Wrong Fuel!

[Lee.C]

Oh Dear!

This was the phone call I did not want. Late afternoon my wife called me to say an error had occured earlier today. She had realised that she had filled up with petrol instead of diesel in our 2.7 diesel Grand Cherokee.

She filled up with £20 of diesel then travelled 8 miles to work with no problems. On her way home after starting the car it felt sluggish, travelled about 1 mile then thought check the receipt oh s**t! unleaded. So to shorten the stoy after Green Flag came out the car is now at a garage waiting to be sorted in the morning.

Next problem we are off to France next weekend (Royan). Does anyone think there could be a problem with the car such as fuel pump, injectors etc. Bill so far to be £125 to empty the tank, one dealer said if new pump and injectos are needed it could end up being 3/4 grand.Some Friday 13th eh!

Any sympathy anywhere or advice would be welcome!

 

[Jeff-Pontypridd]

I did the same, but with only a tenner's worth of unleaded. Drove about 10 miles fine, parked, then found starting a bit odd. Then sussed what I did. Had advice from brother in law, who works in the car trade - fill with diesel asap and keep tank topped up whenever possible for the next few weeks. Not sure if this is acceptable, engine-wise, but it certainly worked for me.

 

[Lee.C]

Thanks Jeff will keep it brimfull with diesel from tomorrow!

 

[EmmanuelMuldoon]

Change the Wife??

 

[spj]

Hi Lee,

Diesel engines need diesel to lubricate the moving parts of the fuel system, petrol will wash away any form of lubrication and cause wear quickly as petrol is more like thinners and diesel is more oily. In older engines they had rotary fuel pumps which had [to put it crudely] a set of plungers inside, these were very accurately calibrated and fed injectors which injected when a set pressure was given, the pumps were expensive and injectors cheaper compared to new types. I think the Jeep has an older version of the commonrail 2.7 5 cylinder engine fitted in various Mercedes cars, these have a high pressure fuel pump and the injectors are electronicaly controled through the engine management system, these will cost a fortune if damagaed and the pump should be a bit cheaper than the old type. Driving once the wrong fuel is in will cause wear, it just depends on how much diesel was in to start with as to how bad it will be.

In this situation the garagae should drain the system, change the fuel filter and fill it with diesel, all they can do then is try it and hope for the best.

If this is ever done on any car, the cheapest way out is to not start the engine, even for a few seconds to get of the pumps, this way the contaminated fuel will be confined to the tank, the car will have to be recovered and the tank drained and refilled with the correct fuel, this will take some time but the engine will be fine. Not knowing until later and driving the vehicle may have caused damage.

Good luck with it.

spj.

 

[jacky3]

if you have a diesel car and fill it with petrol by mistake,you can get away with it provided obviously you haven't completely filled it with the wrong fuel.only partially filled then as has been said,as long as you keep it topped up with deisel for about a month it should be fine.unfotunately if it happens the other way round,filling a petrol car with deisel then this is a no no.unfortunately you will have to get the tank emtptied as petrol floats on deisel but deisel sinks to the bottom of petrol

 

[BeemerMal]

Lee.C.....When I first got a diesel, after only ever driving petrol cars, I did exactly the same thing. The advise I got was exactly the same and that was to immediately fill the car with Diesel and to keep the tank as full as possibe thus quickly reducing the actual percentage of petrol in the tank.

Fortunately the following day I was due to go on business trip to South Wales (round trip of 550 miles) so I filled up every 100 miles or so. My boss often wondered why I had provided so many fuel receipts for that trip?....until I finally told him. Took some time to live down though and I'm sure your wife will get a bit of stick for some time to come!

If you are going away next week I suggest you have a couple of runs out solo to ensure all is well before your towing trip to France....have a great holiday.

 

[rob_jax]

Lee,

From your description, and speaking as the UK representative to Brussels on fuel test standards, it's unlikely that too much damage was done - but it does depend on how much fuel was in the tank before it was part filled with petrol.

SPJ is wrong in his assessment of fuels - neither petrol nor diesel are inherently better at lubricating high pressure pumps - diesel has an additive mixed in to provide the necessary lubrication.

In past winters, common (driver) practise was to add between 10% and 20% of petrol to diesel to prevent the diesel fuel waxing in the tank. Nowadays the refinery blends a special winter version of diesel.

If you didn't exceed a 20% dilution, then it's very unlikely that any damage was done - but if the car was almost empty then there is the potential for problems - but the driver stopped pretty soon - again reducing the potential problems.

Robert

 

[spj]

Lee,

From your description, and speaking as the UK representative to Brussels on fuel test standards, it's unlikely that too much damage was done - but it does depend on how much fuel was in the tank before it was part filled with petrol.

SPJ is wrong in his assessment of fuels - neither petrol nor diesel are inherently better at lubricating high pressure pumps - diesel has an additive mixed in to provide the necessary lubrication.

In past winters, common (driver) practise was to add between 10% and 20% of petrol to diesel to prevent the diesel fuel waxing in the tank. Nowadays the refinery blends a special winter version of diesel.

If you didn't exceed a 20% dilution, then it's very unlikely that any damage was done - but if the car was almost empty then there is the potential for problems - but the driver stopped pretty soon - again reducing the potential problems.

Robert

Diesel is better at lubricating in the form we buy it at, nobody fills with diesel and then puts in an additive to enable it to lubricate. If the car was empty and run on nearly neat petrol and driven 10 miles, some wear must occur, try your merc on petrol and see how it goes, I will stick to diesel in mine.

spj

 

[Lee.C]

Thanks guys

Got the car back at lunchtime and it runs just as it did before. Filled it up to the top and we have done about 30 miles today and it seems fine Phew!!! Think I'll keep the wife now but it did cost

 

[Robert_374242026]

I can now live with the ridicule i made of myself about 10 years ago. We had that day just picked up our Mercedes Hymer motorcaravan at a cost of

 

[rob_jax]

Diesel is better at lubricating in the form we buy it at, nobody fills with diesel and then puts in an additive to enable it to lubricate. If the car was empty and run on nearly neat petrol and driven 10 miles, some wear must occur, try your merc on petrol and see how it goes, I will stick to diesel in mine.

spj

Hi,

You missed the point - the refinery add a diesel additive pack which has multiple ingredients - to improve pump and injector lubrication, reduce foaming when dispensed, to reduce oxidation of metal compoents in the fuel system, and (possibly) a cleaner to help remove soot build up on the injectors.

Without this pack, diesel wouldn't perform well enough (in terms of protection) in modern diesel engines.

Robert

 

[colin(bridgend)]

I have also done this at our local Tesco filling station. However as I was filling up I realised what I was doing so stopped, payed for the petrol and then continued to top up with deisel. The Fourtrack ran well with no problems but I made sure for quite a while to keep it topped up so as to dilute the petrol in favour of deisel. As previously stated in olden times in winter petrol was added to deisel in lorries and busses to prevent the deisel from freezing as petrol has a lower freezing point to deisel. PS stop the wife from driving or take her purse and credit cards off her.

 

[WilliamTups]

Last year my business partner topped up his new Jag X-type diesel with