Just Put Half A Tank Of Unleaded In!

[Ogben Schmutzel]

I have just put half a tank of unleaded in my diesel.

 

Tank was virtually empty so will be at zero dilution. Drove about 3 miles home without problem but now the car won

[seatkid]

They reckon there shouldn

[redneck01246]

:( you may be lucky, but i have been talking to a mechanic at kia (formally head service tech at fords) and asked him about premature fuel sytem failure on sedonas due to fuel contamination (

[GSMGuy]

Redneck took the word out of my mouth... Even only 3 miles of driving, in my opinion will have caused serious wear to the fuel pump and the unit injectors, which operate with clearances as little as 0.005mm the ONLY thing that lubes the internal parts of these is the diesel... Petrol will just strip the surfaces and you will have bare, and hot metal to metal contact.....

 

After 3 miles, there will almost definately be scoring on the internal surfaces of the injectors, which causes further problems as the internal components rotate and slide against each other..

 

Although there will have been a "reserve" of clean diesel in the filter, this will have quickly been pumped through and back to the tank, to be diluted, as the PD system is a constant flow and return type, with the engine drawing what it needs from the filter.

 

Mike

[Ogben Schmutzel]

Umm bad then eh!!

 

It was running fine when I parked it up!!!

 

Is there hope :huh: :(

 

Regards.

Oggy.

[johnb80]

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it, I refuelled my brand new Transit van from empty to full

[Ogben Schmutzel]

Ok and thanks to all for the advice its much appreciated even though some of it did not make enjoyable reading. :(

 

Mike and Redneck, many thanks for giving me the hard facts. I will bear them in mind but I am going to let JB

[seatkid]

Don't worry, diesels don't run on petrol, they stop (immediately). PD's are better in this situation than convential TDIs as there is no distributor pump involved, the capacity of an PD injector pump is a couple of cc. There are no rotating parts in a PD.

 

I'm sure it'll be alright....

[Ogben Schmutzel]

Seatkid,

 

Sorry, I realised after posting that I had missed thanking you for your first post on this.

 

Ok, maybe its not so bad then. Thanks for the reassurance. I will post back on how it goes but I suppose that some will say that damage may not be noticeable for some time.

 

Why the so vastly different views do you think? I

[seatkid]

Difference of opinion is because what you have done is rarely seen, and so we are extrapolating our knowledge.....:(

 

There are lots of anecdotes about BMW drivers forking about thousands of pounds for the same mistake. But the reality is they were going to be taken to the cleaners by the dealers anyway.... :huh:

 

Unlike your conclusion, any damage will be immediately obvious...new injectors at worst.....

[Bigjeeze]

Oggy

 

You are one of around 100,000 plus motorists a year in the UK who do this - It's so common it's a joke. My Dad did it to his 6 week old Zafira, My S0n to a Peugeot 307 with only 5000 miles on the clock. In both cases they were drained and refilled with no obvious problems. Provided you remove as much if not all petrol as possible and dilute it with good clean Diesel I am sure you will be OK.

 

Sleep well!

[redneck01246]

ogben

did,nt mean to scaremonger, my reply was only what i had been told by tech as i have heard of sedona's being wrecked with fuel contamination and ex ford tech mentioning they have had problems with galaxy's being wrecked due to fuel contamination. :huh:

[GSMGuy]

Ditto with Redneck, although Seatkid, the internal sliding piston of the PD (the pump element) is free to rotate inside the body, and is in fact encouraged to do so with the effect of compressing and releasing the spring against which it acts..

 

http://www.disco2.com/tech/td5engine/eui.jpg

 

Mike

[johnb80]

My Tranny van went quite a distance with it's tankful of petrol and then would not start. Talking to a diesel expert he said that because the engine was hot (and kept hot) and the fact there was some diesel in there, there was enough heat generated by the compression which fired the diesel which in turn fired the petrol. This is similar situation when diesel engines are run on LPG, the diesel is left ticking over, add lpg and the engine revs up.

 

Regards - JB

[Davetheref]

I seem to remember some earlier threads about adding a few litres of petrol to a diesel when its almost full and this helps clean the injectors.

 

Am I talking out of my a**e on this or have I got it right?? :huh: :(

[Guest MATT]

I seem to remember some earlier threads about adding a few litres of petrol to a diesel when its almost full and this helps clean the injectors.

 

Am I talking out of my a**e on this or have I got it right?? :huh:  :(

i have also heard this, that a small amount of petrol, can help to clean the engine/injectors out.

 

---but is it true?---

 

MATT

[Masked Marauder]

If you want to clean your engine out try running it on 50% BioDiesel for a couple of tankfulls, or on 100% BioDiesel if you want a quick clean!

[GSMGuy]

Hmm, in the old days, peeps used to put a bit of petrol in the diesel, not to clean out, but to prevent waxing in winter... Older engines are not made to as fine tolerances as modern ones, so te running clearances were greater, allowing for a thicker oil film between components.

 

As I said in my last post the running clearances of a modern motor are FAR smaller, so therefore a much thinner oil fim is present, and under greater stress (hence the very specific requirements for the oil used in out TDi's & esp PD's!)

 

The tightest clearances exist in the fuel sytem components, of which the injectors are externally lubed by the engine oil, and internally ONLY by the fuel.. So what effect do you all think flushing a solvent (petrol) through the innards of a finely machined mechanism, thus washing away it's precious oil film, and still whacking hell out of it with a cam lobe, is going to do to the surfaces??

 

Also PD motors should NOT be run on BIO at any time.. It states so in the handbook!

 

http://img126.echo.cx/img126/8505/kd0115zy.jpg

 

 

Mike

[Guest MATT]

Also PD motors should NOT be run on BIO at any time.. It states so in the handbook!

 

 

Mike

:( :o Ooops :o :o

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Only joking :huh:

 

MATT

[seatkid]

Bah, I still remember when diesels ran on coal dust and wood chippings..... :huh:

[Masked Marauder]

 

Also PD motors should NOT be run on BIO at any time.. It states so in the handbook!

 

I know what it says. I also know of a large number of people who have been running PD TDis on B100 for over 100,000km with no problems or issues.

 

Do a search, you may be surprised at the crap we are running our cars on at the moment.

[Ogben Schmutzel]

Hi All,

 

Got the car back and superficially all is ok. All they did was towed it in, drained the petrol, blew out the air line changed the fuel filter and apparently it started first time. added some diesel lube too

[seatkid]

Can I have the petrol they took out for my Skoda? ;)

[Ogben Schmutzel]

LOL!

 

I was thinking of doing the same - but for my lawn mower!!

 

Actually I forgot to ask what did with it!

 

Cheers.

Oggy.

[Guest marcusheawood]

I recently had to drain a VW transporter T25 1.9 petrol for someone, clean the carb. out, and wash 'n' dry the plugs: they put