Putting Unleaded into a Diesel

eazi

eazi

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What a feckin Muppet.

I was rushing today and grabbed the wrong nossle by mistake. I drove out of the forecourt and realised my mistake.

Rang Green Flag straight away and they wanted £175 plus VAT. Insisted on my free recovery and then did a net search and ring around.

All sorted for £150.

Bloody expensive 10 litres of Diesel that :(
 
Should have done it your self man, Prob would have been a bolt on the bottom of the tank lol! Just done it over a drain!



(Im Jokeing by the way lol), Liters of petrol, Was it on empty if so you would have probbley been ok if you just fulled the tank with desial!
 
Yep, I was on fumes. I was going to syphon out the petrol and top up and try my luck but the Internet research was fightening.

Decided to go with the paid (guaranteed) job with a fuel line flush, new filters, injector check etc.

From research best case was a couple of hundred, worst case new engine, fuel pump and injectors.

In the end, £150 for peace of mind seemed OK :)
 
My missis put £20 of unleaded in our diesel car,ran it till it cut out(approx 2 miles)luckily right outside the house!
Wouldn't take much notice of what's on the t'interweb though,more scare mongering if anything,all I did was drain it and put diesel in.It's been fine ever since(well over 2yrs)
All it cost me was the price of the diesel and I put the petrol/diesel mixture in a hire car we had at the time!
 
We got our first ever diesel car in Feb this year, 1 months after owning it the wife put £20 unleaded into it, she realised as she was replacing the pump nozzle and wen to the the payment kiosk and told them. The lady behind the desk told her to put at least another £10 of diesel in the tank and it would be ok.

So she did........and it never skipped a beat!

So that was a 2:1 ratio of unleaded to diesel and the car ran perfect and has never gave us any problems :)

I think diesel engine are solid as fook, much more hardy that the petrol equivalent, god help anyone putting £20 of diesel into their unleaded engine. :)
 
If you are running purely on petrol there could be issues

Petrol will strip your diesel engine of the lubricant used to keep it ticking over and cause metal components to grate against each other and disintegrate.

This runs the risk of damaging the fuel pump and fuel-injection systems, or wrecking an engine completely if used for a significant amount of time.

To make matters worse pre-ignition systems start fuel pumps in new diesel models when car doors are unlocked. This cuts out the time it takes for new diesel engines to warm up, but means that diesel engines can be ruined by petrol by simply unlocking doors.

The fuel pump and injection systems and filters will likely need to be replaced on new models, while an entire engine could be wrecked beyond repair if it has been run for long enough. Regardless of the extent of the damage, the repair bill could potentially run into thousands of pounds.

Avoiding turning the engine over or stopping as soon as possible is vital to prevent more damage to the engine in these circumstances. A fuel-tank drain could be sufficient in such cases to prevent damage.
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Diesel engines are usually very tough but modern high pressure diesels can be finky at times. As somebody mention if the ratio is not to bad then usually not a huge problem but don't quote me on this.
 
Pure petrol isnt a good idea, because desial acts as a lubcrient to the cyenders in the engine as well, But because you where on fumes, if you had toped it up with deisal it would have been fine


I can understand you not wanting to take the risk though!
 
Yes unleaded in diesel is ok' viser versa' big problems' I know taxi drivers who regulary add £3 of unleaded to there diesel to flush the pipes clean.
 
Because I was nearly empty of Diesal, it ran on near pure petrol for about 2 minutes before I realised.

More than happy with the 'repair' as he replaced the filters etc.

A bit of reading in a number of reputable places I was lucky that I stopped. Neat Petrol can do serious damage to a number of engine components, not lease the common rail injectors.

In a worst case it could be cheaper to replace rather than repair.....
 
featherlight said:
Yes unleaded in diesel is ok' viser versa' big problems' I know taxi drivers who regulary add £3 of unleaded to there diesel to flush the pipes clean.
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It is the other way about



Desial in a petrol engine wont do much damage - It simply wont run right if at all, and it may block the filters.


Petrol in a desial engine is more catrostropic. As the guy above says!


All though, you might find that 2 mins down the road it was still using the fule in the injectors and pipes and it didnt even use any petrol!
 
i used to have a diesel car and every couple of months or so i put £5 of petrol in the tank when filling up with diesel, the petrol is the best cleaner u can get for the fuel lines, injectors etc
 
Joe1989 said:
Desial in a petrol engine wont do much damage - It simply wont run right if at all, and it may block the filters.
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Diesel in a petrol engine will almost certainly destroy the catalytic converter which will cause a MOT failure. Not cheap to replace.
 
Aye well, i forgot about that


Its hardly the same as destory an engine now though so it - You knew what i ment the damage on a petrol engine usually isnt as sevear as a desiel engine with the wrong fule.
 
I did this once, put about 15 litres in the tank and then realised what I did, I just filled the tank full of diesel and went on a very long drive and kept topping up with diesel and added diesel additive (redex), been running its been 2 years now.... (my car is a volvo v70 d5) ........
 
I agree, would have got away with this if the tank wasn't empty when I did it.

I only drove for 2 minutes but that was enough to stop it dead the first time the revs dropped.

Topping up with Diesel wouldn't have helped as the injectors/ fuel pump / lines / filters were all full of petrol.

I'm afraid that a drain / clean / and bleed through was the only answer :(

Still could have been MUCH worse
 
Joe1989 said:
It is the other way about

Desial in a petrol engine wont do much damage - It simply wont run right if at all, and it may block the filters.

Petrol in a desial engine is more catrostropic. As the guy above says!
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I'd still rather put unleaded into a diesel than diesel into a petrol, as long as it's not pure petrol you're burning then you're more likely to be able to continue your journey - unlike if you added diesel to a petrol car.
 
witchy said:
I'd still rather put unleaded into a diesel than diesel into a petrol, as long as it's not pure petrol you're burning then you're more likely to be able to continue your journey - unlike if you added diesel to a petrol car.
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Cool - Dosnt stop the facts though does it? I'd rather break down with a fule filter to change and fill it back up with petrol


Than change the injectiors, fulepump seals, fule line seals, and possabley the engine due to the lack of lubrication the cylenders have recived.

and FYI Petrol cars are more likey to run badly than just chuck it :thumbright:
 
I did this in a company van once - stuck a tenner of unleaded in before i had realised my mistake - topped it up with diesel and it was fine!! My biggest problem was when I went in to pay and my company card would only cover diesel and I didnt have any cash or my own card with me!! Had to ring the boss and get him to pay over the phone with his credit card!! He wasnt best pleased that I had put petrol in hs shiny new van in the first place let alone getting lumbered giving his credit card details to the nice nigerian chap at my local BP!!
 
Hi

Done this a fair few times on my diesal espace. Worst one was when I put nearly £40 of unleaded and 2/3 minutes down a duel carraigeway smoking so much couldnt see rear traffic and was crawling at 5mph managed to get onto a parking bay on side. Rang a friend up who went backward and forwards to the petrol station with a £2 fuel can till I managed to get about £18/£20 of diesal which started the car. Tried to drive to the petrol station still smoking away but it cut out again 100 yards from station left it a while started again and managed to top the tank and it was fine after that no probs.

Mechanic friend of mine told me pre 2000 diesal engines as long as ratio is 2/1its fine but engines after 2000 is a different ball game.

Regards
 
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