Im an idiot, just put some petrol in the TD4 tan

Oops, I mean TANK, anyway,

Hey guys, now dont take the micky out of me too much but I just put £11 worth of petrol into the TD4 before I realised and stopped the pump.

The car already had 1/4 tank of diesel in it when I put the petrol in (I have been using a std petrol car for the last few weeks, lame excuse I know, but....) So its about 10.5 litres of petrol. I filled up with diesel and hoped that the petrol would be diluted enough. Just did about 40 miles and the car seems fine.

Whats your thorghts guys? Have I got away with it this time or should I expect problems very soon? Boxing day I have to drive up to Blackpool to see family and only have the Freelander, dont want to break down on the way.

Look forward to your responses

Andy

shouldn't be a problem - lorry drivers put some petrol in their derv in cold weather to stop it waxing.
top up with doozel again a couple of times when you get down to 3/4.

quids,tank size and liters. it would help if yer could stick to one measurment..

you could probably run at 20% petrol for a short spell wiff no bad effects. just keep topping it up everyday so you decrease the %age of petrol in the quickest time

You will be OK, but don't make a habit of it!

In very hot weather (we wish!) petrol in diesel can sometimes be a problem because it may "boil" in parts of a fuel injection system causing problems.

CharlesY

Thanks guys.

Well it certainly isnt hot at the moment so boiling shouldnt be an issue.

I didnt think it was going to be too much of a problem but boy are there some scare storys on the net. Suggesting that whole fuel systems needing replacement, replacement of high pressure pumps, rapid wear out of case hardening. That just starts to sound like people making a quick buck.

Anyway, I will do a bit more running around and then top up again with diesel and maybe once again down the motorway on boxing day.

Thanks for making me feel a little better.

Andy

rapid wear out of case hardening.....ha ha ha ha.........................



ho ho ho ..................

thats funny

rainady said:

Thanks guys.

Well it certainly isnt hot at the moment so boiling shouldnt be an issue.

I didnt think it was going to be too much of a problem but boy are there some scare storys on the net. Suggesting that whole fuel systems needing replacement, replacement of high pressure pumps, rapid wear out of case hardening. That just starts to sound like people making a quick buck.

Anyway, I will do a bit more running around and then top up again with diesel and maybe once again down the motorway on boxing day.

Thanks for making me feel a little better.

Andy

Click to expand...

Interestingly, in engines with real fuel injection pumps, putting petrol in need not be a disaster. The worst case is putting petrol into a nearly empty diesel tank. The immediate solution is to add some engine oil. For every gallon of petrol put in, tip in a quarter of a gallon of the cheapest engine oil you can get, monograde 30 being ideal.

A really good fuel for such engines is kerosene mixed with SAE 30 engine oil.
One pint of oil to a gallon of kerosene .... or a bit more oil if you must.

The Excise people won't approve for road use

Great for off-road and farm use, if you run out of gas-oil / red diesel

CharlesY

take it for long runs to get rid of the petrol as soon as possible, and keep filling back up with diesel. the longer the petrol is in the system, the quicker it can attack sensitive components.

Just out of interest, I read in the paper that the AA now offer a new service where they will turn up at the garage you filled up with the wrong fuel, and as long as you haven't started the vehicle, they'll empty the tank there and then, then you can refill with the correct fuel. Think it was about £150.

Optimus Prime said:

take it for long runs to get rid of the petrol as soon as possible, and keep filling back up with diesel. the longer the petrol is in the system, the quicker it can attack sensitive components.

Just out of interest, I read in the paper that the AA now offer a new service where they will turn up at the garage you filled up with the wrong fuel, and as long as you haven't started the vehicle, they'll empty the tank there and then, then you can refill with the correct fuel. Think it was about £150.

Click to expand...

senstive components??? which would these be?

the aa are not authorised to remove a flamable liquid on a garage forecourt. they will turn up wherever you are and take you to the nearest authorised fuel drain garage. the average cost forthe service is about 50 quid plus a tenners worth of fuel. but you also lose the fuel you put in by mistake.

yella said:

the aa are not authorised to remove a flamable liquid on a garage forecourt. you also lose the fuel you put in by mistake.

Click to expand...

How many guesses who gets the fuel they take out?

CharlesY

slob said:

rapid wear out of case hardening.....ha ha ha ha.........................



ho ho ho ..................

thats funny

Click to expand...

This is where you lot think us dealers are taking the **** and having one over on the customer.

Sure, a small amount of petrol wont do it any harm if its diluted enough, but fill it up with petrol and drive it till it stops will **** it big time.

I've seen an L322 range rover with a ****ed engine because the owner filled with petrol and drove it till it stopped. Deisel is the only lubricant for the high pressure pump on common rail engines, petrol does not lubricate.

With the L322 that came into us, the high pressure pump seized, snapped the timing chain, pistons hit the valves and broke both cams. That is about as bad as it can get so don't go off thinking we are talking bollocks when we say it can damage it. I've seen first hand the damage it can do.

A common rail engine will run quite well on petrol because of the high fuel pressures used. An old L series wont, as soon as enough petrol gets into the injector pump, it'll stop so no damage.

like yer say but i think the case in question was doosul with some petrol in it not as you describe with a whole tank worth getting passed through the pump.
so to tell the bloke he needs this that and the other replaced is bollocks. some petrol going through int gonna kill it

slob said:

some petrol going through int gonna kill it

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No it won't and if the dealer in question followed the bulliten, they shouldn't have told him that. That wasn't my point though, my point was that nearly everyone doesn't believe us when we say it can cause serious damage, they just walk off calling us ****ers and say "well my old 300tdi was fine."

Its a bit like the **** that had his defender td5 towed into us with a no go fault, fuel pump was not working. i dropped the tank out, took out the pump and found it had half a tank of red and 4 inches of sediment in the bottom, the fuel was really thick and oily too, **** knows what it was for.
I told the owner that this aint gonna be warranty cos you aint supposed to run it on this crap, he said, "well I run my dumpers on it and it's ok"

Your ****ing dumpers aint got td5 engines with fine tollerances.

people just don't get it.

No dealer said anything to me so Im not accusing a dealer of pulling a fast one.

The car has now had about two tanks through it and the car doesnt seem to have been affected.

But now every time I pull up at a petrol station with the family in the car, I get a chorus of 'put diesel in it dad'. Guess its a cross I have to bear.

It isn't so much the problem that it was a fuel other than diesel.
The problem is that petrol has virtually ZERO lubrication properties, and some would say it is worse than zero because petrol washes away whatever lube oil was present pretty damned quick. Whatever parts rely on diesel for their lube could be wrecked in no time flat by starting up and running on petrol

But, MIXED with derv, there should be enough oilyness to keep it safe.

If you filled a near empty diesel tank with petrol, as my neighbour did two years ago in his VW diesel, then even just starting her up might damage it. In his case he drove away, and the engine stopped after about 5 miles. I towed it back here.

I drained his tank of as much petrol as I could get out, threw in two litres of engine oil and 10 litres of diesel, and turned the IGN key on for ten seconds about 20 times to run the fuel into the common rail before I tried firing it up.

It took a bit of starting, but once it fired up it was immediately fine, and has been perfect ever since.

Not to be recommended!

CharlesY

slob said:

senstive components??? which would these be?

Click to expand...

well apart from the fact that every component seems to be sensitive to anything, I was thinking mainly of rubber seals / pipes / hoses which rely on the higher viscosity and lubrication qualities of diesel

Optimus Prime said:

well apart from the fact that every component seems to be sensitive to anything, I was thinking mainly of rubber seals / pipes / hoses which rely on the higher viscosity and lubrication qualities of diesel

Click to expand...

These pipes, seals and hoses can cope with diesel but not petrol?

Anyway I better go and lubricate my hoses...

discomania said:

Anyway I better go and lubricate my hoses...

Click to expand...

You should keep that sort of comment private.

CharlesY