Ops I put Diesel in it,,,sh*t

[Beaky]

In a moment of madness I accidentally put around 20 litre of diesel in my 3.2 - having realised my mistake I topped it up with another 30 litres of unleaded hoping that it would dilute it enough to get me home.

Apart from a rough idle, it ran OK and I'm now safely at home, my question is do I need to drain the fuel system, or as proven on Fifth Gear just slow drive it out

Cheers

 

[tripe]

I did this with an XR3i in France about 15 years ago. Pooed my pants at the time, but topped it up with petrol, drove slowly, topped it up at every opportunity and it was fine. It pinked like fury until the diesel passed through the system though.

 

[twinny]

5th Gear did a piece on this a little while ago with the mistake made both ways on old technology engines. They found the same as Tripe, keep running it steady and topping up with unleaded until all the diesel has washed through and everything should sort itself out.

In fairness though they only stuck in around 5 litres, which was what they considered the typical amount someone not paying attention would put in accidentally before noticing!...........ahem!

 

[TopCarrera]

DRAIN! (Use plug at bottom of tank) then refill with say 20 litres at a time and run till virtually empty (have a can ready) - repeat. This will ensure quickest total flush. Use a standard fuel system cleaner after this exercise. If you try running on a mixture for an extended period you MAY develop gum and deposits on the valves and piston crowns that MAY be stubborn to remove later resulting in small power loss. Do not just keep refilling a part empty tank as you will have diesel left in the system for a long time.

 

[Geoff_Fields]

I agree with Andrew, drain and flush ASAP.

 

[oliver]

I'd be tempted to get it done by a garage.

Someone will need to safely dispose of the c.15 gallons of volatile petrol/diesel mixture. The law is very strict about the disposal of hazardous materials [:-].

 

[Fred Hindle]

You don't need to dispose of the diesel/petrol mixture. I assume you have a daily driver. Fill the car three quarters full of petrol, pour about a gallon of the mixture into the tank. The car will run okay, you may get some 'pinking' on acceleration so accelerate gently. Keep doing the mixing until the diesel/petrol mix has gone.
Whenever people came into the garage because they had put diesel in we would drain their ca'r's tank completely and put just petrol in. What we took out was used in our own vehicles - we did used to ask the customer what they wanted to do with what we have removed, no-one ever wanted to keep it so we weren't stealing it.

 

[lesworth]

Its an easy mistake to make...at least thats what the wife told me when she put £20 worth of unleaded in our BMW 530d...[:'(]

You wont be surprised to hear that the stelaership recommend changing the entire fule system at a cost of around £5000. A simple flush did the trick in the end.

 

[911addict]

These 911 engines are amazing- so robust. Can you imagine if it was a Ferrari, TVR or almost any high performance car?

 

[Guest]

I work opposite a large BP garage. We gets lots of wrong fuel ups, on average 2/3 per week. Once had a delivery mileage Focus TDi that was filled with petrol and driven till it stopped. Tricky to get going again but it's fine now.
With the exception of the fuel filters we have never had to change any part of the fuel sytem afterwards.
Once it's drained/flushed stick a tin of fuel sytem cleaner (not diesel injector cleaner!!) in and you should be fine.

 

[Beaky]

Cheers folks,
once I'm back in the UK this weekend, a drain is first on the agenda

 

[Beaky]

Epilogue,

The tank was fully drained this afternoon, access gained via the sender unit under the bonnet, drainage by way of a handheld drill powered pump.

A full tank of fresh Optimax plus a bottle of injector cleaner has been added and I will be clocking up the miles this weekend, once through a full tanks worth I'll change the filters.

First I let the car idle for some 5/10 minutes to clear as much of the diesel still remaining in the pipework as possible, the car did smoke some and the idle was erratic, but soon settled down, this was followed by steady 30 mile cruise up and down the A10, car now seems to be running fine, looks like this time I got away with it []

 

[bones]

[]

 

[Alan_Armstrong]

Just thought I'd pop in and add my 2p....this seems a regular occurance lately...mainly at BP garages where they are selling Ultimate of both petrol & diesel at the same pump.

It's an easy mistake to make.....

 

[ashrolfe]

Yes.. I've almost been caught out early on a Monday morning. Mind you, I did accidently pour oil into my Audi's coolant tank and coolant into the engine block. Of course I had to blame it on the wife at the garage.

 

[Hilux]

The tank was fully drained this afternoon, access gained via the sender unit under the bonnet, drainage by way of a handheld drill powered pump.

[][][]

I have to assume that the garage was either well ventilated or this was done outside.

Drills spark, petrol fumes dont like sparks. Next time (if any) drain it with a simple siphon pipe, tons safer

 

[Guest]

I put £60's worth of unleaded in my diesel landcruiser today!!! Felt a right pr*t. It was compeletly empty beforehand, and it would've only taken another £20 of diesel, so I didn't risk it and called the breakdown truck. £94 later to drain the tank, and I was back on my way.

I will never live it down though.....

Rich

 

[Hilux]

Hello to a fellow Landcruiser owner

Everyone on the road hates you.........I love it [8D][8D][8D]

 

[Guest]

I did exactly the same myself at a BP garage. Gbp 25.00 I got upto before I realised. I never started the car up, I just called the AA who took my car to the nearest garage that was open (7pm on a Sunday evening in the Lakes). Up on the ramps there's a great big plug in the bottom of the tank which made draining simple. The tank was then filled up with Optimax and the car never knew any different! BP I think a while ago were actually offering compensation due to the similiar markings on their diesel and 4 star Ultimate pumps. I think they changed the colouring on them since. Might pay to check if your garage had complied with the updates otherwise you may even be able to claim the cost of your diesel/petrol mix back from them??