe it should go straight away!

 

i feel sorry for her she's had nothing but trouble with it but i did say buy a ford

 

i would of sorted it but too far away mate

 

Hope she can have it repaired and as cheap as possible mate, best of luck with it.

 

last time we had this at work the pump was nacked and cost a lot of money

 

to be perfectly honest? it'll be fucked

even the "cheap" ford's still cost about Ł3k to put right when this happens as you need to change the whole fuel system

can't rememebr what the cause of the pump faiulers is but it's something to do with the petrol not lubricating as well as the diesel and it trashes the internals which, in turn, sends bits of pump into the rest of the system

one guy put in about a 1/4 of a tank worth of petrol into one of the connects and then it died a death
we drained the tank and filled it with diesel but the damage had been done
it carried on for a few months afterwards but it was never right and then it just wouldn't go again

if it's filled with diesel and drives, take it to the nearest auction house and flog it on, not the best thing to do as far as morals are concered, but if someone else takes the hit for it.....

 

Cat will be dead but other wise unlikely to be any damage.
Drain refill with diesel, bung in 1 pint of HYDRAULIC OIL, then run for a bit, all will be well.
Diesel are a LOT better than many give them credit for.
tabetha

 

I can show you several damaged pumps from petrol in diesel.

The clearence in the pump to get to 1000 bar (assuming its an old snotter and not a new one running at 2000bar) are near zero. The diesel is the lubricant!

Alex

 

i did exactly this in my vw passat, drove it till it stopped..... we drained the tank and refilled with diesel(didn't change any filters or anything) the car was a little hessitant to start... wound it over a few times.. and then fired up.... we left it running till it was well up to temprature(i was told you should do this as the engine was not very well protected till it was warm) and then took it away... i drove it sensibly to my next couple of jobs... it drove fine but was still a bit hessitant on start up......i then did a 50 mile trip on the motorway and its been spot on ever since!!!!!!!! i think it needed to flush the petrol out the system.... good luck with yours.

 

I can only tell you every single one of the cars I have done with this, have been 100% perfect afterwards, as was my own when g/f did it!!
tabetha

 

i've seen a few 1.4 tdci fiestas and a couple of focus/galaxy tdcis [lynx & dw10] and they have also been fine.

Though none have been driven until the engine stopped.

 

Its the "driven till it stopped" thing thats the problem potentially, a quick squirt of petrol wont do any harm normally, but running for ages can do, especially if its a big pressure pump like alex mentions.

Gotta love the "I told her to buy a ford" comment, would that have stopped the dopey mare putting the wrong fuel in then?