05 Passat, the gauge was on empty and she filled up, drove a mile and it conked out. Recovery have said they will take it to garage or home. Phoned garage no space until next monday and it will be about £200.

So i'm thinking about doing it myself?

Will i be ok in draining the tank with a hose pipe, but then how do i get the petrol out of the fuel lines?

Fit a new fuel filter, fill her up with diesel and keep my fingers crossed?

Is this worth a try?????

thanks

Will i be ok in draining the tank with a hose pipe

Depends if there is an anti-cyphon device fitted.

What will be £200 – the repair or just the recovery? If you get away with £200 to sort this out after she drove it for a mile you can turn cartwheels mate.

there's companies that specialize in this.

My understanding with this is if it's a high pressure feed (common rail or multipoitn injection) then you may have borked;

the pump
the injectors
possibly the engine.

I'd wait 'til Monday and let the experts do it – they'll drain the whole system and prime the pump etc which you'll struggle to do.

Diesel in a petrol car – bad but not tragic
Petrol in a diesel car – really bad

I'd get the experts to sort it or you'll kill the car.

G_L +1 I'm afraid. You might be able to empty the tank yourself but that's the least of your worries.

"Diesel is a lubricant, and the high pressure pumps used in most common rail diesel injection (CDI) engines – especially from Europe – rely on this for lubrication. Simply turning the ignition on could wash enough petrol into the pump to destroy it – starting the engine could result in pieces of metal from the damaged pump reaching / blocking the injectors."

That might be worst case but it's unlikely to be good news.

I thought diesel engines were meant to be fairly resiliant to this sort of abuse.

The general advice on here when people have put some petrol in the tank is keep topping up with diesel and it should be alright.

So I'd syphon off what you can, top up with diesel and keep turning the engne over til it starts.

{please note I am not a mechanic and just learn everything from STW}

no it's was £200 from the garage who said that was for drainage and disposal of petrol then new fuel filter however looking around the net turns up some horror stories if the cars been driven so i think i'll let the garage look at it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/2737057/A-costly-mistake.html

The general advice on here when people have put some petrol in the tank is keep topping up with diesel and it should be alright.

That's for the ones not stupid enough to start the engine, never mind drive a mile.

flog her in public afterwards regardless of the outcome.

tough love works in the long run.

Surf mat. Wrong. Diesel in petrol=catastrophic.

Petrol in diesel = up to 1/3 tank can be petrol if it's an older gen engine. An 05 might be okay…

@ matthewjb

Rrrriiiggghhhhtttttt.

Maybe if you've dropped a few ml of petrol into a fairly full tank; but this is a full tank from empty and driven until it's conked out (I presume the time taken for the fuel in the lines to expire)

Happened to me once.

Filled a diesel tank to the brim with petrol in preparation for a long journey….£70
I realised my mistake on the forecourt, so didn't actually run any petrol through the fuel lines, but I looked a right picture – scarlet with rage at my own stupidity, yelling expletives at the top of my voice in frustration!
Fortunately, the filling station was half a mile from my regular garage, so he came and towed it back.
Draining the tank was another £200 odd quid, and labour costs (had to remove seats for proper access) added to it, plus disposal costs for the petrol.
Then the cost of hire car for the weekend, allowing us to fulfil our travel plans, and the petrol for that car.
Finally getting my car back and refilling it with diesel….

Close to £800 for a moment of absent mindedness.
Bugger!

Change the wife for a diesel version! 😆

mikertroid – Member

Surf mat. Wrong. Diesel in petrol=catastrophic.

Why?

@ Mikertroid
Diesel in petrol=catastrophic

Sorry , but not. For a start the nozzle of a diesel shouldn't go into a petrol filler anyway. If it did, the car would probably run rough and then splutter to a halt as it won't run on diesel but you're only likely to gum up the filters and plugs as opposed to pumps and engines. A flush through / dilute down with petrol and it'll come back to life.

Surf mat. Wrong. Diesel in petrol=catastrophic.

Petrol in diesel = up to 1/3 tank can be petrol if it's an older gen engine. An 05 might be okay…

Direct from that Telegraph article:

Petrol wrecks diesel engine lubrication processes and is particularly damaging to a diesel engine's costly, high-pressure fuel pump, which operates at up to 2,050bar (30,000psi). Petrol removes the pump case hardening and if a film of hardened metal disintegrates into swarf it will greatly harm or even wreck an engine's internal organs.
At best, if the engine is not started or perhaps run only very briefly, the fuel tank and its internal pump, fuel lines, main high-pressure pump, fuel injectors and filters will all require removal, clearing and re-installation (which might include some renewal) at a cost of up to £7,000. At worst, several parts will need replacing, even the engine itself, at a potential cost of £12,000, or more for a top executive car.

Putting diesel in a petrol car is very rare/stupid because diesel nozzles are fatter. However it's less disastrous if you do manage it.

Garry_Lager – Member
If you get away with £200 to sort this out after she drove it for a mile you can turn cartwheels mate.

I'd have to agree with the above 🙁
I got the bill for sign off for one of our engineers putting petrol in his Transit Connect and that was £350 and the garage said we were v lucky as they were able to reuse some parts otherwise it would have been a lot more.

If you get it done for £200 then well done and go and buy a lottery ticket as your luck is well in at the moment

Bizarrely enough was following a van from these folks this morning

http://www.drfuel.co.uk/

Am loving the cost to dispose of the petrol statements. (you mean stick a couple of gallons each in the garage mechanics own cars)

My mate put petrol in his 05 BMW 325. Recovery would have sorted it for about £250 with loss of warranty. The dealer he bought it from did it for a bit more and continued the warranty.
A very common mistake.

Swiss there are companies who can help limit the overall damage – post on pistonheads.com/gassing

All the best 🙁

falkirk-mark – Member
Am loving the cost to dispose of the petrol statements. (you mean stick a couple of gallons each in the garage mechanics own cars)

Sarcasm fail…..Very unlikely..have you ever followed a petrol engined car with only a small amount of diesel in it

Me too. Filled up with petrol. Sat in the car, plugged the key fob in then luckily realised what i'd done before i pressed the start button.

The 1st thing the tow truck man did was remove the fuse to the fuel pump so he could put the dongle back in to power the car up & free the steering lock. Inserting the dongle powers up a bunch of stuff, including the fuel pump, to pressurise the system.

As above, the drain/flush/replace filter & pump cost me ~£750.

Slightly OT (and it doesnt help)- can you claim on insurance or write your car off worse/case?

bloke at work put petrol in his diesel motor and drove it a few hundred metres before it conked out. Cost him a few hundred to get sorted, certainly much less than £800.

Am loving the cost to dispose of the petrol statements. (you mean stick a couple of gallons each in the garage mechanics own cars)

Exactly 🙂 I even got a 25l container with petrol/diesel mix to put in the mower (which it didn't like too much).

We've made the same mistake twice on our XC90. Neither time was the car started (keys not even get in the ignition). Had it towed by AA to Volvo specialist indy who drained the tank, flushed system and replaced filters.
As I remember the total cost was about £360.00 each time.

Frankly it's simply not worth taking the risk of running it and as the tank was empty and then brimmed with petrol (obviously rich 😉 ) not even an option.

I feel for you as it's a complete bummer. We now have two diesel cars instead of one of each 🙂

Doh!

Could all sorts of damage but you can't tell until you have eliminated all the probs why it's not working.

Wrong fuel/knock sensor,
Knackered injectors
and Damaged engine.

Very costly but happens all the time, just hoping its very minor like filters and lines…

My mate did his but didn't start the car thank god.
Rang me from the station and we pushed the car to the air line area and I pulled the fuel line to the filter. He went on to get fitted a new tank and lines from local garage.

If the bill gets really silly like a couple of grand, then get a 2nd hand engine.

Will your car insurance cover it?

My father in law designed diesel engines. He encouraged me to put petrol mix in my older diesels in winter. Petrol is fine in older diesels. Newer ones will not be so happy.

Diesel in petrol will clog up injectors and won't ignite. Will wreck the engine.

Diesel in a petrol car – bad but not tragic
Petrol in a diesel car – really bad

Really? My wife put petrol in her diesel Polo. The bloke who charged us £250 to sort it (on a bank holiday weekend) said diesel in a petrol is a nightmare as you have to empty it, change the plugs, run it, change the plugs and so on.

What he actually seemed to do looked quite simple, but I wouldnt fancy doing it myself without prior experience.

Things to note:

*If the car is in warranty, dont take it to the dealer, they can actually void the engine warranty.

*Your breakdown cover doesnt count, and they wont come out and help!

'the wife' eh ? 😉

Surf mat. Wrong. Diesel in petrol=catastrophic.

Petrol in diesel = up to 1/3 tank can be petrol if it's an older gen engine. An 05 might be okay

im inclined to agree.apparently older 60 and 70's lorries would have reguarly had some petrol added to the diesel to thin it in winter and help with starting.two things tho;
1)old 60 and 70 lorries would run on pretty much anything inc chip shop oil etc
2)this could be a complete urban myth as i wasnt born till th late 70's.

as to draining yourself.its not hard.the anti syphon stuff is only for opertuinst thieves.if you are at home with tools just remove the filler neck (the long tube to the filler cap) and go in there, or remove the seat or floor panel and find the tank sender unit.it will screw in with a very large round nut (6 inces etc) unscrew that and your straight in to the stinky stuff!(fuel that is)

Diesel in petrol will clog up injectors and won't ignite. Will wreck the engine

Mikertroid. Older diesels is a different matter but sorry, you're totally swimming against the tide on the other two statements.

Diesel in a petrol – pita for sure but ultimately unlikely to wreck anything bar plugs and filters. Petrol will gradually clear any oily diesel back out.

Petrol in a diesel – if it goes wrong it can go disastrously wrong

Indeed – modern common rail diesels are VERY different to old clatterers.

btw when i worked in a garage we used to seriously cane people finatially for this.we would change anything and everthing that we could claim had been in contact with the wrong fuel,filter, fuel lines, tank of juice,disposal of old "bad mix fuel" stripping out this and that.
actually usaully took no time at all and involved a quick drain and filter change, new full brimming tank of fuel and a warp speed road test of around 45 mins on local motorway to "clear her through" 😉
ring round for quotes!!

If anyone's being charged £200 to get rid of petrol/diesel mix, I'll take it off your hands for £100.
My 20 year old low tech Land Rover runs fine on it. 8)

the key difference in statments is to do with the age of the engine. old (non common rail/pd) diesel engines are very low tech, and will take this kinda mistake without too much trouble. New ones are very high pressure and will get screwed over due to the parts mentioned above

If your car was a Focus TDCI for example as soon as you open the drivers door the fuel pump starts running which can be enough to cost you loads to sort out.

As several above – petrol in a commonrail/direct injection diesel is a very bad thing. Very. Lift pump in the tank (£100), main high pressure pump – maybe 300 second hand, injectors £50-100 each. Full system clean and flush…. something to do yourself if you want any value left in the vehicle.