Petrol in a Diesel tank

[Hom3r]

Yep thats what my dad did he was filling up his car, and he realised that he was filling up with unleaded (£7s worth) he paid for it, filled up with diesel £35, he spoke to a lorry drive who said it'll be ok. then hes driven home.

He ha a K reg Mitsubushi Pajero.

[WHISTLED]

A dead one shortly!

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Yep thats what my dad did he was filling up his car, and he realised that he was filling up with unleaded (£7s worth) he paid for it, filled up with diesel £35, he spoke to a lorry drive who said it'll be ok. then hes driven home.

He ha a K reg Mitsubushi Pajero.

Would have been better to have brimmed his tank to dilute the petrol more but it should be OK.

[Hom3r]

Googling gives mixed results.

some say £k's to fix, other say it should be ok.

as its an older engine it ma hopefully ok

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Googling gives mixed results.

some say £k's to fix, other say it should be ok.

as its an older engine it ma hopefully ok

Its almost a 1 to 7 mix in your favour excluding what was already in the tank.

[Charlie_Bubble]

I would pop to halfords in another car and get some diesel fuel additives. The kind that are supposed to boost the diesel for performance, put some of that in the tank and then get the tank completely filled up with diesel. Don't drive it at high speeds or accelerate quickly until you've put another tankful in. Hopefully this should stop any permanent damage to the engine. It's a good job he didn't fill it up with unleaded and then start it or he could have done some serious damage and I'm not sure if it would be covered by his insurance.

[Kymmy]

As already mentioned best to fill up some more and dilute it down as much as possible otherwise the engine could run hot.

You'll probably find it's actually done the fuels pipes some good and probably the only damage if it has done any is to overheat the injectors and glow-plugs. The only other damage it would have done is to burn a hole on the piston but you'd know instantly by the lack of power and the amount of white smoke if that happened.

Do not though add any additives as the petrol would have already thinned down the diesel which additives tend to do anyway...

Kymmy

[punky]

A mate of mine said he did it once. It should be OK. He added a bit of engine oil into it which he said helps the diesel engine accept the petrol blend.

[Hom3r]

Reading google people have done this and had no problems.

some even put a 25% petrol / 75% diesel in winter.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I was told by an AA mechanic, that providing you don't switch the engine on, and it is taken out you will be fine, but switch the engine on, and by god, you will know it, a mate of mine got sacked for doing that in a car, that had just 10 miles on the clock.

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I was told by an AA mechanic, that providing you don't switch the engine on, and it is taken out you will be fine, but switch the engine on, and by god, you will know it, a mate of mine got sacked for doing that in a car, that had just 10 miles on the clock.

Trying to run a diesel engine on mainly petrol & a little diesel won't work, trying to run a diesel with mainly diesel & a little petrol possibly will.

- Was it a 'senior member' of the AA who told you that you would need an engine change, Arthur

[kpanchev]

Guys, you have obviously never driven in a real winter conditions. The oldest trick in the book to start a diesel engine when it's freezing cold is to add some petrol in the tank. By the way, that is what most of the diesel additives are - pure petrol.
As someone mentioned, don't rev the engine too much, as it is summer and it may overheat. The cooling system should manage to take care of this, but keep an eye on the temperature gauge.

[slowcoach]

A lot of people must make the same mistake, the other day I saw the AA pumping the fuel out of a diesel car on a local car park, they now have a special van just for the purpose.
What drew my attention was all the barriers the AA man had put up around the vehicles with warning signs everywhere, at first I thought they had found an unexploded bomb.

[Chris]

Vapour locks can also be a potential problem if there's too much petrol in the mix, but this very much depends on the model of the car, as some fuel systems are more prone to this than others.

Many people who run their diesels on mostly veg oil (95% or thereabouts) make up the other 5% with petrol, to thin the fuel down a little bit. Putting petrol in a diesel engine is not invariably fatal by any means. The other way round, however ...

[wigro]

It should be fine Hom3r , as has been said unleaded is used with diesel by some folks . Keep him topping up with derv so diluting the petrol mix if you are worried