CLSII

A friend has just telephoned to say his car has broken down after filling it with petrol. He has a Diesel Vectra, I'm not sure which model. Unfortunately he managed to drive it about 15 miles 8( before it conked out.

What sort of bill is he looking at?

Told him to book into a Hotel as his wife might kill him as the car is only a month old

Tidgy

I have heard that once drained and refilled with petrol newer vauxhall engine will clean itself. I may be wrong but its worth asking the question to see if it can save him some cash.
Suposedly will run like a bag of s^$t for a couple of tanks but should then be ok.

JonathanC

I have seen a diesel engine run on petrol, the car went like s**t of a shovel for about 100 yds then went bang in a major way, to such an extent that bits of engine dented the bonnet!

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but, unless he is really lucky, its new engine time. Hope I'm wrong though

sh4un

My mum put petrol in her diesel land rover discovery, all they did was drain the fuel off and filled it up with diesel, it ran a bit rough for a bit , but nothing broken

Edcase

diesel into a petrol is not always terminal, petrol into a diesel however usually is

CLSII

So in order of replies it's YAAAAY ....ooooooohhhhh...... YAAAAY

Could he drive for 15 miles and not damage the engine? How he didn't notice I'll never know.

How much would a new engine be roughly?

Apparently the car is broken down awaiting the AA

CLSII

Edcase, sorry missed your reply...it sounds pretty terminal

How much would a new engine be, fitted?

Or are there any crumbs of comfort for him?

Tidgy

gonna be pricey mate, try giving courtenay a ring they seems to be one of the cheapest.

brickboy

Could be expensive, the problem is that the latest common-rail and PD diesels use electric fuel pumps which run at very high pressures and rely on the lubricity of diesel to keep them running smooth. Without the lubricity the pumps can be damaged beyond repair .... and replacement is several hundred quid, if not a thousand plus.

Only thing to do really is drain the tank and lines, refill and see what happens. I don't think it's possible to assess the damage as the pumps, fuel rails and injectors can't really be inspected ....

carl

I guess it depends on how much diesel was in the tank when it was filled with petrol.

russell hayward

Someone I know put £10 unleaded in a diesel Fabia Rs the other day.

Told them to fill it up wth diesel, which they did.

Cranked it over a few times, then it fired, and was absolutely fine.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Did the same to my van, put in petrol then relised what i done, then put diesel in afterwards, drove round slowly until i needed to fill up again. The van still running strong.

Cider boy

My brother did this to his wifes Clio (it's ok, only a comapny car ), he filled it with petrol (was a diesel car!) and off we went steaming down the motorway.

It was only after it started missing a bit that he noticed the James Bond style smokescreen we were leaving behind us.........

Managed to keep going at a slower pace (no smokescreen ) and pulled in at the next services where the car promptly died.

Phoned the RACC (living in Spain at the time) and they came to tow the car away to car heaven (so I thought after the noises & smoke it had just been forced to make for the last 20ks). Garage phone up the next day, they had to drain fuel system and put new filters in and it was up and running again!

It ran like a dream, so he took it rallying through the dust tracks in the local mountains to celebrate

Hopefully your mate shouldn't have too much to worry about!

Matt

LG John

Yeah, he'll probably not make that mistake again

JoeyDeacon

My dad works at a Land Rover dealership and apparently this happens all the time. The fix is to replace all the fuel tank, fuel lines, fuel pump etc. etc.

Total bill = £7000

Thats one expensive mistake!

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

My sisters ex put a tenner of petrol into her old diesel 306 so I got her to fill it to the top with diesel and drive it. I changed the fuel filter and it ran fine afterwards. The bill to get a garage to drain the tank will be about £300 but if he can do it himself and fill it with diesel then all should be fine

Clett

Peugeot used to state in their diesel owners manuals that you should add 25% petrol during the winter months. AutoExpress also recently filled up a Polo diesel with petrol by accident and all it took was a tank drain to fix it.

The other way round is the complete disaster - diesel in petrol fuel lines will clog everything up and I've heard of cars not running right ever since. Petrol in a diesel system is a different story as it just makes it a bit thinner, so the only real issue is lubricity - though the biodiesel lot often run their vehicles with high percentage petrol to keep things flowing nicely, especially when using straight vegetable oil.

Reffro

As someone has mentioned, petrol into a new generation common-rail diesel is a disaster. Old tech diesels are much more resillient, but if this Vectra is as new as said, its probably a 1.9 CDTi, so you're going to be looking at replacing the whole fuel system including injectors, so I'd think you'll be lucky to see any change out of £2,000.

Clett

From Daily Express 11/09/04 :-

BP OFFERING PAYOUTS FOR DRIVERS WHO FILL UP WITH THE WRONG TYPE OF PETROL
BP is to offer compensation to drivers who wreck their cars by filling up with the wrong type of fuel at its pumps. The move, which could cost the company tens of thousands of pounds, means motorists who accidentally put unleaded petrol into diesel cars, or vice versa, will be able to claim for the full cost of damage done to their engine. The company announced the unprecedented step after scores of drivers became confused by Ultimate, the firm's latest range of unleaded fuel.

screechmr2

my dad put petrol into his diesel passat, it ran okay for a few miles then refused to start. all that happened was the petrol was drained out and diesel put in, not had any adverse side effects at all

CLSII

~Thanks very much for all the replies..the juries out at the moment and his car in the garage....fingers crossed

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

As mentioned Petrol in diesels ruin injector pumps.

It's not running on the fuel as such, but it being corrosive and not lubricating it will cause damage to the fueling system. It maybe be fine, but the overall lifespan before the pump/metering unit needs rebuilding/replacing maybe reduced. The injectors maybe burnt out too.

Best thing to do with any petrol in diesel scienario - if you value your car and future expenses, is not to drive it, tow to the nearest garage and drain all the fuel, new filter and a full tank of fresh diesel.

Any damage will come apparent afterwards, although may take over a year to surface.

Flat 4x4

Sweeping generalisation time.

- If you've filled up your modern <high pressure> diesel with unleaded then driven it for several miles until it conks, it might cost you a fortune (eg.£6000 on a CDi Merc)

- If you've put a small amount unleaded in, realised straight away and filled right up with diesel, you may well get away with it (but the high speed pump needs diesel for lubrication so it 'may' go).

The Zohan

'Tis a common thing, i think the AA+RAC get called out to do something in the region of 6000 a year (heard this at a Jaguar X-Type diesel training seminar) Jaguar are fitting a light sensing box which announces " this vehicle runs on Diesel" in the fuel filler area so it reminds it users when the fuel filler flap is opened.

Anyway;
Modern Diesels run very, very high pressures in the fuel system and rely on the Deisel fuel to lubricate the pump, etc Without the Deisel they tend to wear out in no time or go bang.

It will depend on to a certain extent how much desel was left in the tank - Petrol/Diesel mixture.

Cannot say if it will be OK only time will tell. Jag quote something like £ 3k+ to sort an X-type which ahs be incorrectly filled and run.

CustomScoobyIOM

A mate filled up with £10 worth of diesel. Then realsied and put petrol in the scoob. Started driving and then rang me. Just told him every service station he saw, fill with Optimax in it.

Car runs as good as ever!

THE M25 FLYER

As a rule of thumb its better to fill a petrol engined vehicle with diesel than the other way round (less chance of serious damage).
As already mentioned later high pressure diesel systems need the qualities of diesel to act as a lubricant for the fuel pump and injectors even more so than the earlier systems.
Driving just a few feet can cause failure of the above parts with repair bills of 2k upwards,the earlier systems normally get away with a drain out and a fresh filter.
Contractors/garages in this area normally charge around £130 during working hours for a drain out and £10 of fresh fuel.
RAC policy is that any diesel post 1998 should be towed to the main dealer only due to likely problems with futher fuel system damage.
I spoke to a ford dealer recently who said a diesel focus i had towed in (53reg),would cost approx £800 to fix on the cheap (loosing any manufacturers remaining warranty) or over £2000 for a gauranteed repair,i dont know weather you could claim on your insurance as its down to pilot error!!

I did once attend a yamaha R1 about 1/2 mile from clackett lane services on the M25 which had been filled with diesel (rider was tired having having just come back from a track day in holland) we took the tank off and emptied it,drained all 4 carbs filled it with petrol and it restarted easily,luckily it was dark as it kicked out a bit of smoke as it regained warp speed up the middle lane!!!

Mark (RAC patrol)

prana

why not siphon it out, replace your fuel filter and clean your sparkies ? Refill with petrol and see if she will still run ?

Matthew_Fitzgerald_UK

get a new engine