Petrol in Diesel tank, Oh I've messed up!

[Dustydog]

Fortunately I only put 10 litres into a 90 litre tank so fingers crossed.
Why isn't there a system of chip readers available to stop putting the wrong fuel in the wrong tank?

If the pump nozzle had a chip that was petrol, and vice versa for diesel. My car's tank filler being diesel would have a chip reader and then scream at me that I'm using the wrong fuel.
My dogs are chipped and all the country's vets have the reader wands.
Surely the motor manufacturers and Oil barons could make such a scheme work? I don't think you get sparks from chips??

 

[Oldsalt49]

Oh dear Dusty, that sounds like a serious senior moment. 10 litres may be ok for your tank size., a fill to the brim with the correct fuel should dilute it enough I would have thought. We used to add petrol to diesel in the old days during the winter.

 

[AdifferentJim]

I did it at my first stop in France last year. Put about 12 Euros worth in before I noticed. I filled the tank upto the max and hoped for the best. Fortunately it ran ok but I stopped another couple of times on my journey just to keep topping it up and diluting the mix.

Apparently on my wife's Fiesta the design of the filler nozzel will distinguish between diesel and petrol pumps making it impossible to put in the wrong fuel. Never actually tried it though.

 

[ValA.]

I always thought that car manufacturers and pump manufacturers should use a different shaped inlet to the tank and the same shape pump nozzle - say round for petrol and narrower oval for diesel - then you couldn't even get the hose in the hole! I suppose it was different in the 'old days' when pumps were always separate, but these days you hear of so many people doing it.
I must admit I've nearly done it - we have a diesel car and a petrol one, and it's so easy to pick up the wrong one.
You're right, in this day and age, surely it would be an easy modification (of whatever sort) to prevent it happening.

 

[DeliDave_]

Ive done it as well and just diluted it,dont think 10 litres should do any harm,depends how recent the engine design is,common rails are more fussy but I got away with it,have put cooking oil in my old Mitsubishi with no probs.

 

[Bigfoot]

Many service stations now sell little electrical gadgets which stick inside the filler cover and will remind you which fuel to use.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Bigfoot,

Are you sure about that?

I can't recall seeing them, and I certainly would be very circumspect about putting any electrical or electronic gadget near a fuel filler, the vapours from petrol would be highly flammable at that point.

 

[Bigfoot]

Yes, they're at my local garage and Halfords, check this link
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_557009_langId_-1_categoryId_165619

Regards

 

[Dustydog]

Hello Bigfoot,

Are you sure about that?

I can't recall seeing them, and I certainly would be very circumspect about putting any electrical or electronic gadget near a fuel filler, the vapours from petrol would be highly flammable at that point.

Prof John
Presumably Bigfoot's device will be safe in a diesel? The vapours aren't volatile like petrol?? I'm not sure but I like the idea.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I remember reading that it was common practice to put some petrol in the diesel tank in the early days and Google brought up this
"I gather HGV drivers, well the clever ones apparently, used to add some petrol to the diesel in winter before the advent of the anti waxing diesel fuel ".

 

[Soozeeg]

If I were you, DD, I'd write in big letters (big enough for you to see them without your glasses!!) the word DIESEL over the top of your fuel filler point. Use a colour at the opposite end of the spectrum to whatever colour your car is (white paint for a black car, e.g.). And make the letters so big that everyone else can see them and laugh because they know what you've done, and so the embarrassment factor will also help you to remember which fuel to put in!! How's that?

 

[LMH]

My husband did that! He put £50 worth of petrol in our diesel car. Drove it home one mile, I drove it two miles and it conked out. Had to get the RAC out to drain it off. Cost about £180.

Lisa

 

[MichaelE]

Lisa you were lucky as petrol will ruin a diesel pump ,he should have replaced the filter as well
The size of fuel nozzles relates to unleaded and the old 4 star ,the idea was that you could put a 4 star nozzle in a unleaded car, its a shame the diesel nozzle is the same size as the old 4 star nozzle unless it is a high speed diesel.
This doesnt stop you being able to put an unleaded nozzle in a diesel car though.
Their is a device that fits on the filler neck and will prevent this,i believe LR fit as std.

The important thing is not to drive the car on a full tank of petrol ,diluted only time will time

 

[Lutz]

I remember reading that it was common practice to put some petrol in the diesel tank in the early days and Google brought up this
"I gather HGV drivers, well the clever ones apparently, used to add some petrol to the diesel in winter before the advent of the anti waxing diesel fuel ".

Trouble is, that was, as you say, in the early days, when diesel engines didn't take offence at a bit of contanimated fuel. Unfortunately, engines today get nervous very quickly if they don't get served their staple diet. I went away for a weekend hiking with a group recently and one of the other cars was inadvertently topped up with petrol when we all stopped for fuel and the chap driving didn't even realise his mistake until the car packed up about 10 minutes down the autobahn. Although the ADAC towed him to the nearest garage and set him up with a rental car to get home, he was faced with quite a considerable bill later, not only to empty the tank and clear the fuel lines, but also the filter had to be replaced as well. He was lucky that it didn't do more damage.

 

[Steve L]

Doh! Dusty.
I's so easily done. I've been fighting automation mode since I recently moved from 33 years of petrol cars to diesel.
I used to have diesel work vehicles and did once fill my petrol Espace to the brim with diesel. Then spent the next 2 hours switching on and off the ignition to pump out the tank as it was an anti syphon type.
Then the funnyest time was when my brother-in-law gave me 10 gallons of petrol that had been in a diesel motorhome. He told me it had less than 5% diesel in it. So I put the whole 10 gallons into my petrol 21 savanna estate. The car ran fine all week and appeared to be normal. I filled it up with petrol at the end of the week and on the way home I accelerated hard in third gear to overtake a lorry. That was when I found out where the diesel had gone!
It had collected in the cat and only vaporised when I got to 60 in third. The affect was a "james bond smoke sceeeen" out of the exhaust so thick the lorry I over took had to put his headlights on. Not long after I part ex'd the car for my second espace.

Take heart Dusty, you ain't the first and most certainly won't be the last.

Atb Steve.
BTW, your car should run fine just keep filling her to the brim with diesel twice as frequently to dilute the petrol down. It'll clean the injectors out.

 

[Dustydog]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll take a chance and keep topping with diesel for the next few weeks to dilute the mixture down to almost pure diesel.
I feel such a stupid dog I didn't have the courage to tell SWMBO.

 

[littlebasher]

What car is it, and how old?

Some of the newer CR diesels will tollerate NO petrol - causes permanent damage to the high pressure pump and injectors. Plus, if its under warranty and you subsequently claim for a failure caused by the use of petrol - they'll not honour it.

My dad has a new Accord diesel and mistakenly put petrol in it (which is wierd as he's been driving diesel cars for a decade!)..He only popped in £15 worth, it fried the fuel pump within 15 minutes..Lucky he was covered for misfuelling on his insurance - Honda charged a total of £3500 to fix it.

 

[OmOnWeelz]

Having done the same to a Merc it cost me a set of injectors that cost a fortune but the pump was ok!
Petrol sincks to the bottom of the tank and diesel (oil) floats on top.
When you start up the engine can get fed with near neat petrol and cause expensive damage that may not show for some period of time. My Mercs injectors ahd to be changed about three or four months after putting petrol in.
Sorry, you should have the tank drained at least and refill with petrol free diesel.
My friends Diesel BMW has a mechanical flap just inside the filler. A narrow petrol pump nozzle will not open the flap only a wide diesel nozzle will open it.
If BMW can do it why can't others?

 

[Tango]

I know its too late now but most new Fords come with capless refuelling using what they call Ford Easy Fuel. This means no dirty fuel caps to touch and also prevents accidentally filling up with the wrong fuel.

 

[Dustydog]

My local garage is doing a full drain down and filter change tomorrow.

Better safe than sorry. It's a 2005 Kia Sorento 2.5 CRDI 80k on the clock.

 

[OmOnWeelz]

VERY WISE DD

 

[RogerB]

My little darling put petrol in our BMW 525d and it actually drove but like a pig.Main stealers charged £500 to drain and change all necessary parts!Happy days.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I've got that on the Kuga
Its quite convenient but having a few friends who have done the petrol in diesel car thing and now following the recent Morrisons petrol in diesel pump fiasco I always pause and check what's on the pump after putting the nozzle in and have a sniff to see if it smells like petrol afer the first click start on the pump
No doubt senior moments could still strike

The famous David Duffield did this on the Tour de France one year and so we were spared his commentry one day