# Petrol in a diesel engine



## I-Love-Wooly-Socks

Evening,

I put £1.69 worth of unleaded in my Fiat Ducato 2.3 Diesel engine (130 Multijet). So, roughly just over a litre of the wrong fuel.

I then went and stuck in £40 worth of diesel - there was already roughly £15 worth in the tank. 

Drove it home from the station - approx 30 miles - no probs so far.

No excuses, I'm an ar**! Well, I had just done approx 300 mile trip and was knackered!

A mechanic friend of mine said that this will do no harm as it is a small amount of diesel to petrol ratio. The diesel acts as a lubricant for the engine's moving parts which petrol strips off, leaving a metal to metal contact. Not good, but he says it will be diluted by the amount of diesel.

Does anyone have anything to add to this - has anyone done the same ? :?:


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## teemyob

*Engine*

Not worth worrying about, shade over a litre these days.

TM


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## gnscloz

agree with previous post insignificent ammount, 

mark


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## Techno100

No but interesting to know 8)


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## bazajacq

should nt be a problem , in bad winters i put petrol in my red diesel tanks for my tractors , dont think you have to nowadays , but old habits die hard , bazajacq


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## KSH

we used to put a gallon of petrol in the wagons diesel tanks in winter to help stop the diesel freezing, don't worry about it


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## turbodes

my oh did the same around 2 litres before she realised we ended up filling the tank up till full after talking to a mechanic friend we had no problems, I have now bought an alarm from halfords which shouts out at you when you open your fuel filler flap ** stop diesel stop diesel** she shouldnt do it again


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## Glandwr

Did same a few years ago. AA said that he should take me to gararge and have it pumped out at cost of £90. Then lowered his voice and said up to 10% - no trouble at all - on your way mate.

Dick


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## Parking

I put petrol in my Diesel focus and called my mech...he said ''dont start it because you will do huge damage to the fuel systems, about £2000'' He rescued me and dropped the fuel tank to drain all fuel.....sorry


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## KSH

Parking said:


> I put petrol in my Diesel focus and called my mech...he said ''dont start it because you will do huge damage to the fuel systems, about £2000'' He rescued me and dropped the fuel tank to drain all fuel.....sorry


And charged you a fortune plus used or sold the fuel he took out, sorry but 1 Litre of petrol in a diesel engine won't do any harm at all, different story if you actually filled it with petrol


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## KARTMAN

We had a BMW 120D in for service last week and she told us of her experience of putting £20 of unleaded in the car. She didn`t start the car but had the BMW dealership sort it out for her.They changed the complete fuel system inc tank,fuel lines,filter,pump,injectors and presented a bill for£4250!!!!
Insurance picked up the bill but we thought they went a bit over the top bearing in mind the engine hadn`t been started, just draining the tank and refilling would have done the job.We did that when someone put £30`s worth in his X5 and no further problems.
Having said that you have no worries at all.


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## TDG

If in doubt and you have no choice anyway, a couple of litres of 2- stroke oil will deal with up to 20% petrol concentration. The older the engine the safer you are :wink:


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## sideways

With a modern engine and i stress modern you can do a lot of damage to the injection pump with petrol, i dont mean a litre in 50 as in your case. A focus pump for instance has ceramic parts in it lubricated by the diesel, if you put a lot of petrol in it simply centrally unlocking the car or switching on the ignition will prime the fuel systemwith petrol before even starting the engine.
Old engines will tolerate loads of abuse they will even run on petrol when hot, they dont half pink though.
The best thing you can do if you notice you have put a small amount in is fill to the brim with diesel.


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## inkey-2008

My friend put petrol in her diesel car, filled the tank. then relised her mistake. 
Got the car pushed off the pumps and called the AA they sent a guy from a company that come out and drain the tank. 

As she had not started the car he pumped out the tank though the filler pipe then removed the fuel pipe on the tank side of the fuel filter put more diesel in the tank and pumped it though. 

She then had to refill the car with diesel. A very costly experence. The guy said he was working 12hr everyday just draining tanks.

Andy


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## leseduts

Been there, done that. 3 gallon of petrol in a Landcruiser, I stopped when I realised, and rang husband who said fill it up with diesel, then at every opportunity top it up again and again.The Landcruiser had a very large tank, and when I started it was about on empty. I worked as a chauffeur and was due to pick someone up from a station that was a long way from home, so could not swop vehicles. I was very lucky that it did not seem to cause a problem.


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## DTPCHEMICALS

And you save 2 p a litre

dave p


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## teemyob

*litre*



DTPCHEMICALS said:


> And you save 2 p a litre
> 
> dave p


You are very jovial these days Dave, you retired?.

Anyway, the petrol.

I would assume you have a 70-80 litre tank and you were almost empty?

So at most you put 1.5 litres in?

Work out how insignificant that is.

However, if you had put 25% Petrol in a VW "pumpe düse" TDi engine, different story

­™


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## Sonesta

My hubby once FILLED our Auto Trail with PETROL and fortunately (although he didn't act like he was a fortunate man at the time) he discovered his mistake BEFORE we drove off the forecourt! The lady on the till gave him a number to ring and someone came out to us, towed us to a safe place and then drained the tank. We had to obviously pay for this service and then re-fill the tank back up to FULL again and it cost us approx £260 all told PLUS I had to deal with a very stressed out husband!!! :roll: 

The motorhome ran without any problems afterwards, thank goodness - so I guess we were very, very lucky and I dread to think what would have happened, if my husband hadn't realised what he'd done and we'd carried on with our journey!!!! 8O 

Sue


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## philbre

*a mechanic told me*

to put a litre of petrol into a full tank of diesel & then to drive the car more vigorously than normal. I noted that the temp gauge was higher than normal but he suggested it reduced carbon deposits etc & would lower emissions for a failed NCT test. it then passed the test. strange but true.


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## SpeedyDux

A small quantity of petrol will simply mix into the diesel because both liquids are basically fractions of the same crude oil that have been separated during the refinery processing and they are chemically very similar. In reality you just will not get the petrol floating as a distinct layer on top of the diesel or vice-versa, unlike putting water in by mistake. 


SD


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## badger

I used to drive an old renault van that struggled on emmissions every mot. My mechanic told me to put a couple of litres of petrol into at least half a tank of diesel and run the van for 20/30 miles and preferably motorway driving. Then we put in an additive/conditioner to recoat the injectors and it passed the Mot no problem. It apparently gives a sooty engine a bit of a decoke.


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## Ifor

I have twice put in about 4L. Just filled it up and made sure to refill well before empty the next time.


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