Why? What damage is likely to be done to a petrol engine by putting a fuel you can't spell into it?
Compared to the damage petrol can do to the fuel system or cylinders of a diesel engine due to the lack of lubrication.
Care to comment.?
All these poster can't be wrong or was it just the simple spelling mistake that prompted you, how very sad.
Ive done the exact same thing, and my car just drifted to a halt.
Had to call RAC and they put me through to a specialist company who came out to the roadside. Next thing i know a big van turned up with "WRONG FUEL UK" on the side to drain my tank. It may as well have said "look at the big idiot here" underneath. Anyway charged me £80 and drained my tank.
I think if you only put a bit in you can get away with diluting with diesel, but £20 worth i think its definitely worth getting your tank drained. If its at home you can probably do that yourself...
Can you read ??? MY CAR HAD NO PROBLEMS after I made the same mistake as the OP.
Yes, I can read and I wasn't disputing that fact. I was questioning the blanket statement you made that because your car appears to have suffered no lasting damage that every other case will be the same.
The best thing to do would be to stop driving it as soon as the error is realised so as to not put any more petrol through the engine, rather than just diluting it.
Putting petrol in a diesel engine is more likely to cause a lot more damage than putting diesel in a petrol engine.
How much damage can be done depends on the age of the engine, more modern engines can suffer a lot more damage. Sometime the entire fuel system can need replacing.
I don't want to get into a great debate on this, but as the OP had driven the car getting more diesel in would help the lubrication as would the Redex or even 2 stroke oil.
I did say that draining the tank would be good.
The car had very little use and with the extra diesel, the damage will have been limited.
As for it being worse in a petrol engined car, I was talking about the practical aspect of repairing the car.
With the diesel you can drain the tank and replace the filter, refill with diesel and away you go. Damage may have been caused but how would you know until later in the car's life and even then you would need to have the parts tested in a lab to know if the petrol in the diesel caused the fault.
With diesel in the petrol and having run the car you would damage the Lambda sensor, the catalytic converter and the fuel filter, not to mention the fact that the diesel will be in the fuel lines and tank for a while causing further problems and misfires for who knows how long.
I speak from experience of having to repair vehicles where these problems have happened.
I agree that ideally, the car should not be started, buit sometimes people don't realise straight away.
I prefer to sort out the petrol in diesel problems than the other way round....less hassle for me
Did you really need to reply to the same post twice? But can you back up your claim of how diesel is more likely to damage a petrol engine?
Petrol is more flammable than diesel, so will burn under the higher compression of a diesel engine, whereas diesel won't burn in a petrol engine with a lower compression ratio and a spark plug. The engine relies on the fuel burning in the cylinder and turning into a gas, if it doesn't, and remains a liquid which is pretty much incompressible by comparison, as the piston reaches the top it will run out of compressible space when it hits liquid and the resulting impact force will hammer through the con-rods, cylinder head, valves etc, with the force likely to break them. Assuming of course you can get the engine turning.
Well here's an update everyone, thanks again for all your replies.
315 miles later - my car is still going! I put a bottle of Redex in it, and took it out all afternoon. It never juddered, but was a little bit hesitant at points ie. I felt I had to change down/rev up more. I was so nervous - let's just say my mobile and AA membership card were close at hand!
What surprised me more than anything was the fuel economy! It went through the roof! I averaged 72mpg, and that a mixture of dual carriageway and country roads. Infact, at some points, it actually felt nippier - which was weird. It happily did 70-80mph on the dual carriageway.
Half a tank down now, and just filled it right up with some V-power diesel from Shell...and just hoping for the best. It doesn't feel totally right, to be perfectly honest - I can just tell it's struggling, but the old girl has kept fighting on.
As long as it's going, that's all I'm worried about. Here's hoping it's alright... Will keep you updated.
i dont mean to be mean spirited here, but i could possibly say the same about you as you may be giving the wrong advice - i work for one of the prestige manufacturers and i can tell you that theres shed loads of people who took the advice to top up the tank with diesel and turned down waiting for someone to attend and have the car checked.
some get away with it, some dont - it might not be now or next week - it could be 6 months down the line when their trying to claim warranty on a fuel pump or injector failure and its rejected as the department can tell if its had petrol in it.
wrong fuel is a minefield with multiple factors defining wether you need repairs, flushing or just topping up with the correct fuel - my advice is better safe than sorry but everyone will have a different tale to tell (eg in your case it was fine)
back to the OP - it happens all the time so dont feel too embarrassed, we probably deal with around 20-30 cases of this a day in the UK alone - the best (or worst i suppose) ive personally dealt with was actually with a truck driver who managed to fill almost 1000 litres (it was fitted with belly tanks) of super unleaded petrol before he realised his mistake. From the way his boss spoke on the phone i doubt he will ever make the same mistake for that company again!
Hi Mate, I agree what you are saying, I never posted to the OP to give him advice as I know nothing when it comes to car mechanics, I only told him my experience and I also added "that it was up to him if he decided to do the same.
Well here's an update everyone, thanks again for all your replies.
315 miles later - my car is still going! I put a bottle of Redex in it, and took it out all afternoon. It never juddered, but was a little bit hesitant at points ie. I felt I had to change down/rev up more. I was so nervous - let's just say my mobile and AA membership card were close at hand!
What surprised me more than anything was the fuel economy! It went through the roof! I averaged 72mpg, and that a mixture of dual carriageway and country roads. Infact, at some points, it actually felt nippier - which was weird. It happily did 70-80mph on the dual carriageway.
Half a tank down now, and just filled it right up with some V-power diesel from Shell...and just hoping for the best. It doesn't feel totally right, to be perfectly honest - I can just tell it's struggling, but the old girl has kept fighting on.
As long as it's going, that's all I'm worried about. Here's hoping it's alright... Will keep you updated.
Comments
Care to comment.?
All these poster can't be wrong or was it just the simple spelling mistake that prompted you, how very sad.
Over to you Glen......:rolleyes:
Me too! heres a pic of their van:
http://www.wrongfueluk.co.uk/
Yep, thats the one!
theres a quote on that site that probably sums up the situation of wrong fuel (and put to bed any petty arguements arising here):
"IF YOU HAVE PUT THE WRONG FUEL IN YOUR CAR, DON’T TURN ON THE IGNITION OR TRY TO START IT AS YOU MAY CAUSE MORE DAMAGE."
Did you really need to reply to the same post twice? But can you back up your claim of how diesel is more likely to damage a petrol engine?
I don't want to get into a great debate on this, but as the OP had driven the car getting more diesel in would help the lubrication as would the Redex or even 2 stroke oil.
I did say that draining the tank would be good.
The car had very little use and with the extra diesel, the damage will have been limited.
As for it being worse in a petrol engined car, I was talking about the practical aspect of repairing the car.
With the diesel you can drain the tank and replace the filter, refill with diesel and away you go. Damage may have been caused but how would you know until later in the car's life and even then you would need to have the parts tested in a lab to know if the petrol in the diesel caused the fault.
With diesel in the petrol and having run the car you would damage the Lambda sensor, the catalytic converter and the fuel filter, not to mention the fact that the diesel will be in the fuel lines and tank for a while causing further problems and misfires for who knows how long.
I speak from experience of having to repair vehicles where these problems have happened.
I agree that ideally, the car should not be started, buit sometimes people don't realise straight away.
I prefer to sort out the petrol in diesel problems than the other way round....less hassle for me
Petrol is more flammable than diesel, so will burn under the higher compression of a diesel engine, whereas diesel won't burn in a petrol engine with a lower compression ratio and a spark plug. The engine relies on the fuel burning in the cylinder and turning into a gas, if it doesn't, and remains a liquid which is pretty much incompressible by comparison, as the piston reaches the top it will run out of compressible space when it hits liquid and the resulting impact force will hammer through the con-rods, cylinder head, valves etc, with the force likely to break them. Assuming of course you can get the engine turning.
315 miles later - my car is still going! I put a bottle of Redex in it, and took it out all afternoon. It never juddered, but was a little bit hesitant at points ie. I felt I had to change down/rev up more. I was so nervous - let's just say my mobile and AA membership card were close at hand!
What surprised me more than anything was the fuel economy! It went through the roof! I averaged 72mpg, and that a mixture of dual carriageway and country roads. Infact, at some points, it actually felt nippier - which was weird. It happily did 70-80mph on the dual carriageway.
Half a tank down now, and just filled it right up with some V-power diesel from Shell...and just hoping for the best. It doesn't feel totally right, to be perfectly honest - I can just tell it's struggling, but the old girl has kept fighting on.
As long as it's going, that's all I'm worried about. Here's hoping it's alright... Will keep you updated.
good engines, those french diesels.....
French cars used to have a very bad reputation... now they just have bad reputation