Got away with it or get rid of it?

[_Will_]

So today i gets a call from t'other half, she'd only put a tenners worth of petrol in our 06 Passat

She started it, drove it about a mile, in conked out, she called me, got 50 litres of diesel in some containers and went and filled it up to dilute.
It started and drove fine (if not sounds better than it did before )

Have we been lucky on this one or is a problem going to rear its head a few months down the line, if so should we trade in before it goes bang?
Its a commonrail modern Tdi so just about the worst one to do it to then .
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[WishayKillie]

I might be wrong but think you might get away with it. Unleaded into a diesel is no where near as bad as diesel into an unleaded.

to be on the safe side you could take it to a garage (or if you a member of a breakdown company call them) and get them to drain and flush the tank and lines.

Like I say I'm sure you'll be ok





Oh and punch her in the tits
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[Asharin]

Should be fine. Would have been a LOT worse if she'd done it the other way round!
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[JonB]

I wouldn't want to risk it, could fuck up various sensors. In the short-medium term will probably be fine, but long term, not so sure! If you can afford it best to get it flushed in my opinion!
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[chrisjacks]

get your car a sticker saying diesel

[_Will_]

[Robby]

I'm not sure where the two further up the thread got their ideas from - putting petrol into a modern diesel car is a Very Bad Thing. Tends to ruin the hideously expensive high pressure fuel pumps, seeing as they work to a very fine tolerance and require the lubricity of diesel fuel.

You might have got away with it, or you might find the car finally dieing over the next 250 miles. Driving it til it conked out is a bad thing.

Putting diesel fuel into a petrol car isn't anything like as bad. You might need to flush it out, but it's not going to damage anything major, except maybe injectors.

[JonB]

Aye, I was rather perplexed by the claims that nothing will have gone wrong. Tis like a ticking timebomb, except the thing won't go bang, more likely will die in a whimper and cry £20 notes.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[panrider_uk]

Same happened to me with a brand new car. Fortunately she realised before starting it.

Definitely drain it and flush it.

Mark
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[Phoenix]

Putting diesel in a petrol isn't as bad, it generally just chucks out a bit of a smoke (depending how well you manage to dilute it) and runs like crap until it's burnt off, remember someone putting diesel in their SV650 on a ride, god knows how but they did get about 2litres in before realising, burnt off without issue.

Petrol in diesel is very bad due to injector pump issues as said, if the damage is done it's done but may not appear instantly. I'm not entirely sure what the policy is with insurers these days but I seem to recall that you can actually claim off your insurance when fully comp for misfueling damage, might be worth consideration as alternative to paying yourself, selling or ignoring it.

[stinkwheel]

Might have damaged the fuel pump seals, might not.

Won't have damaged the engine itself.

If it was going to damage a sensor, I'd expect you'd have a red light by now.

Not all fuel pumps seals are intolerant of petrol, varies hugely from car to car. I know Landrover freelanders are really bad for it but I have seen MANY a landrover defender driving at 25mph to the nearest petrol station blowing white smoke out after some idiot squaddie emptied a can of petrol into it.

I also have a mechanic friend who drives an old Escort diesel which he fuels exclusively from the several barrels of petrol contaminated diesel he's charged people to drain and dispose of.

If it were me, I'd keep driving it with the knowledge that you may or may not have to replace the fuel pump at some point in the future. You would be looking in the region of £150-200 to buy a second hand fuel pump, labour on top of that.

I'd be working on the principle that Germans make things well.
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[MarJay]

A tenners worth of petrol is so little I wouldn't think its a problem.

Since when did it become a disaster to put petrol in a diesel car? I always thought that you could run diesels on a mixture of petrol and diesel? Surely its only like putting a bottle of diesel redex in there?

I remember that Kev from this very forum used to buy cheap diesel cars on which he never actually paid for fuel. He used to charge school run mums for draining the diesel out of petrol cars and then keep the fuel to run his car on.

I'm sure that putting diesel in a petrol is much worse as you can end up with hydraulic lock in the cylinders...
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[JonB]

MarJay it is a modern '06 diesel, they are a lot more intolerable to petrol.
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[Kickstart]

Hi

Older diesels could cope fairly easily with a bit of petrol (adding a bit of petrol to a tank of diesel used to be one trick to use in winter to help cope with the fuel going waxy in the cold). However modern common rail dieself running at stupidly high pressures (upwards of 20000psi).

Fair chance that it has damaged the pump, and a new pump is not cheap.

From memory a few years back a member on here who ran the service centre of their local Land Rover dealership commented that the insurance companies who covered the damage caused by refueling with petrol would authorise a replacement pump even though it might appear to be running OK. This was a £2000+ bill but regarded as cheaper than paying the small bill and then having the almost certainty of the £2k bill a few weeks later.

All the best

Keith
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[Blue_SV650S]

Had the same thing ... but they got to £20 of petrol in before they realised what they had done!!

55 plate Focus.

Drove it home (~1mile), where I passed a few comments (not on the accidental fill at the pump itself, but on realisation, why start it and drive it home ???).

Anyway, I drained the tank of all the petrol/diesel by removing a pipe on the fuel tank and filled with fresh diesel.

After a bit of whirring, the car started and has run for thousands of miles since.

I am not sure the idea of diluting it with fresh diesel was the best one to be honest, you now have a full tank of polluted fuel to get through ... at least our way, the car was only running polluted for what 5 mins?

In short, suppose it depends on car/luck, but my example proves you would probably get away with it as long as the car is only driven a short distance and then the fuel drained.

I can't say what would happen running it for 300miles on polluted fuel ...

How many miles has the car done since????

If it is still running ok, sadly I'd suggest dumping all that nice expensive - but polluted - fuel and putting some nice stuff in, sorry!!
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[Phoenix]

[Kickstart]

[_Will_]

[stinkwheel]

[_Will_]

[stinkwheel]

[ncrn]

[Chriss]

[cagiva gezzer]

My dad's TDI passat ate it's own fuel pump at 60,000 miles without the help of any diesel.

Take your chances, it may fail and may be covered by a warranty as they do just go sometimes.
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[_Will_]

Its sorted, kinda.....

Long story short, we've had a few problems with the car and service, so went back had a bit of a whinge.

Anyway, thurs i pick up a 2.2 honda accord sport, if the passat goes bang they will just add it to the list of probelms and assume nothing
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Past -Honda qr50 | 2004 Peugeot Tkr s 50| | 1996 Yamaha XJ600s Diversion|