So here is a list of the questions I get asked on or before nearly every job!.
If you have any questions, or need a fuel drain now, please contact us
Question; I drove my diesel car for 2 miles on petrol after I filled it up then it just died on me, will it need repaired
Answer; you didnt drive it for 2 miles on petrol, what more likely is you drove it for 2 miles with petrol in the tank, once the petrol made its way through the low pressure sender pump, thru all the fuel lines, up to and through the filter (holds about a pint of fuel), through the hoses to the high pressure pump, thru the pump, into the common rail resovoir, and finally into the high pressure lines into the combustion chamber, that’s normally the exact point that the engine stops turning, and in fact you will find you maybe got about 20 yards on petrol, which is the time it took for the engine to stall. the good news is, this isn’t as catastrophic as you might think and there is a simple, effective solution in a mobile fuel drain – a service we provide all over the south east and we attend most call outs with 50 minutes, 24 hours a day. there are many different things that can happen with misfuelling, I have covered most of them below .
This is a typical case of a car that was driven for about 20 miles on the wrong fuel. We got the call out when the owner couldn’t start it in the morning, and then realised she had misfueled it the day before. This car had been drained from the tank and the fuel system flushed through, if you listen in the beginning the sound may be familiar to anybody who has tried to start a misfuelled car. But as the car starts, it quickly goes back to sounding normal. 99% of breakdowns caused by misfuel are this easy to fix. Humble apologies for the quality of this video, I took it on my phone, because it was the camera man’s day off!
Question; what does petrol do to a diesel car’s fuel system?
wrong fuel in hose
This picture (above) is the suction line I use to remove wrong fuel . this was taken when doing a job that had 50 litres of petrol in a diesel mini, this was being taken from the fuel tank as the car had not been started. this hose is full of fuel, about 70% petrol, 30% diesel
This is a picture of the same hose, the car was a Diesel VW Polo, it has been fill’d with 90% petrol, and 10% diesel, the car had been left overnight after loosing power and being towed back to the customers house, the suction line was attached to the high pressure pump inlet, as you can see the fuel has gone black, this is becuase the petrol has desolved rubber in the fuel lines, this car sat for a day with a very strong mix of petrol, it had also been driven until failure, the dark colour is a mix of rubber and plastic that has dissolved in petrol (fuel hoses are made type specific to reduce costs for car manufacturers,i,e diesel for diesel hoses only and petrol in petrol hoses only), I would not expect this to have done the car any real harm over an 18 hour period, just a microscopic layer of fuel line has been stripped off from the inside, these lines are fairly thick so a short bit of contamination once is fine, if you do want to make a habit of misfuelling regularly and leaving the car sitting for days with the wrong fuel in it you will eventually need new fuel lines. and plastic fuel components
Question; what happens to the fuel once we take it out?
Answer; at the end of the day (or during a very busy day), I unload all of my mixed fuel into 220 litres drums, at our garage, (a licence is required to store mixed fuel from the enviroment agency), the mix is collected every 7 to 10 days by a garage services company, these are the same guys who take away used engine oil, brake fluid etc.. from garages everywhere. the mixed fuel is batched seperetly and in-between me and all the other companys that offer this service, I would guess that there is between 50 to 200 thousand litres a week of mixed fuel “made” in the UK per week. – once it is batched up into viable quantities usually 28.000 litres (tanker load) it is refined in one of the main refinery’s using a distillation process – identical to the one used for making crude oil, the petrol diesel mix seperates at 60 – celsius, i,e the petrol fumes off, it is then condensed and seperated, from what I have heard this is done twice to get a proper result, I would assume that the mix would then go back into the supply chain and be used as it was originally intended!
Question; I put the wrong fuel in – have I damaged my car?
Answer; it is very unlikely that you have, pretty much 1 for 1 call outs I attend are back up and running again when drained, if you have not started your car, you will not have damaged it. if you have driven your car and it stalled, or would not re-start then the chances of any lasting damage are very slim, there’s a bit of a safety mechanism that works by defualt and it goes like ”petrol will ruin your diesel car but your diesel car will not run on petrol long enough to get ruined, therefore, PETROL WILL NOT RUIN YOUR DIESEL CAR”
Question; my car conked out, have I wrecked it?
Answer; no, as above “conking out” is your engines way of saying “I am not moving untill you get the wrong fuel out of me and the right fuel in”, I attend many “conk outs” “died” “made horrible noises” etc.. once they have been drained down , 20 litres of correct fuel put in -and the system fully purged upto the high pressure pump fuel inlet – then , they all ran fine afterwards
Question; my car has a common rail pump, are you sure its going to be fine?
Answer; YES!, the vast majority of new diesel cars have sophisticated common rail pumps, we attend them day in, day out what I have written above applies specifically to common rails
Question; whats worse, diesel in petrol, or petrol in diesel?
Answer; the wrong fuel in varying quantities does different things, petrol in diesel will stall it, or depending on the mixture it might just still run, albeit sounding like a bag of spanners, – with reduced power Diesel in a petrol car will make it lose power, and run flat. The worst case scenarios (and these are the WORST) are;
1) petrol in a diesel pump will eventually damage the pump (If you are unlucky enough to get a mix that just runs) , if you have not noticed it, and are completely oblivious to the car’s behaviour, you would also have to do a fair ammount of driving with a heavy foot, this would require a new common rail pump, piezo injectors and fuel lines, the high pressure fuel pump which operates at 28 oddd thousand PSI of pressure and is a highley enginerd unit relies on diesel going thru it to provide lubrication, petrol does not lubricate, in fact it has “anti lubricating” properties, hence why petrol is good for cleaning out oil stains. what happens is the inner working of the high pressure pump start chaffing metal grinds on metal, this destroys the pump, then the metal chafe gets drawn thru to the piezo injectors and ruins them as well, now before you go and sell a kidney to pay for a new diesel pump and injectors, please read the read the rest of these FAQ’s because full scale damage like this is very very rare.
2) diesel in petrol worst case scenario, the diesel will enter the cylinder and not burn, it will slide past the piston rings, into the oil sump and therefore the cars oil system, this will increase the oil level, to a point that could cause total engine failure, i.e mangled rods, bent pistons, complete block failure, or the thining of the oil can reduce lubrication to the engine and it could suffer from a full seizure/big end failure/ruined propshaft. Again this would not be an easy thing to do, the car would be very low on power and not running right, you would have to do a good bit of driving in it to achieve the above.
Question; land rover/mercedes/bmw/audi etc all insist I bring it into the garage for a full drain and it will cost ££££££££££ what should I do?
Answer: main dealers and “tooth sucking garages” will sometimes take a misfuel case for all its worth. I have heard of people having misfueled cars collected by main dealers (these cars had not be started and were collected from the petrol station forecourt) and then the insurance company picks up a tab for 5 or 6 thousand pounds for parts that absoloutley dont need replaced, (and I would suspect never get replaced), this is all very well untill you lose your no claims bonus and when you trade your car in eventually you have to explain why it had so much major work when it was brand new,
Question; but the maindealer says I must bring it in otherwise the engine and pump will be ruined,
Answer; I’ve got a fair bit to say about this, probably the most high profile example of manufacturers being totally inflexible was the Icelandic volcano eruption , and the disruption to flights, it went like this, there was a small amount of ash detected in the air space, as a precuation the authorities asked Boeing & Rolls Royce what was a “safe” and what was an “unsafe” amount of ash for jet engines to fly in, the responce they got was “zero”, therefore all flying was banned. because none of the big engine makers would go out on a limb and come up with a “safe” level of ash everything came to a stop – (until the airlines started flying empty planes round in circles to prove that it was actually safe) Coming back to the automotive industry, the car manufacturers have a similar one policy fits all approach to wrong fuel in cars, , and that is certain things must get replaced after a fuel drain regardless of how much fuel was put in, for how long, or whether the car was driven. They win both ways, firstly they sell lots of parts and millions of hours of labour that wouldn’t otherwise be sold – and secondly they never have to deal with someone claiming warranty if there is any possibility of wrong fuel being used , they know that petrol in small temporary quantities won’t destroy a diesel engine, but they could never say it, because it they are wrong on just one car once… its would be one too many, that’s the manufacturers approach, and the main dealer network quickly caught up with the idea of turning it into a lucrative money spinner and starting milking customers and insurance companies for thousands of pounds.
Question; I’ve read everything here but the stuff I read on the net and in car forums says otherwise, I still don’t know what to do?
Answer; I don’t blame you, I have seen the various discussions in forums on the net – it makes for scary reading if you have put petrol in a diesel car, you will find most of them are repeating threads from older posts, who have re-hashed threads from even older posts, that were written by armchair mechanics , the amount of conflicting information is also a clue as to the validity of the content, there’s a lot of people talking a lot about something they know very little about, I do fuel drains, its my livelyhood, I do dozens every week, I have attended thousands of call outs, I have seen customers who I did fuel drains on after they had driven 10.0o0 20.000 and even 50.000 miles in their cars after putting the wrong fuel in and being drained, none of them had any damage that developed after the misfuel,
Question; I’m in a hire car, should I call them and have them arrange something,
Answer. (I dont mind getting a legal letter on this one becuase I know it to be true)
I received a call from a man in Canada on Tuesday, last week he was in the UK and misfuelld in a HERTZ rental car, the forecourt attendant gave him my card, before he called me he had a quick look at the rental agreement, it was quite clear that he was obliged to tell Hertz what had happened, so he did, and they sent the AA. his card was then debited for £500 odd pounds, now the AA charge between £100 if they are quiet, to £230 if they are busy for a misfuel (no it is not covered by AA membership), so how did he end up paying £500?, Hertz called the AA and I assume got a whacking corporate discount and had the job done for 50 or 60 quid, they then put the boot in and charged the customer £500, he didnt have a choice in the matter because they had his card details, so if you are in a hire car you could either, call an independent mobile fuel drain company, or if that makes you uneasy – call the AA yourself , and pay for it yourself, you will save a small fortune.
Question; I have read all the above, now I think I will top up with the right fuel and chance my luck will that be ok?
Answer; hmm… I would always recommend a full fuel drain, not because I want your business but because petrol does not do any good in diesel engines, it can corrode rubber hoses and plastic seals that are fuel type specific (petrol and diesel behave differently on different materials, , so the car manufacturers use different plastics and rubber in the fuel system) , as much as I believe wrong fuel will not wreck a car, that is based upon the wrong fuel being taken out as soon as the mistake has been spotted, petrol in a diesel engine will eventually cause problems if not dealt with, but if you are driving an old knacker that will be scrapped when it fails its MOT that is due in a month then you might as well just risk it, but otherwise DRAIN DRAIN DRAIN
QUESTION;can I keep the wrong fuel after you drain it, I want to use it in my lawnmower
Answer. there are easier ways of getting out of mowing the lawn other than ruining your lawn mower with a petrol diesel mix, maybe you should feign injury or concrete over the garden. Really misfuel is not worth trying to use, even if you think you have just put 80 quid of petrol in your range rover sport and assume you have a 99% petrol mix, allow me to elaborate.
when you drive a car your fuel sloshes around the tank, (even with baffles) when it gets low and sloshes too much it draws air into the fuel system, this is what running out of fuel feels like, however the tank is not totally empty at this point, it merely cannot supply a constant flow of fuel without interruption, but there is still around 5 to 10 litres in the tank, this changes the sums when you are calculating the “purity” of the mixed fuel, and you will actually have a fair bit more diesel in the mix than you thought you had, allot of people tell me that the “gauge said 3 miles left” and when Í’ve finished the drain and they fill back up they find they got 20 quid more in it that they ever had, and are genuinely surprises how big the tank actually is, that said, if you really feel attached to it and have suitable containers and somewhere safe to store it, then I might just let you keep it, I will expect coffee, biscuits and perhaps a sandwich or two for the privilege
Question; Are there a lot of idiots/wallies/Muppets who misfuel like me?
Answer; I have met some of the nicest people doing fuel drains, in fact it has restored my faith in humanity! You most likely are not a Muppet, fuel filling pumps are very unstandard and there is no uniform colour coding of pumps, the AA released a snippet a few years ago that 300.000 people per year misfuel, I think the true number is many times that, and the number of people who only misfuel by a pound or so is astonishing, people who lead busy lives or drive more than one car are more likely to misfuel, some older customers joke that maybe they have gone senile – and it doesn’t even occur to them that they have driven a petrol car for 40 years and just got a diesel fiesta because there son insisted they get a more economical car – (and were embarrassed about the 1985 Cortina that mum and dad were running around in), don’t beat yourself up, you most likely live a busy life and have responsibilities that take up a lot of your attention, misfuelling is not the beginning of dementia, nor is it indicative of a low IQ, anyone who gives you a hard time or carries the joke on too long, is probably the sort of person who has a go at everyone about everything, so don’t take it personally, one day it will happen to them too. The “at risk groups” are mothers with young children, (try filling up with toddlers), anyone in a rush, fleet drivers who run a petrol home car and diesel work car, and of course Muppets joke;-)
Question; does the petrol seperate and float on top of diesel or does the diesel float on top of petrol?
Answer; neither, they blend instantly in the tank and it becomes a fairly even mixture, although they are different compounds, (technically speaking the carbon chain on diesel is longer) , they both come from crude oil, petrol and diesel spend millions of years in the ground as one and the same as part of crude, only refining seperates them, and once recombined they will mix together and stay together untill refined.
Question; I have heard of petrol being used as an additive in diesel in colder climates, why
Answer, yes, it can be used as an ad-hoc winter fuel additive, in remote freezing areas that do not have a well established supply chain of fuel, (think Arctic weather stations), in the UK however we have a very good supply chain of fuel and winter additive is added by the refiners as early as September, the engines that can tolerate a bit of petrol are lower technology diesels, that do not have the high pressure pumps that are found in the cars of today, I would not recommend using Petrol as an additive to diesel, I heard from a skip skip hire company in edinburgh that used to add petrol into diesel – but they stopped doing it in the 90′s
My engine management light has come on – what does that mean
Engine management lights come on for a number of different reasons, on Volkswagons for example when they have been driven on the wrong fuel and drained, they often take a while to restart sometime 3 bursts of 30 seconds cranking, it is not un-common for the low oil light to come on when it first fires up, it goes off after a minute or 2, engine management computers are not very informative, they either say – “no problem” or “problem”, petrol in a diesel car will confuse sophisticated engine management computers, they are designed to regulate air and fuel flow, air pressure, exhaust pressure, exhausttemperature, ignition timing, all to give optimum performance, economy and emissions, when you put petrol in the tank it throws all the calculations off, some very intelligent engine management units cars will even try to “adjust” to the contaminated fuel, and when they fail as they always do, they will sometimes read a fault, the vast majority of fault codes generated by a wrong fuel scenario are temporary, which means once a fuel drain has been performed – the engine will detect that the conditions that caused the problem are no longer present – thus assumes the problem is solved and the EM light will go out, It is very rare that a light stays on after a fuel drain and restart, this is one of the reasons why I would always suggest a professional drain on a new car, a professional drain will remove as much fuel as is possible, which mitigates possible damage
I put the wrong fuel in, do I need a new fuel filter.
No you not need a new filter.
This idea came about from the “logical” assumption that the filter would be contaminated with condensed amounts of wrong fuel and thus continue to weep wrong fuel into the system, a filter does not hold much fuel – and petrol and diesel certainly do not “condense” 300 to 400 ml of fluid is what a filter holds, the filter is simply a housing, with a cardboard, paper type filament to catch solid debris, a diesel filter has 2 purposes, to prevent water from getting into the engine via a water trap – which needs emptied on servicing or by dashboard warning light sensor, and to stop solid debris from the tank from getting into the engine, diesel and petrol are neither, and petrol does not “sit” in a fuel filter, likewise when diesel is put in a petrol car it does not sit in the system when a fuel drain is performed of a car that has been driven to failure on wrong fuel a flush is done of the filter, this involves pumping the correct fuel through the filter, which purges the filter completely, after a proper fuel drain a filter will be clear of the wrong fuel, I think that this is sometimes used as an excuse by some garages to inflate the price of a fuel drain, the truth is that most fuel filters cost a whopping 4 pounds, and take a lenghty 6 to 8 minutes to change, I have seen garages charge over 150 pounds for a filter change, and If I was morally bankrupt I would be getting in on it to, but the truth is that there no reason to change a filter unless it is due per the service book, that said some people still want filters changed during a fuel drain for peace of mind, which I have done occasionally if the filter is supplied, for the princely sum of a cup of tea and a heap of biscuits, (chocolate).
Further reading;
a very good article on this subject was written by auto express, here is the link here
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/221523/how_misfuelling_could_mean_a_5k_bill.html
This was re-hashed by the daily mail here
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Hi, I purchased a Mini Cooper S 2007 petrol car and the garage I purchased it from filled the car with diesel from a jerry can in error to take me for a test drive. The car was fine and then after I purchased it and went to drive away it kept stalling, it was quickly identified that the wrong fuel had been used.
They took it to their garage and drained the tank. I then immediately went to the garage and filled the tank up and drove it for two days with no problem. But now the engine management light has come on and the manual suggest emission problems take to garage as soon as possible.
I have refuelled the tank and it has been suggested from people I have spoke with that I drive it and refuel again once I have used a quarter of a tank and then do this again to dilute all the diesel and then run the tank right down and then put a full tank in.
Do you think this is the way forward or do you suggest something else.
I look forward to your opinion.
Hi Dan, take it back to the garage and insist on a full oil change, what happens is the diesel doesnt burn fully in a petrol engine and ends up filling the pistons with unburnt liquid diesel which pushes past the piston rings and ends up in the sump, this dilutes the engine oil with diesel and raises the oil level, it also can clog exhuast sensors and engine management sensors, hope that helps
Hi, i wondered if it is possible to tell if a diesel van has been accidentally filled with petrol? I know it sounds daft, but over here in Spain we still have petrol attendents and the other day i filled up and drove back home no problem. But when i came to start the van the next day it started but ran very roughly, i have done all the obvious checks and am now beginning to wonder if it has been misfuelled? Any advice gladly received! You don’t fancy a trip to Spain do you
)
Hi, and yes I do fancy a trip to Spain!, It sounds like it could well have been a misfuel, an easy way to check is just sniff the tank, but right before you do that sniff a diesel tank from another vehicle that you know hasen’t been misfueld, then sniff the tank of the van in question, the Diesel should smell oily and sour, if it smells anything other than oily and sour it has been misfuelled – it wont smell “a bit like petrol” or “funny” – if it is 100% diesel. I dont know any fuel drainers in spain but if you tell me the type of van it is I could talk you thru it,
Hi,
I have a BMW 1 Series 118d, 06 plate and I put 7 litres of petrol in my tank before I realised my mistake. The tank was nearly empty and the AA stated they would be several hours. I couldn’t wait on the forecourt as I needed to pick up the children. I topped the tank up with 41 litres of diesel and drove away, approx 60 miles with no obvious signs of a problem. Tried the car today and it started fine, but I am very worried due to all the different posts on the Internet that there might be catastrophic damage occurring under the bonnet.
Any suggestions on the next step would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks
Kerry
Hi,
A fuel drain would be advisable, I wouldnt think you have done any lasting damage
Hi. ok this is all my own fault I drive a renault cleo petrol & because I needed to save on fuel one day I put 6 letres of clean cooking oil in and topped my tank upto brim with petrol. It drove fine for weeks till my tank got down to quarter then engine light came on and it ran like a bag of sh-t for a day then died. I filled my tank up with petrol full. and it did start and it drives but with no power can’t get up hills without a run at them nearly crawls. how long before my oil makes its way out of my car and starts to run normal again. would a long ride down the motoway flush it through? please help Quinn
Hiya, sorry to hear your predicament.
I would suggest you get a fuel drain, or if you want to save a few quid study up and do it yourself, clean cooking oil is not a good thing to have in a petrol engine and you should get it all out to save yourself the greif
I own a BMW diesel engined Omega, the straight six diesel 1997 model.
I don’t drive the car that often as I work away from home. Just recently there was a bit of a problem starting and in one case it died while running. I was also told there were leaks from the leak off pipes and then #4 injector started leaking. All this happened while I was away from home. I had the local garage look at this and also to try and source the problem of feeling underpowered, possible dirty fuel or poor quality ‘supermarket’ fuel causing dirt on the pump throttle potentiometer and part blocking injectors leading to high back pressure and leak of pipe failures.
However on checking the fuel filter, they found it full of petrol! Someone must have mis-fuelled it. All this time it was still running, now I have no idea how long the petrol was in the system so have no way of knowing if the fuel lines have been damaged. All the leak off pipes have been replaced and the tank filled with petrol. I think they got 60 litres in so the tank probably had only 10 or so litres left. As far as I am aware the car is running fine now with no starting or running problems, I am still away at work so cannot verify this myself. Do you think I would still need to carry out a fuel drain or with this older engine, would it now be OK? My concern is the lack or possible lack of lubrication in the HP pump and this failing in the coming months. Can you advise please?
Cheers
Jon
Hi Jon,
I think the worst of it has already been done, just run the tank down and fill it to the top with diesel and it should be fine, if the pump was going to suffer a fuel drain now would not make much of a difference, but from what you are saying I think it will be ok, – I would suggest a new filter once you have gotten thru half of the clean tank of diesel
Meant to say that the engine is a Nissan laurel engine. Not sure if this makes any difference!!
yep,
Hi,
i put diesel into my petrol Beauford (kit car) I have drained it, cleaned injectors etc. It ran ok, a bit spluttery for a couple of weeks but it just stopped the other day. Went through the system again. i can get the fuel to the injectors but will not start. i have cleaned the injectors, checked relay, distributor, etc. everything seems ok but i am stomped??? Any ideas??
easy start spray and jump leads, once it fires up it should clear itself
Hello, I was wondering if you could help me, last week I collected a skip from a garage that had been shut down and it had 3 drums or mixed fuel in it- (petrol and diesel), a friend suggested I use it in a space heater, is it safe?
Safe? – not very, space heaters are designed to work with kerosene which is much safer than petrol and not explosive, although I have heard of mixed fuel being used in space heaters I would not do it myself or recommend it,
Hi, I put £10 of unleaded into a VW 1.9 TDI PD last Sunday. I think there was about £10-£20 diesel already in it (a quarter tank).
I did not realise at the time and drove about 30 miles although I did notice the car twice cut out on the journey when slowing down and changing down to 4th gear. Once I took my foot off the clutch the engine “bump started” again. After several hours at our destination I found the car took three long attempts to start and I realised my mistake. I went straight to the nearest garage and added £40 of diesel as that’s all the cash I had on me and it more or less filled the tank.
Since then the car has started fine from cold but is hard to start when warm or hot. Once running it runs absolutely fine. I have been trying to use up the tank of fuel this week so I can add more diesel so it has almost pure diesel in it. I never though about draining the tank until today and I did not know there were specialist companies who do this.
Do you think the petrol/diesel mix could be vapourising when the engine is warm hence causing the hard starting problem or have I ruined the pump?
Should I go for a drain at this late stage or let the fuel get as low as possible before filling with diesel again?
Many thanks in advance for any advice.
Hi, I doubt the pump is ruined, most likely the mixed fuel is confusing the sensors in the exhaust system, being a Volkswagen I would go for a fuel drain, the volkswagon diesel tanks dont take well to petrol and it corrodes the tank wall – leeching rubber into the fuel system, best to drain it
had engine failure come up on dash pulled over turned of engine .car restarted nothing on dash so carried on to home seemed fine . never used car next day went to restart lights on dash everywhere and wont start .they say petrol in fuel system have not filled up for over a week driven about 350 miles since so if did use wrong fuel wiil it have caused magor damage .there was just under 3/4 tank of diesel in it when refueled last week so 1/4 of petrol if this mistake was made .
Hi, what type of car is it?
arrrr just put £30 of petrol in my 307 peugeot 1.6d then topped up with £40 diesel with say £5 of diesel in the tank already ive drove 2 miles with no problems think i should drain it ? or will it burn through ?
drain it!, you will be very lucky if it starts again from cold… as ive said a few times on here it not the end of the world but it definitely needs drained, the 307 isnt a big tank either so 30 quid of petrol is a lot of fuel for that size of tank
HI i have a 57 plate A3 1.9 dti i put 35 pounds on unlead in on friday started, drove it till it died then i realised what i done, so got it recoveryed to a garage for drain it clean out the tank and line, replace the fuel filter. half fill the tank with diesel for me. I pick the car up sat started up fine for me drove it away i did approx 10miles in it before it died now the car would start, got it back up the garage (recoveryed again) it then start at the garage they drove it around with me in it and its died again now does not start any ideas?
thanks
john
Hi John, yep, I do have an idea on this, it sounds like it was not drained properly, the A3 has a twin fuel tank set up and its not unheard of for a garage to only drain one half of the system, I think you still have petrol in it i’m afraid so you best call a specialist fuel draining company
Hello,
I have a 2004 Alfa 156 1.9 common rail turbo diesel and filled up just under 12 litres of petrol on an empty tank (the light had just come one). I filled up the remainder of the tank with 46 litres of diesel. I drove a mile & the car is parked up now.
The car ran fine for the short journey home but that was probably running from what was in the pipes. Is my engine going to die a horrible death? What should I do?
Thanks
Hi, sorry to hear about the Alfa, no, your engine wont die a horrible death,But I would definitely recommend a fuel drain for first thing tommorow, don’t worry if your car doesnt want to start – thats normal after a misfuelling once the engine goes cold it doesn’t like to start again with mixed fuel, it might sound bad but really once the fuel is sorted out it will be fine, we do about 6 cars a day in the same state as yours and 1 for 1 they are fine, call us if you need us, or just google “fuel draining” and someone could be with you within an hour or so and have it fixed in 30 minutes
Good luck!
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i put little less then 2 litres of petrol in my toyota townace 2 litre diezel engine van. but it already had half tank diezel before filling that petrol. then i topped up with another 6 litres on diezel. i drove for 10 mins only, pliz advice do i have a situation.
Hi, No I dont think you will have an issue, to be on the safe side run the fuel as low as you dare before filling up with a full tank of diesel
i put around 13.5 litres into my diesel 306 which already had below quater of a tank but not empty of diesel and i then topped up with another 30 litres of diesel on top, i then drove the car ans me and my parnter drove home bout 16 miles and then the car would not start im thinking this is because we park on a hill parking upwards so it will have got a gob full of petrol. We have drained this out ourselves of around 20 litres from a full tank to below half but above quater and she starts so were just leaving the car running out till shes dry then going to fill her up wil diesel and drive her like normal. Will the engine be oki its on a P reg 1997 on a 1.9tdi? were going to replace the fuel filter for own piece of mind so do you think the car will be oki? thanks
Hi, the car should be ok, you should fill it up to the top with clean diesel the pug 1.9 engine is fairly good at dealing with wrong fuel from time to time, a new filter wont do any harm and they are simple to change on those cars.
Hope it woroks out
Hello,
I bought a Renault Scenic (diesel) last week and on my 3rd day, mis-fueled and put 10 litres of petrol in it (There was already about 10 litres of diesel in there too)
I drove the car on two short journeys, about a mile each way and it was chugging and spitting out strong fumes, but managed to get it home before calling out my breakdown service. They towed me to a local garage who performed a fuel drain for £100 and told me it would be fine. I filled the tank about 3/4 full of diesel.
Since then, the engine temperature rises quickly when I drive, and there are still strong fumes coming out. Is this normal?
Hi Katie,
Sorry to have to say this but no – it is not normal and from what you are saying it I would think there is another problem with the car, how old is it? and is it using water or oil?
let me know how it goes
The Fuelman
What if it’s the dealer who put about a quarter of a tank of diesel in your brand new VW Golf petrol engined car ready for when you picked it up for the first time! The car has now been driven 22 miles and been collected by the dealer’s recovery service. I wonder what work they’ll recommend needs doing and what the effect onmy warranty will be??
If it was me I would hand the car back and insist on a another one, you dont want to be driving a brand new car and never knowing if it will have a problem later on.
Diesel in a petrol car is not a good thing, the diesel does not burn in the piston and slides through the piston rings eventually filling the oil sump up with diesel, which a) doesnt lubricate the engine and b) can cause major damage thru too much oil
Ta
Hi,
I bought my Audi A3 2.0 TDi only 3 months ago… last week it lost power and the coil light starting flashing. I was in the red on my way to the petrol station when this happened and noticed that I was toiling to get my speed up above 40mph (on a dual carriageway… not good!). I managed to get it to the petrol station, put a full tank of DIESEL in the car and when travelling home the car engine died… I left it for a while then started it again when another warning light came on the dash which was the emission control light, I managed to get a short distance along the road when the engine shut down on me again… got it started again, enough to get my car back home.
The car is covered by a 12month Car Care warranty and was advised by the dealership that sold me the car to take it to Audi to get a diagnostic check done on the car. I got it recovered to an Audi dealership that ran a diagnostic check on the car and have come back and said that there is SWARF? (Not sure if that’s how you spell it..) in the fuel injectors, leads, high pressure pump etc etc and the cost to replace a full front to back fuel system in the car will be in the region of £6k which will not be covered by warranty as the fault they are diagnosing is caused due to contaminated/miss fuelling.
I was asked where I fuelled at as not all diesel is to EM standards… since owning the car, I have always fuelled the car with DIESEL at reputable outlets i.e. supermarkets… I think thereby it is safe to say that these suppliers could not afford to sell contaminated/sub standard fuel, or we’d be hearing lot more cases like mine being raised!
When asking how this could not have come to light before now, I was advised that this could take some time for the tiny particles to work their way through the fuel system but I have to say that I’m a bit shocked to hear that if this is the case I’m not covered for someone else’s wrong-doing, if that’s even the case!
The dealership that sold me the car are recommending that I get the car recovered (again – at a cost that I’ll need to pick up..) to another Audi specialist dealership for them to check over the car as his own option from what symptoms I have told him was that the car could be ‘flushed’ with possibly some parts needing replaced to sort this problem out which would cost a lot less than the £6k I’m currently being quoted from the Audi dealership… but I’m not convinced, surely some evidence of miss-fuelling would have come to light before now? I feel that the cause is something as simple as something, possibly a bit of debris that was in the tank that managed to get through the fuel filter which is blocking my injector/s that is the problem here… or from what I’ve told you, do you think that maybe someone in the past has miss-fuelled and I’m the one having to pay the price of their actions?…
I have spoken to another ‘independent’ Audi specialist who said the car was misfiring hence the coil light coming on and that the engine most likely went into ‘limp’ mode which is a fail safe option for the engine management system to limit any further damage…
I really don’t know where I stand in this dispute… any guidance on what you think the cause could be/what I should do would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Hi,
Sorry to hear about this,
the first thing I would do is check if there is any petrol in it now, go one further and put a few drops of fuel on a bit of metal and try and set fire to it with a lighter,
if it burns readily, or smells of petrol then that would suggest a fuel drain could fix it, call us if your in the south east, If it isnt fuel related then I would take it to another audi dealer for a second opinion BUT DO NOT TELL THEM WHAT HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED SO FAR – let them do an open minded diagnostic check and see what comes up
Hope that helps
Thank you for your reply.
It’s really reassuring to know this. I’m really very grateful for your advice.
I’ll keep running it and will hope that the trail of angry motorists behind me understand……
I wonder if it’s in limp mode? Engine is still knocking a bit in first gear when revved and engine feels like it has no torque.
Good to know there are people like you around.
Hi, I misfueled a week ago and put in £40′s worth of petrol into my diesel 1.8 (had about 80 miles left) I drove it for a week (very short journeys) It went ca-put a week later and Ive just had it drained.
I’ve just filled the tank to bursting and Ive driven it for 25 miles. It’s slowly improving but in first gear there is no pull at all and lots of clouds of smoke.
I hoping I havent damaged my car beyond repair. At the moment any hills seem like a no no, I could walk faster.
Hi,
could be a few things from what youve said, but if it seems to be getting better just keep topping it up, if its still not quite right after 3/400 miles put it into a garage, could be a sensor or needs a new filter,
Hope that helps
HI mis-fueled, my skoda today £55 of petrol in there was about £10 of diesel left in tank. Have had it drained and have put £50 diesel back in car ,its not running right losing power at 3000 revs and not starting properly any ideas
Many Thanks
Hi Richard, my first suggestion would be to fill the tank to the top, – 50 quid isn’t even a half full tank on most cars, it sounds like you have a bit of petrol left in it and the more you dilute it the better, it should be fine after a top up
I have 2011 Jetta TDI that had misfuel about 50/50 but only drove a few hunderd yards and shut it off and towed to dealer. The dealer claims they found metal particles in the filter therefore the entire fuel system has to be replaced ($10K). I have also see on many blogs that if you see metal particles that HPFP needs to be replaced. Have you seen this occurence in your experince and should I be concerned? Do you think if I do fuel drain and replace filter it will be OK?
Hi Mike, your dealer is talking…… shite, there is no way metal would get into the filter – and if it did the dealer would not have a clue how to find it, (unless they employ a forensic matallurgist with a fully equipped lab), to answer your question you should be concerned – your dealership are opportunistic lying scum, but your car should be ok, drain it and replace the filter and all will be fine, come back and let me know how it goes!
I mis fueled and ran my diesel car for 55 miles parked up came back two hours later and it wouldn’t start, I tried again and again not realisng I had put the wrong fuel in. It started again and I drove a further two miles parked up and came back an hour late, car wouldnt start. Then I realized what I had done. Called the aa out, they towed me back home to the dealers ( Renault) they now said that they have to drop the tank to clean it out and it will cost me £400. The car is only two weeks old and I only done 500 miles.
Question is how could the car run for all that time, and why do they have to take the tank out,I feel they are just fleecing me for money?
Sorry to hear that Joe,
You’re instinct’s are correct – your Renault dealership are fleecing you, but in fairness £400 quid is a very light sting from a dealer!.
To answer your question, I doubt they will take the tank out, it will most likely just be drained, you can check this yourself because there are straps that hold the fuel tank in underneath the car – have a look at the screws or bolts on it – since the car is only a few weeks old you will be able to see if they have been undone and refastened.
Hope that Helps
Hi.
Please help. I put around £50 of petrol (had around £10 of diesel already in) into my diesel VW Jetta 2.0 tdi on 14th Dec. I did not start the ignition and was towed home. The very next day the car was towed to my local garage and they drained, flushed the system, fitted a new filter and added some diesel for me. I then filled up the car with the correct fuel after picking it up and gave it at least an hours run. One week later I have used the fuel and am onto my next tank full of diesel. Problem: since I picked up my car it runs fine, starts first time in the cold, however if it has warmed up it takes a few cranks to actually start again. It does but I’m worried I could be doing damage to it. Can you think of what could be causing this as my local garage thinks it’s a coincidence (I don’t as it was running absolutely spot on before I was a bit of an idiot)?
Hi Nicola,
it sounds like there might have been a little bit of petrol left in the system, it can cause issues with the EGR valve which is in the exhaust, the EGR valve sends constant signals to the engine management unit to regulate fuel flow, petrol can sometimes but not often mess these up – theres every chance it will clear itself soon, before you spend any money at a garage I would reccomend running the car on low as fuel as you dare, and then filling it up to the top with diesel, that should help flush the last of the petrol out, do that a couple of times then put in some injector cleaner, this is added to the fuel tank and helpt clear residue,
Let me know how it goes
Hi Nicola,
it sounds like there might have been a little bit of petrol left in the system, it can cause issues with the EGR valve which is in the exhaust, the EGR valve sends constant signals to the engine management unit to regulate fuel flow, petrol can sometimes but not often mess these up – theres every chance it will clear itself soon, before you spend any money at a garage I would recommend running the car on low as fuel as you dare, and then filling it up to the top with diesel, that should help flush the last of the petrol out, do that a couple of times then put in some injector cleaner, this is added to the fuel tank and helpt clear residue,
Let me know how it goes
one last thought, the fuel system could be drawing air if the fuel system was not put back together tightly
Hi
My girlfriend put 5litres of petrol in to my diesel car. This was said to be okay so we topped up the tank and it went fine, how ever the engine management light came on.
Then I stupidly a few weeks later done the same thing, but I got the car drained
If the management light has stayed on does it mean something is damaged. I took it to the garage and they have replaced my additive tank and now saying I may need a new DPF filter
Any advice
Hi, you should take it to a garage and have the fault code read and reset, if the management light stays off your problem is solved, I havent heard of dpf’s getting damaged by a misfuel but there are sensors in the exhuast that can get fouled by petrol deposits, it can be cleaned or replaced and shouldnt cost a fortune.
hope that helps
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I misfuelled for the second time in 9 months in the same w reg 2.2 DTi Frontera… I didn’t realise I had put 17l into an empty tank… Car stalled 0.9 miles from the petrol station, so I called Fuel Drain. (Again.) 2 vans, 2 men 2 1/2 hours later, still no starty! No charge, Autoshift carry to the garage down the road from me, and still no starty. They are starting to query fuel pump. could this be correct? I’m crapping it as the costs for that are staggering… There is diesel coming from injector pies 1 and 4, but only a weak flow from 2 and 3…
Your thoughts please…
Shane
Hi Shane,
Sorry to hear about the 2 misfuellings,
Ok, so there are 2 fuel pumps in question,
the first is the electric pump in the tank which “sends” the fuel to the engine, and then there is the high pressure diesel pump, – (expensive one)
the in tank pump would unlikely be damaged by a misfuel and only costs a few hundred to replace at the most, the high pressure pump is the worst case scenario, Not having done the fuel drain there are a couple of things i would check, did they try bleeding the air from the return end of the fuel line? and is the tank 100% clear of petrol?, before you go spending big money I would suggest the crude but effect tow start this would involve a willing friend with a powerful van or car, simply force starting the car, (i wouldn’t normally suggest it but since its a ten year old car it won’t do it any harm) , as for the weak injector pressures I wouldnt read too far into it unless it has been a proper pump out bench test – there would be no reason for 2 injectors to be lower pressure that the other 2, its a common rail engine and therefore all the injectors work off of 1 common rail – if your stuck give us a call,
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I put 15 litres of petrol in a 206 van how much will it cost to drain it
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