What happens if you put petrol in a Diesel engine?

[obi_waynne]

Speaking fuel caps anyone?

 

[HDi fun]

I think that's already been done.

 

[robcab]

Bit of a bump here.
Hello everyone, my apologies but I have joined the forum mainly to ask this one question.

Yesterday I half filled (25 litres) my company Ford Connect TDCI with unleaded. It was 4am and I stupidly drove the remaining 3/4 mile to the yard at work where I left it for 12 hours. When I finished work I started it only to reverse it onto a couple of ramps so I could get to the fuel tank. The inlet to the fuel tank (which is half way up the side of the tank) is a 1.5" flexible rubber hose which I disconnected and then proceeded to drain off the top half of the fuel working on the (admittedly optimistic) idea that most of the petrol will be floating on top. I then stuck a pipe into the tank and drained another 4 or 5 litres, only stopping when I'd filled the available drums. I then took the van to the same petrol station and filled it up with 28 litres of diesel. Now the fuel that I got out smelled like neat petrol and since the mishap I have started it 4 times and travelled 160 miles and added another 12 litres of diesel and it seems to be running fine.
So my question is this, if the HP pump or injectors are knackered would they have given up the ghost by now or am I still in for a nasty surprise somewhere down the road?
Thanks for any advice guys.

Edit: I should add that when I started it the second time it took some doing and gave out a big cloud of white smoke before ticking over nicely which obviously suggests that at least some petrol found its way through

Edit 2: I also stuck in 1/2 litre of oil and have just added some Redex Diesel Engine Cleaner.

 

[HDi fun]

You've probably gotten away with it. Does the TDCi have a particle filter?

The other thing that's very good apparently is standard ATF (don't use Dexron II) added to the petrol diesel mix.

 

[robcab]

Wow! Thanks for the quick reply HDI, much appreciated.
I'm not sure about the filter, it's a 58 plate (yep, vertually brand new) if that helps?
What difference will the filter make?

Edit: Don't think it has. After a quick look on google it looks like it is only on the top spec Connect Sportvan or at the very least it's an optional extra.

 

[HDi fun]

It almost certainly will have one then. Essentially nothing bad will happen provided that the exhaust temperature doesn't get so high that it damages the pressure differential sensors. I'd be cautious of adding any more oil to it at this point, just keep topping the tank with diesel as often as possible.

I reckon you'll get away with it; just don't load it up any more than necessary by which I mean basically drive it gently. The biggest problem is that petrol has very little lubricity compared to diesel and this can lead to premature high pressure pump and injector wear. THe fuel pressure rises quite early on in the rev range so if you can keep to around 2000rpm (probably 70mph in top anyway) you will minimise the load on the fuel system.

Without the particle filter you could chuck in a litre of ATF but I'd advise against this and just nurse it along.

The redex diesel additive was a good move, incidentally.

Are you the only driver of the vehicle? And was the fuel purchase made with a company fuel card? If not then play dumb.

 

[robcab]

Well, the van has a limiter on for 70mph so I can't rag the arse of it even if I wanted to. Plus most of my mileage is motorway at the mo.
I am the only driver and have a fuel card, however I paid for the unleaded out of my own pocket so there's no paper chain.
And yep, if I can get through the petrol that's still in the tank (1000 miles maybe?) then it's my word against the lease company's.
Cheers for your reply's HDI, you've put my mind at rest.

 

[Chris Green]

You were very lucky. I've got the 2.2HDi and apparently rail pressure is something like 1300bar so I really hope I don't put the wrong stuff in.

1300 bars? That's some pub crawl! No seriously according to my calculations that's 1300 x 14.7/2240 = 8.53 TONS (!) per sq inch.

That's about the same as an elephant standing on one leg in high heels, which is what you'd start seeing if you went into 1300 bars.

 

[chrisjlf]

hey rob you def got away with it lol,i did the sam doh! and tryed to fix it pretty much doin what you did....less actually and all was fine,so stop worrying if you still have any doubts.

 

[HDi fun]

1300 bars? That's some pub crawl! No seriously according to my calculations that's 1300 x 14.7/2240 = 8.53 TONS (!) per sq inch.

That's about the same as an elephant standing on one leg in high heels, which is what you'd start seeing if you went into 1300 bars.

That's right. It is ridiculously high. And I have not confused BAR with pounds force per sqaure inch.

It's for this reason that it's often advised to not tinker with high pressure diesel systems. There is a reported case of a stuck injector boring a hole into the piston crown.

Apparently the V6 HDi used in the 407 Coupe and Jaguar S type, amongst others runs at 1900 BAR!!

 

[dacanko]

Hi all,

yesterday I filled up my passat 2.0 TDI 170 Sport with 0.68L unleaded petrol. I have realised that quiet late, but after that I've putted another 60 liters of Shell diesel in it which is only 1:100 petrol to diesel.Do you have anynone experience with this? The car is new with 16k on the clock and I wouldn't be happy to damage in any way as this is my car. I am really starting worried about this. Some people saying it can damage the pump and all fule system in car.

I am not sure but i think my car is a common rail??? Can it damage the car in long term use? Can I brake down after few thousand miles because of this? The car is running o.k now.

Please let me know what I shpuld do or should I worried about the car?

 

[HDi fun]

The 2.0 TDi engines are common rail motors. The sensible advice would be to get it drained to be honest.

If it were my car that's what I'd be doing

 

[Chris Green]

The 2.0 TDi engines are common rail motors. The sensible advice would be to get it drained to be honest.

If it were my car that's what I'd be doing

On top of that, I think my next port of call might be:-

http://www.caparorightfuel.com/contact/contact-us.asp

I'm thinking of getting one as I did once do the same thing. As far as I can make out, it screws on instead of the normal fuel cap and the centre section which swings back to allow fuelling will only do so when the correct width of pipe is pressed against it to unlatch it. That gets round the fact that diesel guns won't fit modern petrol cars, but petrol guns will fit diesel cars. It's also bright yellow which helps!

 

[pgarner]

The 2.0 TDi engines are common rail motors. The sensible advice would be to get it drained to be honest.

If it were my car that's what I'd be doing

now they are but the earlier ones were still running VWs PD system. not sure when they changed over, think it might have been around 2007 but would need to check

 

[dacanko]

now they are but the earlier ones were still running VWs PD system. not sure when they changed over, think it might have been around 2007 but would need to check

could u please find out ? i really haven't got a clue ...


thanks

 

[pgarner]

Sorry mate done some digging, audi seemed to swap to them straight away while VW filtered them in slowly. the sorroco and passat from late 08 onwards (realistacly the last 5 months or so ) are common rail but not sure of the rest.

no experiance on these engines but the power is the same the only difference is the common rail use 1 high pressure pump where as the PD uses 1 per cylinder (4 in your case) a call to a VW master mechanic might be an idea to find ot for sure

 

[HDi fun]

All the VW 2.0 TDi are common rail. The 1.9 (1896cc) units are the PD engines. These, too, are not especially tolerant of petrol or other solvents in the fuel. They will probably stand a little of it as the PD cars didn't have particle filters IIRC.

Apparently you can add quarter litre of ATF if you have made a mistake and added some petrol. Personally I'd get it drained, flushed and primed.

 

[pgarner]

they are now but not origninally
i know its wikpedia but any search show it up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Volkswagen_AG_diesel_engines#2.0_TDI_PD_100-125kW

 

[pgarner]

the 2008 audi A4 was the 1st to be swapped over from the PD to the CR engine. then the octavia VRS and Golf recived it.
not sure if seat has changed yet found a post on the seat cupra site that was dated october last year saying seat had announced they were changing but not a date

 

[HDi fun]

OK - I stand corrected. Thanks v much

 

[obi_waynne]

Over 11,000 page views on this thread, it could be our busiest thread yet!

(Not bad and it's not even stickied!)

 

[jarrus]

I know people who use Veg oil in there diesels and use petrol to thin it down a bit when it get's cold (10% petrol and 90% veg oil)

No problems at all,

Putting Diesel in a petrol engine would be far worse to do,

I'd love to run a diesel off some of that Nitro Meth R/C engine fuel to see if it works (in theory it should)

but I dare say the engine would go boom first

 

[HDi fun]

I know people who use Veg oil in there diesels and use petrol to thin it down a bit when it get's cold (10% petrol and 90% veg oil)

No problems at all,

Putting Diesel in a petrol engine would be far worse to do,

I'd love to run a diesel off some of that Nitro Meth R/C engine fuel to see if it works (in theory it should)

but I dare say the engine would go boom first

Be careful with untreated RVO/SVO. It's not just viscosity which is the problem.

Petrol into a diesel car is far worse than the other way around. CR diesels use insane fuel pressures and petrol simply does not have enough lubricity.

You will also almost certainly trash the particle filter on cars thus equipped.

 

[admin]

Over 11,000 page views on this thread, it could be our busiest thread yet!

(Not bad and it's not even stickied!)

I guess this still happens to a lot of people!

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

IF you mistakenly pump petrol into a diesel . DO NOT ATTEMPT TO START IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE !!!!!!
The tank needs draining and flushing before refilling with diesel.