Petrol in Diesel

[Bert Lad]

Can anyone tell me what kind of damage is done if you accidently put petrol in Mercedes 320 CDI and drive it ? The message from dealer is it coudl be very expensive to fix but would not give details .
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Thanks -Bert

 

[jeffhosier]

A mate of mine filled a diesel Peugeot with petrol and drove from Carlisle to Newbury (about 300m). When he realised what he'd done, he just topped up the tank with diesel, and two years on, he's still driving the thing.

Building sites are notorious for people who top up diesel dumper trucks and the like with petrol to make them easier to start on a cold morning.

If I'd done it to my 1988 250TD, I'd probably try and get the petrol drained out, fill it with diesel, and see what happens. (But then I've just had a trade-in offer of £5,700 for it, so to some extent my potential financial loss is limited).

Hope it all works out OK, and not too expensive.

 

[500sl]

Have you done it or just thinking about it? :roll:

 

[99clk02Ebreak]

My father filled my mothers diesel Ford up wiuth petrol and she drove for 50 miles before it started glugging and slowing down. The AA took them to a garage, they drained the tank, filled it back up and away they went within the hour.

The only sting in the tail was that my dad did exactly the same thing again 3 weeks later. Same result.

He's now banned from filling her car up. He drives a petrol car.

I think it would be better this way around than diesel into a petrol car.

 

[wiggy]

not totally sure, I would echo the previous comments BUT!!!! The newer the car the more problems this will give you due to the various sensors newer vehicles have. The reason I say this is that I was involved in a press demo of the accord diesel (stonking engine by the way!) and one of the valeters filled one with petrol, he claimed it wasnt started ( :roll: Yea right) I helped to recover it back and the workshop staff got in touch with the technical dept with the view to draining the tank, changing the filters and filling back up with diesel. Technicals response was "NO!", from memory I believe that the injector pump had to be replaced, the system flushed and a few other bits changed. However this engine is a totally different approach to diesel in its design and as such is quite unique so it may be unique in technical dept approach to the petrol phonomenum. Hope I havent disheartened you too much as I said its a highly developed engine and not like other diesels so you might be ok with just a new filter, system flush and a fresh tank of derv.

 

[panason1c]

I think the RATIO of the accidental mix is more relevent, in the early days of diesel motoring (before the advent of modern diesel fuel which now comes with waxing inhibitors) we were advised to add 25 percent of petrol to the diesel fuel in the winter period to avoid 'waxing' caused by the lower temperatures..

If you know that the 'mix' was a relatively low ratio to the diesel that was already in the tank then i think you would probably be ok to just keep topping up the tank to dilute the petrol out of the system without any other action.

To sum up....if you mixed 25'ish percent or less of petrol then i would be surprised if any damage would have occured.

 

[sclass]

I have an old 300 merc it will run on anything diesel' parafin'heating oil' and old cooking oil even petrol diesel mixed with no problems.

 

[190]

Can anyone tell me what kind of damage is done if you accidently put petrol in Mercedes 320 CDI and drive it ? The message from dealer is it coudl be very expensive to fix but would not give details .
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Thanks -Bert

Depends on how much petrol you put in £5 or £10 would not make any difference as long as you fill the tank with diesel, If you put if you put in much more you would have to drain the tank & change the fuel filter because your car would not start easy or run properly there would be a rattling noise coming from the engine and it could damage the catalyst converter and cause the ECU to malfunction. :lol:

 

[sclass]

Can anyone tell me what kind of damage is done if you accidently put petrol in Mercedes 320 CDI and drive it ? The message from dealer is it coudl be very expensive to fix but would not give details .
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Thanks -Bert

Depends on how much petrol you put in £5 or £10 would not make any difference as long as you fill the tank with diesel, If you put if you put in much more you would have to drain the tank & change the fuel filter because your car would not start easy or run properly there would be a rattling noise coming from the engine and it could damage the catalyst converter and cause the ECU to malfunction. :lol:

I can fill my tank for £5 or 1000dinar over here

 

[SteveBid]

I have filled my E300TD up with petrol. Ran it for 20 miles on the motorway and when I left the motorway heard the engine sound was "different" filled it to the lid with diesel and just kept it topped up every day with diesel for 1000 miles and all was fine. The trouble with petrol is that it "vapour locks" when it gets hot and also there is no lubricating value in petrol so it's important to dilute it asap. I also filled up my wife's petrol car with diesel but that only just cleared the forecourt before it came to an abrupt end. I drained the tank and fed the contents to my diesel - no problems at all. Back in the bad old days, it was normal to fill diesels with a mixture of petrol and oil in the winter otherwise the beasts would never start from cold.

 

[Bert Lad]

Many thanks to all who has provided a response. It has started to make sense - My error was to fill 90 % petrol and drive approx half a mile - dealer has said it will cost approx £700 to flush tanks/clean or change pump etc. - Dealer says that that CDI tecnology uses extremely high pressures to inject diesel and as petrol removes the lubrication it causes some damage! Certainly won't be making this mistake again.

Bert

 

[landover]

If you drain your tank then fill it up with diesel remove return to tank pipe and start car it will flush all the petrol out of the system. :idea:

 

[LNM]

sclass

Are you having a laugh? you are surely not seriously putting vegetable oil through the fuel system?

If so, I'm throwing all my LPG conversion ideas out the nearest window because Netto Extra Virgin Olive oil is CHEAP !!

 

[PRS]

vegy oil will only work in a diesel

 

[landover]

It will work I tried it with an old diesel 190 that was being scrapped I filled it with cooking oil and ran it for 2000 mls no problems Only drawback is it smelled like a chip shop at the exhaust.

 

[sclass]

vegy oil will only work in a diesel

We all know that!!!!!!!! Go back to sleep