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Stratman

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 15, 2003
Messages
5,804
Location
Sunbury
Car
W203 C200 CDI '04Estate
I filled my car with petrol the other day. It's a Diesel :eek:

I drove it away from the pump blissfully unaware until it started misfiring very badly at idle/low revs, about half a mile on. At higher revs it ran ok. The penny dropped and I pulled into a handy BP station with a big parking area and called the RAC. They couldn't drain and flush the system themselves but they would tow me to somewhere that could. I was in a hurry (it was my only day off in three weeks and I was the taxi driver taking my son and his clobber back to university) so when the RAC man recommended a place only five miles away who could do it straight away I jumped at it.

They were extremely competent and thorough, taking about two hours to complete the process.

The RAC man said that "fuel contamination" is their second-highest reason for callout behind accidents :eek:

Talking to the garage man, he said that the chances of it having caused damage were next to none as it had been driven for less than three miles with the wrong fuel, and the petrol was removed relatively quickly so seals and the like weren't in contact with it for very long. I'll be asking Ollie to take a very careful look at them at the next service though.

Total cost was £199 plus the nearly full tank of unleaded (and I used my Tesco 5p off voucher to buy it :( ) and looking like a complete pratt.

The car ran perfectly on its trip to uni, returning over 60mpg for the journey (C200 cdi estate)
 
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oops indeed. Glad you got it sorted so quickly.
 
It can damage the fuel pump and injectors but you may have got awaywith it.
 
I put half a tank of diesel in my bike once. Topped it off with unleaded and it ran ok, bit smokey but it ran. :eek:
 
Probably did it some good, a nice bit of upper cylinder lube.
 
I have a Saab diesel hire car at present , i keep repeating to myself ' Diesel , diesel , diesel ' when i go to the garage. :eek:
 
I have a Saab diesel hire car at present , i keep repeating to myself ' Diesel , diesel , diesel ' when i go to the garage. :eek:

Just start the engine, no need for a reminder then.
 
I have a Saab diesel hire car at present , i keep repeating to myself ' Diesel , diesel , diesel ' when i go to the garage. :eek:

I drive both and have developed a routine of putting the nozzle into the filler neck, then standing back and rechecking before starting to fuel.

I've come within an ace of doing it wrong when I used a pay at pump for the first time and it wouldn't accept my card as a queue growing behind me.
 
You will be lucky if you have actually gotten away with this..

I would keep an eye under the bonnet as unleaded can cause various components to leak, especially the high pressure pump...
 
Thanks for all the good wishes, much more welcome than the 'tea and sympathy' I got from the family :rolleyes:

I'll certainly take regular peeks under the bonnet looking for leaks. Hopefully the fact that there was about one and a half gallons of Diesel still in the tank may have been enough to provide some lubrication for the pump, and the petrol was only in contact with the fuel system for under four hours may have saved the seals.

We'll see.:confused:
 
These guys are good and mobile as well.

www.autofuelfix.com

Reading to south coast area and the AA and RAC use them.
 

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