Wrong fuel into car!!

[quodec]

I know of some people who recently, who after a decade or so of driving diesels, have switched to hybrids and inadvertently put diesel into their petrol fuel tank! You would think that by now car manufacturers would have the technology in place for this to be impossible to happen. Why?

[kadman]

Happened me recently, driving my wife's car, put petrol into diesel. Was at the €20 mark when it dawned on me, so finished filling with diesel. Spluttered a bit and was slow to start the first time, but after that was fine.

You would have been better to drain out the petrol from the tank, and then re fill with diesel.
Even starting a diesel engine and run a small amount of petrol can damage the entire fuel system, let alone the engine.

You should buy a lottery ticket if you managed to drive a diesel car with petrol in it

https://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/a ... uel-advice

What happens if you put petrol in a diesel car?

Putting petrol into a diesel tank causes more damage than diesel in a petrol car.

Plus, petrol nozzles can easily fit into most modern diesel filter necks. It makes it far easier to accidentally put petrol into a diesel tank than vice versa.

Petrol damages diesel engines because:

Diesel acts as a lubricant, helping the fuel pump to do its job.
Petrol does the opposite - it increases friction between parts in the diesel engine.
The friction isn't good news for your diesel engine.
The more petrol that's pumped through the diesel engine, the more damage it'll do.
That's why it's so important not to start the car.

Common rail (or HDi) diesel engines are particularly likely to be damaged by the wrong fuel. If there's a lot of damage, it could mean new fuel pumps, injectors, pipes, filters, fuel tank – or even a whole new engine.

[490808]

You would have been better to drain out the petrol from the tank, and then re fill with diesel.
Even starting a diesel engine and run a small amount of petrol can damage the entire fuel system, let alone the engine.

You should buy a lottery ticket if you managed to drive a diesel car with petrol in it

While I agree, you get f**k all petrol for €20 these days. With a full fill that would probably only be a quarter of a tank

[CelticRambler]

Even starting a diesel engine and run a small amount of petrol can damage the entire fuel system, let alone the engine.

Which takes us back to the OP's query: if (modern) diesel engines are such delicate flowers, why are filling stations still using nozzles that allow you to put even a single drop of the wrong fuel into a tank?

I have to change regulators if I want to run my camper's gas appliances off butane rather than propane (hell, I even have to change regulators if I want to use "German" propane instead of "French" propane) but there's nothing to stop me giving my shiny new engine a feed of E10 - or E85 - if I'm distracted by thoughts of dancing demoiselles while standing by the pump.

[kadman]

The main thing to remember is they are totally different fuel types. One relies on its explosive capabilities, the other relies on its lubricant abilities.
A diesel fuel engine lubricates, where as when you add petrol to the mix, you dilute the diesel and then basically rinse the diesel off the engine parts that get lubricated from the diesel, mainly all the top end major components.
This increases friction, that increase wear, in seconds, not hours, but seconds. Thats why engine rebuilders use component grease on engine rebuilds, before the engine is built and has any oil. Damage here happens in seconds, it does not need minutes.

The fact that you managed to start it and drive away, does not mean everything is rosy. It means you have probably done some harm that wont become apparent until you get some premature engine issues further down the road, that you pass off as wear and tear and do not associate it to your misdeeds at the pumps.

Thankfully as i have been forewarned by the fill up misdemeanors I wont be buying either of your second hand damaged vehicles.
Just remember for future reference that petrol washes off your lubricants from all your metal surfaces, and then you start running metal to metal aaaarrrggghhhhhh..................

[Hairy-Joe]

The fuel nozzles are a different diameter. The diesel filler is wider to stop the diesel going into a petrol car. The wider neck of a diesel however doesn't really stop the petrol nozzle from going in. I also think they are a different angle to try to stop the crossfilling.

Also, the handles are different colours and it's printed on the handle also.

I can't understand why it happens. Surely people take the two seconds to double check and to match the words on the fuel cap to the nozzle or is it just me?

[CelticRambler]

If you regularly use a particular fuel for a particular vehicle type, then find yourself in a similar vehicle that uses a different fuel, it's easy to fall back on past habits. As the OP pointed out, his/her acquaintances had always driven diesels in the past, so it would only have taken a momentary distraction to have their arm working on autopilot for 30 seconds.

[kadman]

The people I told after were not as catastrophic!

In fact a few said "oh yeah, sticking a few euros of petrol in a diesel engine is a common pre NCT trick". Though they did say that was usually like a fiver...

Chances are the people you know, have never rebuilt any diesel engines, so they might not know. I am happy enough that I have rebuilt many engines, and am singing from the same hymn sheet as the AA, thats good enough for me.

[Cyclepath]

General opinions out there seem to say 5 to 7.5% is safe enough. When I bought a diesel mitsubishi colt back in 2012 I mistakenly put 2 litres of petrol in it before i realised what I was doing. The guy in the garage just said brim it with Diesel and you'll be fine.

I very tentatively did so and kept brimming it up again every few days. No ill effects for years afterwards that i could see anyway. But i think I was lucky in that it was 2 litres in a 47 litre tank so under 5%

[kadman]

Only an idiot would suggest putting petrol into a diesel engine as part of its pre nct emissions control

They obviously do not understand the part diesel plays in a common rail diesel engine, especially in the fuel pump. It needs diesel as its lubricant in order to operate. It revolves at such high speed, it needs only seconds to wash the lubricant from all the running surfaces.
And straight away you get friction, heat and damage.

There are numerous engine additives for diesel engine cars pre nct , and petrol aint one of them

[Hairy-Joe]

Only an idiot would suggest putting petrol into a diesel engine as part of its pre nct emissions control

They obviously do not understand the part diesel plays in a common rail diesel engine, especially in the fuel pump. It needs diesel as its lubricant in order to operate. It revolves at such high speed, it needs only seconds to wash the lubricant from all the running surfaces.
And straight away you get friction, heat and damage.

There are numerous engine additives for diesel engine cars pre nct , and petrol aint one of them

That's true. A lot of these "old wives tales" worked on the old diesel engines that would burn anything due to the low injection pressures. Modern engines (basically anything from the last 15 years) needs decent clean diesel

[kadman]

Unless of course you are driving an old diesel banger. They would fair better than modern diesels,