I've never been so friggin' angry in all my life!

My missus just rang me up to tell me she's just put £30 of petrol in my PD130 and then driven it till it stopped. How could she be so f*cking stupid!

What's the consensus on likely damage (and therefore cost)?

Thanks

Martin

Won't be bad At worst it will be a drain tank job, new fuel filter, and just treat it gently on diesel for a while. Cannot really do "actual damage" to the engine.

It's much worse the other way around!

Won't be bad At worst it will be a drain tank job, new fuel filter, and just treat it gently on diesel for a while. Cannot really do "actual damage" to the engine.

It's much worse the other way around!

I thought it'd be worse this way round. After all, petrol combusts a lot easier than diesel and diesel engines have a much higher compression ratio?

Have calmed down a lot now.....

Martin

Yeah the chances are fairly good you'll have no lasting effects (would have been a totally different story if you had a CR diesel [1]). It (might) even say thank you for cleaning out the fuel lines with a wash of petrol first.

The AA and i think the RAC have mobile units with a fixed price if i remember right (~£200 - not totally sure on that price) to come to you. Will likely be cheaper at your local garage.

[1] The CRs depend on using the diesel as a lubricant for the high pressure pump and it all goes a bit Pete Tong when you put a solvent (Petrol) instead of a lubricant (Diesel) in there. The PDs use oil to lubricate the HP pump.

I thought it knacked the injectors with it being a PD unit?

I thought it knacked the injectors with it being a PD unit?

I wouldn't think so going on anecdotal evidence of others that have misfuelled. I'm not totally sure how it would behave -- never read anything that describes a bosch unit injector's behaviour when pumping petrol.

I don't know for sure, but I'm inclined to think it wouldn't care. There's nothing (i'm aware of) in the design of a unit injector that depends on the fluid being diesel -- the operation of the injector depends on a certain level of viscoscity (otherwise the spill valve wouldn't work, and at the extreme end the plunger would heat and fail).

Although its possible maybe after a long time petrol could "eat" the seals either on the plunger or at the spill valve. I'm not sure, but i think they'd be fairly robust with just petrol going through them.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Not much consolation but you would be looking at serious money if your car were a CR.

I''m the only 1 in a 5 car family (lots of children still at home!) with a diesel and I bought one of those special filler cap thingys designed to prevent you putting a petrol nozzle in the filler neck. (Cue for sarcastic comments).

I think it would only be a matter of time before one of my children (or my wife) - or even me I suppose - would have made a mistake. And I couldn't face the inevitable row if they did. Best £25 I have spent I think.

Hope you get fixed soon at a reasonable cost!

Edited 5 March, 201016 yr by Minimoke

We used to leave a lease mk1 Focus 1.8 TD, and people in my office were for ever filling the thing with petrol. We had it drained twice (within a week - morons!) and after that if someone was stupid, we just topped it back up with Diesel. We had it for 3 years, and put something like 100k on the clock, iirc.

Oh and I forgot to add......sometimes it can happen to you even when you think you have put the right stuff in the car.

Last week Sainsbury's in Sevenoaks mixed up their petrol and diesel delivery tanks. Local paper reported over 60 cars broken down almost immediately - now could be in the 100's once its effects worked through. Paper reports that the local dealers are loving it and the tow trucks couldn't keep pace. Luckily I don't buy fuel there but do shop in the store and saw a 59 plate Passat being towed from the garage (presumably for bad fuel) almost next door to where the local VW main dealer is located. I guess with that plate that if it was a CR engine it could be an expensive fix. Hope Sainsbury's have their liability insurance up to date.

Funnily enough something similar occured at the Sevenoaks Tescos - can't recall when. Was a while ago now.

So...be very afraid !!!!!!!

Edited 5 March, 201016 yr by Minimoke

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Not much consolation but you would be looking at serious money if your car were a CR.

I''m the only 1 in a 5 car family (lots of children still at home!) with a diesel and I bought one of those special filler cap thingys designed to prevent you putting a petrol nozzle in the filler neck. (Cue for sarcastic comments).

I think it would only be a matter of time before one of my children (or my wife) - or even me I suppose - would have made a mistake. And I couldn't face the inevitable row if they did. Best £25 I have spent I think.

Hope you get fixed soon at a reasonable cost!

what was that filler item you refer to? wherre did you get it? weblink? cheers :-)

what was that filler item you refer to? wherre did you get it? weblink? cheers :-)

I use one from caparo. Here is the link:

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

The downside is that I find it takes longer than normal to fuel the car. But I can live with that.

A better one is offered by another company called Diesel Key (its Thatcham approved) but they do not make one yet that is suitable for a Skoda. (This was of last week).

Edited 5 March, 201016 yr by Minimoke

It's just gone on a tow truck to my usual garage near Scarborough.

Let's hope for only minor damage, the towing alone has cost me £125 so far!

just drain the majority of the petrol out (safely) and refill with diesel

it will be worth fitting a new fuel filter as the petrol can breakdown the rubber seals inside it, mechanically it should be fine may even have de coked it a bit

Last week Sainsbury's in Sevenoaks mixed up their petrol and diesel delivery tanks.

Heard about that - luckily I never use Otford Sainsburys as when I was in my teens some mates with French cars (Peugeots and Renaults - not sure why it was those particular cars :S ) reckoned the Sainsburys standard unleaded was making their cars run really badly.

The Tescos thing was a couple of years ago and affected a load of different Tescos, I think it was just a dodgy lot of fuel rather than diesel in the petrol pumps. My friend refuelled her Mk4 Polo at a Tescos up Bromley way and it packed up by the roadside. They paid out the costs of having it fixed though.

well, the car is back on the drive, and the bill is in.......

£465 including:-

£142 for towing

£64 for a fresh tank of diesel

3 hours labour

diesel conditioners

fuel filter

All in all, not too bad. Take out the towing and the diesel and it's a reasonable bill. It seems to be driving ok too. Fingers crossed for the future........

THREE hours labour? For what? Is that just to drain the tank, change the fuel filter and stick fresh fuel in with additives? Man, that seems a lot from my experience, but at least it is fixed.

THREE hours labour? For what? Is that just to drain the tank, change the fuel filter and stick fresh fuel in with additives? Man, that seems a lot from my experience, but at least it is fixed.

Should have been 4 hours but they only billed for 3. Took ages apparently to drain all the lines and flush it all through. Ran like a pig to begin with apparently but after a bit of a run cleared itself up. Says on the receipt that they took the back seats out to get better access to the fuel tank. Didn't know you could do that?

Think some of it was road testing, fetching diesel etc.

Think you can lift the rear seats to get to the fuel pump

There are a couple of access panels underneath the seats & the carpet - At least there are in the fabia. The one nearest the offside would be for the fuel pump I bet.