P38A Ooops Petrol in my diesel

I know I'm not the only one who has put the wrong fuel in there wagon, but i maybe the only one to own up to it.

Yesterday whilst daydreaming at the gas station i managed to pump 20 litres of petrol in to my diesel rangey.
Oblivious, i drove off and 10km down the road wondered what was happening when there was no response from the throttle. After a while, the penny dropped and when examining my receipt i realised the **** i was in.
I really don't want to remove the fuel tank whilst crawling around on the floor at home, so I'm hoping that it is possible to energise the in tank fuel pump and pump it out. Can it be done? if so, how? Another option may be to get an old electric fuel pump and hook it inline after the fuel filter and pump it out that way. Anybody any ideas?

You can pump it out using an electric pump, the main issue is that petrol destroys a diesel fuel pump and you may find that your fuel pump packs up further down the line. I have also seen the fuel line disconnected after the pump and the fuel pumped out that way.
The AA also do a mobile fuel drain service if you are a member.

Disconnect fuel line at filter put in a suitable container. Jump a positive supply to pin 5 of relay 12. The one that is opposite in orientation to the other three until container is full. Keep filling and emptying container may take a while but can be done.

is there not a tank drain plug ?

Still the most common cause of breakdown.
AA charge an arm and both legs - but not sure they cover NZ. They sure as hell don't cover rural Scotland!
Big problem with doing it yourself is storage/disposing of the contaminated fuel afterwards.
How much diesel was in the tank before you added the petrol?

ukadamwest said:

is there not a tank drain plug ?

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No.

Going on from what Mick Guilbert said. You could take out the rear wheel arch liner (6 removable plastic pop up rivets) to access to the tank via the connection hose between the filler tube and tank. That way you can bypass the anti syphon device and drain the tank. Hardest bit would be loosening the hose from the tank fitting.

ITP will pump at around 180ml in 10 seconds so about a litre a minute!

Beneagles said:

Still the most common cause of breakdown.
AA charge an arm and both legs - but not sure they cover NZ. They sure as hell don't cover rural Scotland!
Big problem with doing it yourself is storage/disposing of the contaminated fuel afterwards.
How much diesel was in the tank before you added the petrol?

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Doesn't matter. A pint of petrol in a full tank to stop waxing in winter is one thing, twenty litres is another.

ukadamwest said:

is there not a tank drain plug ?

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wammers said:

No.

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You could do what some of the thieving little pikeys do in my area and make 1 via a drill !

wammers said:

Doesn't matter. A pint of petrol in a full tank to stop waxing in winter is one thing, twenty litres is another.

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Yes..I know...we run up to 10% petrol over the winter but obviously if it has already caused trouble the mix is too high. Was thinking more of the problem of disposal. The mix could be added back into the tank on a 10% basis to use it up.

Why not just fill up the rest of the tank with diesel?

stevef1964 said:

Why not just fill up the rest of the tank with diesel?

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Mix ratio is wrong, won't do much good.

stevef1964 said:

Why not just fill up the rest of the tank with diesel?

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Good idea, now all he has to do is find a 200 litre tank.

I thought petrol in diesel wasn't the end of the world as it will still compress, death if its the other way round as diesel won't spark easily, or are modern diesels too fussy?

I have done it before and just kept topping it up with diesel till running returned to normal

That will work as long as the petrol:diesel ratio isn't too high - but it sounds as if this is mainly petrol. An engine may keep running on a higher mix, but once stopped will not restart - usually when you find out what you have done.
A certain car-hire company based at Edinburgh airport has been in the habit of topping up their cars with petrol recently - keeps me in a job!

honolulujoe said:

I thought petrol in diesel wasn't the end of the world as it will still compress, death if its the other way round as diesel won't spark easily, or are modern diesels too fussy?

I have done it before and just kept topping it up with diesel till running returned to normal

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Fine with an old thing. Modern engines misfuelling confuses the hell out of the sensors that sense fuel quality and flow, I think.

Diesel in petrol will usually fire if the mix isn't too great but it will smoke like a VW on test. (they don't really have high emissions honest guv)

Obviously some people do not understand what octane rating is all about. Or what petrol does to the internals of an injection pump.