Wrong Fuel In a Ford

The Ford Fiesta is supposed to be britains best selling car, but oddly not the most misfueld car, we get a fair few fords with the wrong fuel that need a fuel drain.

The most common car we attend is VW’s – who also ran a famous ad about putting petrol in diesels.

Some new fords are fitted with the “anti misfuelling device” this is a mechanical device on the filler neck that is supposed to stop the wrong fuel from being put in, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt – we do get called out to drain fords that have a misfuelling device they are often activated during filling – but not after a heavy dose of the wrong fuel has gone through the neck.

Fords are easy to drain, but the ford transit needs a bit of special attention if it has had the wrong fuel in it and driven until it conks out, this requires a fuel drain, fuel flush and then the fuel line needs bled on the return feed, this pulls the last of the wrong stuff out of the common rail and injectors, its one of the few engine types that need this treatment along with audi 2.5s among others

Most fords are front wheel drive which makes for nice simple fuel tanks that do not have double cells and do not pose a challenge when draining, it normally takes between 25 to 45 minutes to drain a ford depending on whether it has been driven and how much is in the tank.

Ford have quite a few small diesel engines out and some of them are highly tuned, petrol will not do any permanent damage if it is drained promptly and flushed through the system so dont worry about any long term damage to the common rail or injectors – they will be just fine.

If you have put petrol in your diesel ford and want to take it out yourself just pull up the back seat and access the fuel tank from the top, you can unscrew the steel ring that holds the sender in the tank and syphon the fuel out, but if you have driven it I would suggest a professional flush to get it going again because the fuel in the pipes and filter will stay contaminated and the engine will not fire up – flattening your battery or worse burning out the starter motor from continuos cranking.