Hi guys was out with a guy from work today who put £25 of petrol into his van before he realised his mistake. he then continued to brim the tank with diesel adding a further £70.
I suggested phoning the boss and telling him so we could arrange to have it drained but he bit my head off telling me to mind my own buisness.Now am not really bothered as he is an ass hole and it wasn't my van but am just wondering what sort of damage he will do to the engine.

 

Will knock like fuck then die i'm guessing.

 

we have been in it all day and it seems to be running ok and starting fine but i always thought that diesels needed the lubrication for the pump

 

Can take its time to get through. We had sumat simular other week with an airport tug. took it a while to get to the engine. sounds like firecrackers going off now.

 

Put petrol in my old Focus - if you can run it through then do that and then change the fuel filter but if you have to get it drained do that. With £70 of diesel on top I'd run it through, but if you sit in traffic and the fuel starts to heat that's when the car could start to stall etc. That's what happened to me !

 

A work collegue put 1/4 of a tank of petrol into a Peugeot HDI diesel before realising.
He asked at the kiosk what to do and they said fill it right up with diesel and it will be O.K.
He almost made it to the end of the full tank before the engine expired..

If you keep topping it up with diesel you / he may get away with it, but I suspect the damage is already done if it's a modern high pressure (2500 to 3000 psi) injection pump.

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it sounds fairly heavily diluted to me so might be ok. i'd stick some two stroke oil in there though, will help lube the pump and hopefully counteract the petrol.

 

what type van is it ,will fuck the pump upi would imagine

 

Some diesels will be fine, some will be PROPERLY fucked, depends what it is.

 

someone told me this years ago and i thought it was bollocks, but really it'd make sense? even a pint of engine oil would help?

 

all he has to do is when it gets down to 3/4's on the gauge top it back up with derv and keep doing this few times should be fine! IF he just runs it down to the end that's where he may get a problem!

 

Its a renault traffic sport and i really isn't me that has done this.

 

one of my friends (he's 60 and him and his mrs drive around in a very obviously modded mk7 fiesta zetec s tdci, lowered all the way hispec brakes etc ) has always put some 2 stroke oil in every 6 months to a year in all his diesels and is doing it still in his fiesta. never had a problem and it must aid pump lubrication so sticking a decent amount in may well help in this situation.

also, sound advice from Alvyn...definately do that as it will constantly dilute the petrol and lesson the effect.

 

Hi fella,did this in my ml270cdi w plate and in all honesty it ran much better,it seemed to cure an idling issue I had as well!!HOWEVER,it was only a gallon of petrol and a full tank of derv plus I went on a really long run the next day.

As said above,keep topping up the derv and 2 stroke/engine oil won't harm it at all.

 

I did this once

I'd just driven back from Brighton in one our transit minibuses. I was absolutely shattered so told my controller i was going home, but before i could take the bus back to the yard i had to fill it, so stopped at the garage. Im stood there putting the fuel in, when i turned looked at the pump and realised it was petrol and not diesel!

I had put in 26 litres of petrol, and there was 3/4's of a tank of diesel left in there before i started. I rung my transport manager and explained what i had done, he told me to get it back to the yard which was only about 2 or 3 miles, so I did. It drove fine until i got onto the estate, then it started pinking. Got it to the yard, we run a hose into the tank, and my colleague syphoned(sp) out what he could, that was put in one of the coaches, i then drove it back to the garage and filled it back up with diesel...

there was no problems with the bus afterwards, i was lucky! Would have had a big bill otherwise

 

we had a guy who put petrol in one of the connects
it lasted 3 months before things came to a big broken end
depending on what's what, is it one of the hdi engines or the other ones, the older engines don't tend to mind as much but i would have called the boss and coughed up to my mistake, even if it did cost me the price of the fuel and drain and refill, at least he'd have been being honest

 

arent the nozzles different from petrol to diesel?? because i was on the way to work in my ERST really early in the morning and needed fuel and being half asleep i grabbed the diesel pump but it was a different size (thank fuck) so wouldnt go in!

 

renault common rail pumps are renowned for shredding themselves on diesel, let alone petrol! its probably a lucas delphi or siemens pump, the bosch ones seem to be a bit hardier. very expensive repair if the pump shreds itself as the whole injection system has to be replaced to get rid of any traces of metal. pump, tank, pipes, filters, lift pump, fuel rai;, injectors, the lot! i would say it has definatly taken some life off the pump! watch this space...

 

Thats exactly what i would have done if it was my van.Am just washing my hands of it all

 

Yeah your right! The diesel nozzle is bigger than the petrol one, and petrol car's have a smaller hole for the nozzle to go into, so when you do pick up the diesel pump it wont fit into a petrol car! I have a feeling this is mainky on newer car's but i may be wrong on that one! lol

 

ahhh i understand now,cheers for that mate

 

just keep topping up the tank with diesel and dont give it any beans if you can help it.

it still might kill the engine though

 

Gaffer did this in his 07 passat derv a few years back, did about a quarter of a tank of petrol then brimmed with diesel, it chugged up the m1 to begin with then was fine after, still going strong today, was a bit lucky I reckon