Unleaded in a diesel!

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Paul.T

New Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
13
Location
Preston
Car
E350 Elegance Estate
I've just put £50.00 of unleaded in my three week old C220 Cdi Sport Auto! Iknow, Iknow.......
It's now in a local dealer who has inspected it. I didn't try to start the car but had to put the ignition on in order to move out of "park" into neutral to get it on the low loader. The dealer tells me it's going to cost me £500+ to drain and flush out but this will invalidate the warranty. To preserve the warranty they will have to replace lines pumps filters injectors etc. etc. for £5K+ but this would probably be covered on my insurance. I smell a scam! Views please.
 
Complete hocum. You didn't start the car so all that is needed is a drain and flush of the fuel tank.

They're taking the p1ss
 
that stinks, get the fuel filters contents analysed and you can see if you have contamination i'd still argue that having not started it means now't left the tank. A tank drain should be far less than £500, I did it on a VW Sharan, a few years ago and it cost £180 and all was well.
 
Blimey real unlucky Paul. It happens mate, it happens. I do recall another post some time back where a dealer wanted to change all manner of lines and pumps and injectors but that car had been run. Others will be along to offer advice I'm sure. If it were out of warranty I'm sure you would just drain the petrol and refull with diesel and the filters would take care of it. Not sure if its a scam but its certainly holding a gun to your head at the moment.
 
I've just put £50.00 of unleaded in my three week old C220 Cdi Sport Auto! Iknow, Iknow.......
It's now in a local dealer who has inspected it. I didn't try to start the car but had to put the ignition on in order to move out of "park" into neutral to get it on the low loader. The dealer tells me it's going to cost me £500+ to drain and flush out but this will invalidate the warranty. To preserve the warranty they will have to replace lines pumps filters injectors etc. etc. for £5K+ but this would probably be covered on my insurance. I smell a scam! Views please.

Lies, all lies. Nothing will have been pumped out of the tank when you turned it on except petrol. They are hateful.

Let them pump it out through the filler, and refill with diesel. There will be no problem. They just want the £5k. It happens all the time. A friend ( no, not me) did it at Christmas. Put 5 litres of petrol in, drove the car, sought my advice, filled with diesel no problem. On a new Audi A5.
 
Petrol in Diesel

Do not turn on the ignition or start the car
If the car's still under warranty you should check with the franchised dealer regarding their advice and correct remedial action – running with even a small amount of petrol in the tank might invalidate the warranty while some manufacturers advise that seals and filters should be renewed even if the engine has not been run.
Generally a small amount of incorrect fuel should not damage the engine as long as you have not started the car and top up fully with diesel fuel.
  • If you've added more than 10% (5 litres in a 50 litre tank) petrol – Drain the tank and refill with diesel
  • If you've added less than 10% petrol (5 litres in a 50 litre tank) – Top up with diesel and run normally unless the manufacturer has advised otherwise
from AA Fuel Assist : misfuelling - what to do if you've put petrol in a diesel car - The AA
 

So long as there is less than 10% concentration petrol contamination you are ok to drain and refill completely with diesel.

I am not too sure if there is a manually operated diesel pump to pump the fuel through to the engine bay, but if there is then you can use this just to make sure you did not get any pure petrol (greater than 10 petrol actually) into the lines. There just maybe a tiny bit in the fuel pipe greater than 10%, Does petrol dissolve into diesel? I guess it would but how far along a pipe would it travel??
 
I did this in a fairly new Audi about 3 years ago. I had brimmed the tank from empty so not pleased. Fortunately the RAC guy recommended a local garage rather than dealer as it was cheaper and, as I didn't have to tell Audi about it, it didn't affect my warranty.

Tank was drained and garage put in 10 litres of diesel. I then took it to filling station and filled up. Cost from garage was £200 and I didn't have any issues at all with the car.
 
A bloke at work did this with a C350 not so long ago. He's not in yet but I'll see if I can find him a bit later and find out what his dealer did and cost of course.
 
Whatever happens with the car (and best of luck getting it resolved ASAP), one thing you can be sure of is never to grace that dealer with your presence again. How can you trust them after a load of c0ck and bull like that? :mad:

People on here probably know I have a 'thing' about dealers, but is it any wonder when this sort of thing happens? B@st@rds.
 
Everyone is happy that the car will be fine with a simple drain and refill but I'm not sure that this is the problem.

Isn't the problem that the dealer has said that unless all the lines have been changed then the warranty will be invalidated.

We really need to know what Mercedes's take on the situation is.

The dealer knows that the car has been filled with petrol and, no doubt, this will have been recorded. Unless the actions specified by Mercedes (not the dealer but Mercedes) have been carried out then they are in a prime position to invalidate the warranty for any future engine/fuel system claims. Their argument could be "You have misused the vehicle and have not taken the remedial actions we specified following the misuse therefore we cannot be liable".

Unfair - probably but it could happen. As I say, I think you need to get Mercedes to specify what remedial action they want you to carry out and not just assume the dealer is right.
 
Paul T, unlucky.

On the plus side, you did'nt break down while driving and hav an accident.

All good replies on this so far, I often put a little petrol in my diesels, never more than 5% (normally 2/3% from time to time in winter and a month before MOT) and I also hear above 10% can be problems, also the newer hi-tech diesels tend to be less tolerant of hi petrol % in fuel mix.

Again I heard a story just like yours a few years ago, Viano 3 weeks old, engine not ran, MB gave same two options, £500ish to drain/flush and warranty void period or various bits and bobs replaced as that terrible petrol will have cause much damage thay said !!!!!! ha ha ha !!!!!! £8,500 was quoted, think person took the £500 option and hoped any warranty items outside fuel system bits wood be sorted out OK, however he was aware, once MB have recorded petrol in tank, they can void all warranty items.

As a general rule, I always insist on a fuel bill that shows type of fuel and re-check this bill before I start the car, belt and braces approach.

As a general rule, any break down/fuel issues after a recent fuel top up, don't contact MB untill you have ruled out wrong fuel.

And although many people may laugh at fellows who put in wrong fuel, it's very very easy to do, different stations/companies colours, standard petrol/diesel, more power petrol/diesel/ more cleaner city diesel I think it's called.

Did I read approx 400 people a day do it in the UK that require garage services after wrong fuel top ups, a nice money earner for many.

Does insurane cover this item ????
 
And although many people may laugh at fellows who put in wrong fuel, it's very very easy to do, different stations/companies colours, standard petrol/diesel, more power petrol/diesel/ more cleaner city diesel I think it's called.

Did I read approx 400 people a day do it in the UK that require garage services after wrong fuel top ups, a nice money earner for many.

I believe the AA have a dedicated team who just deal with misfuelling and are kept very busy

I always used to think how can you possibly put the wrong fuel in your car.......until it happened to me :doh: Nothing more than being distracted by events at work caused it for me. I'm no pretty paranoid and double check whenever I take the filler from the pump that I've got the right one, even to the point of checking that the hose isn't crossed with another one and definitely goes into the diesel pump :eek:
 
All of the above makes you wonder why there cannot be 2 different fuel filler diameters agreed between car manufacturers and fuel companies. It is the 21st century after all, or am I missing something?
 
All of the above makes you wonder why there cannot be 2 different fuel filler diameters agreed between car manufacturers and fuel companies. It is the 21st century after all, or am I missing something?
But you'll still be able to get it wrong one way!!
 
When Unleaded was introduced, the fillers were made deliberately narrower so that cross-fuelling between 4 Star and Unleaded didn't happen. Of course, we now have Diesel and Unleaded more readily used and so the lesser of two evils would have to be decided first - which is worse, petrol in diesel or vice versa? I'd say petrol in diesel in modern diesel engines is probably worse where as diesel in petrol could still destroy catalysts etc so it almost an impossible decision to make.

I agree that a little more conformity on pump/hose colouring could help. Black for diesel, green for petrol would probably be best?
 
Paul T, unlucky.

On the plus side, you did'nt break down while driving and hav an accident.

All good replies on this so far, I often put a little petrol in my diesels, never more than 5% (normally 2/3% from time to time in winter and a month before MOT) and I also hear above 10% can be problems, also the newer hi-tech diesels tend to be less tolerant of hi petrol % in fuel mix.

Again I heard a story just like yours a few years ago, Viano 3 weeks old, engine not ran, MB gave same two options, £500ish to drain/flush and warranty void period or various bits and bobs replaced as that terrible petrol will have cause much damage thay said !!!!!! ha ha ha !!!!!! £8,500 was quoted, think person took the £500 option and hoped any warranty items outside fuel system bits wood be sorted out OK, however he was aware, once MB have recorded petrol in tank, they can void all warranty items.

As a general rule, I always insist on a fuel bill that shows type of fuel and re-check this bill before I start the car, belt and braces approach.

As a general rule, any break down/fuel issues after a recent fuel top up, don't contact MB untill you have ruled out wrong fuel.

And although many people may laugh at fellows who put in wrong fuel, it's very very easy to do, different stations/companies colours, standard petrol/diesel, more power petrol/diesel/ more cleaner city diesel I think it's called.

Did I read approx 400 people a day do it in the UK that require garage services after wrong fuel top ups, a nice money earner for many.

Does insurane cover this item ????

I believe Adrian Flux are now offering some kind of policy to cover this:

Misfuel Insurance Cover | Adrian Flux

Good luck with it Paul T.
 

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