GrollySTI

The latest RAC advert (i think) seems to be warning diesel owners to not start their engine if they accidentaly put unleaded petrol in their cars - the RAC bloke go's on to say "once you start it a garage will charge you £3000 to put it right"

Is this right.........sounds like a huge amount of money to me?!

The Zohan

Does depend on the car but a lot of modern diesels have very hi pressure fuel systems and rely on the diesel to lube the system. This often needs replacing for a start. 'Cats' will also be damaged.

Mungo

My brother filled his 120d with 50 litres of Esso unleaded, but realised before starting it. BMW still charged him £700 for sorting it, so I can well imagine the bills if it had actually been started.

scarey

dad put petrol in his diesel C5 cost him £250 including wasted fuel and he drove about 20 miles before he realised

mart360

My manufacturer, actually recommends petrol being added to the diesel in winter months, to aid starting

roughly 2.5 gals of petrol to a tank of derv

Mart

GrollySTI

Yeah - I'd heard that it was a bad idea but could be sorted relatively easily.

Must vary from car to car.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

If this happened in a Jaguar X-Type. It will cost loads and if you dont put new pumps on and other stuff Jaguar Cancel the warranty on the engine.

Also its now so common that the RAC have put a clause in there new policys that allows them to charge for recovery

Rob D

My brother in law accidently filled up his diesel Mondeo with petrol, of course it conked out about a few miles down the road from the garage however cost him £175 to fix.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Scare tactics IMO.

Yes "potentially" it can cost this. As "potentially" putting 90Ron in a 22b Impreza will kill the engine.

Belt and braces approach is to replace various parts, and that parts such as pumps are damaged through lack of lubrication etc etc.

But this amount of damagge as soon as you turn the key? No, BS, it is almost impossible to cause such failure in such short time. If the car was driven for a length of time in this condition (i.e a small enough amount of petrol in the fuel to allow the engine to run indefintely and not cut out 100yards from the forecourt). Then yes, damage "can" occur..note "can" in reality your looking at reduced component lifespan.

Although, many garages and dealers rub their hand with glee when a customer come in with petrol in their diesel (and vica versa). As it gives them a free reign to change parts ***** nilly on the above excuses.

What "should" be done is a tank drain, flter change and a quick flush though with clean fuel, in addition to a can of diesel fuel system addative and check that the engine is running satisfactory and no further damage has occured (in most cases there isn't an immediate problem). And then tell the owner very sternly that further damage may have occured, and that the life span of various components can and will be reduced, depedning how far they've driven with the contaminated fuel, and be aware there is potential for a future failure of the fuel system caused by this.


IMO water in diesel does as much damage...I have often seen damaged injector tips caused by this. Yet nobody mentions a single thing about it these days