embarrasing

[dire straits]

Hi again,
Anyone on here that knows how to empty out the fuel tank on a W203 C220CDI est,
Yes, I've done it-filled it up with petrol.

Petter

 

[BlackC55]

Yes I do.

Remove the fuel filter pipes and suck out the contaminated fuel via the feed pipe and replaced the filter.

Remove rear seats and remove the senders and suck out remaining fuel on both sides of the tank.

Fill up with diesel and a bottle of fuel system cleaner.

Crank until engine runs.

Did you start it with the petrol in?

 

[G.O'Rilla]

That's an awful lot of sucking... must taste terrible!

Seriously that's much cheaper than paying a dealer to do exactly the same. Any tips on what to use to draw (I won't use the word suck) the contaminated fuel out easily?

Not that I've ever misfuelled but I do have a blonde daughter who drives a Fiesta diesel so it is about as inevitable as death and taxes......

Thanks

 

[Stratman]

For that blonde moment

 

[dire straits]

Thanks again guys.
Got 50 ltrs out of it, and after consulting with a diesel specialist I have filled it up with diesel this time. Was told it would survive 50-60% petrol, now its only 15-20% in mine and its running without a problem.

Have been driving diesels for 20yrs now and always worried that I would do this stupid trick, I was right to worry!

 

[prprandall51]

Thanks again guys.
Got 50 ltrs out of it, and after consulting with a diesel specialist I have filled it up with diesel this time. Was told it would survive 50-60% petrol, now its only 15-20% in mine and its running without a problem.

Have been driving diesels for 20yrs now and always worried that I would do this stupid trick, I was right to worry!

Hello Dire Straits, sorry to hear about your bad luck. But have I read your post right? A diesel expert said that the car could survive being run (or even just started?) on a 50-60% petrol/diesel mix

 

[SilverSaloon]

Hi

where are you located? if you're anywhere near edinburgh or fife, i'll come round and take your miss-fuel off you if you want shot of it

prprandall51 - a CDI wont tollerate a blend.

cheers

derek

 

[Swozza]

Hello Dire Straits, sorry to hear about your bad luck. But have I read your post right? A diesel expert said that the car could survive being run (or even just started?) on a 50-60% petrol/diesel mix

I remember watching a car program, think it might have been 5th gear. They was testing putting the wrong fuel in Petrol/Diesel cars starting them and driving until they would run no more. Then they emptied the tank and added the correct fuel. The Diesel car after a cough and a splutter fire up and ran. Not so for the petrol.

 

[SilverSaloon]

I remember watching a car program, think it might have been 5th gear. They was testing putting the wrong fuel in Petrol/Diesel cars starting them and driving until they would run no more. Then they emptied the tank and added the correct fuel. The Diesel car after a cough and a splutter fire up and ran. Not so for the petrol.

i'd take whatever car programmes like this say with a pinch of salt... it may well be true, then again it may not be.

i agree petrol into a diesel will have less problems than the other way around but on later diesels its not something i'd want to do..... no problem on the older ones. i put 10% petrol in mine all the time

 

[dinoy]

drain it do not run the engine the petrol create ten times the compression odds on u blow ur engine, be ready to have jump leads and jump start the car as it will take while to release the air lock do not put too much of the cleaner ensure once drained at least 10 litres or 2 gallons is loaded into the car

 

[markmifsud]

I would have thought less compression, due to the petrol seeping down between the piston rings, whereas the derv will not, but either way, as they are both liquids, they should both not be compressible so should not in theory affect the ratio

 

[dire straits]

The petrol that I drained out went into our petrol fueled car, that runs without problems now. The 220CDI runs good now on a mix with 15-20% petrol, of course I will not make this a habit.
My garage that mainly works on diesels said it "will survive" a 50-60% mix for a short time, I proved him right by filling 15ltrs diesel on what was left after emptying out about 50ltrs of petrol.
As said car doing fine now.

Petter

 

[prprandall51]

Hi

prprandall51 - a CDI wont tollerate a blend.

cheers

derek

Exactly my thoughts. I can't believe Dire Straits doesn't need a new diesel pump and engine.

 

[Uberwagon]

The petrol that I drained out went into our petrol fueled car, that runs without problems now. The 220CDI runs good now on a mix with 15-20% petrol, of course I will not make this a habit.
My garage that mainly works on diesels said it "will survive" a 50-60% mix for a short time, I proved him right by filling 15ltrs diesel on what was left after emptying out about 50ltrs of petrol.
As said car doing fine now.

Petter

That is simply not true, your pump will have had less lubrication, to say it will be fine is just a random guess. Also, the engine running fine straight after a fuel change is absolutely no indication that everything is hunky dory, it only indicates that the engine still runs, not that no damage occured.

Personally if you don't want to do it properly then every time you can pop another £5 of diesel in to dilute the mix as any petrol at all will be a bad thing.

Dave!

 

[colinallcars]

Wouldn't it have been wise to fill it up with diesel after removing 50l of petrol in order to get maximum dilution?

 

[dire straits]

Yes it would have been wise to fill it up with 50Ltrs of diesel straight away, but I dont have a pump on my driveway. Just did 2,5 miles to the petrolstation with 50/50, then filled it to the brim to get max dilution.
As to what I have done and the advice I've been given. Its given to me by a garage to services merc's going as taxi's in Norway where I used to be a cabbie in the 90's, these guys work on all types of dieselmerc's with all types of problems 24/7. They also advised to add a bit of two-stroke oil for lubrication (but normal engine oil would do). Have taken unconventional advice from these guys before and it have always worked out fine.
May not be something recommended by Merc (don't think they ever tried it out). But diesels are strong engines, we did run a GD240D on olive oil in '87 when i did my National Service above the artic circle.
I will post status of my car and engine here when I'm back to 100% diesel.

Don't misunderstand me, I appreciate all your advice, just wanted to know how to empty my tank. And I now live in the UK for those wondering.
BlackC55, you must know the ins and outs of these cars, your advice is always spot-on, thank you!

P

 

[prprandall51]

I very much hope your car is undamaged by the experience. However, diesel cars of 1987 vintage could be run on vityually anything liquid and vaguely flammable (London to Brighton on two bottles of sun-tan lotion), whereas modern diesels are very sophisticated, high-precision engineering marvels - they are not so tolerant of misfueling.
Still, for all of us who live in dread of mis-fueling our diesels, your story gives hope that the consequences may not be so dire as are sometimes feared.

 

[Stratman]

I did the same thing 14 months ago, only with a nearly empty tank. See here.

As of now the car is running as well as ever with unchanged fuel consumption, so it really does look like I got away with it

At the pumps I am now paranoid. It is definitely a case of "Once bitten, twice shy"

 

[SilverSaloon]

I very much hope your car is undamaged by the experience. However, diesel cars of 1987 vintage could be run on vityually anything liquid and vaguely flammable (London to Brighton on two bottles of sun-tan lotion), whereas modern diesels are very sophisticated, high-precision engineering marvels - they are not so tolerant of misfueling.
Still, for all of us who live in dread of mis-fueling our diesels, your story gives hope that the consequences may not be so dire as are sometimes feared.

totally agree. i run mine (and have done for 40k miles) on mostly vegetable oil without any serious issues..... but its an old indirect injection - any modern direct injection wont tollorate it.

 

[renault12ts]

I did this 10 years ago in a 300td.

I then drove 5 miles to a meeting. When I came out it would not start...car recovered...they then advised me what I had done. They drained tank...no problems after that whatsoever. So its not really such a worry.