Filled C320 Diesel with petrol - any advice?

[Tripitaka]

No idea how I did it but managed to put about 55 litres of unleaded into my C320 diesel estate (car's about 18 months old). The yellow Low Fuel warning light was on with about 40 miles left to run so estimate there was about 7 or 8 litres of diesel in the tank

Unfortunately I only noticed when driving (black smoke, stuttering) and didn't get a chance to pull over for about a mile (motorway with no hard shoulder). Thankfully it didn't conk out and I was able to pull over safely and switch off.

Current position is that the car has been towed and the fuel tank is going to be drained and then filled with £20 of diesel by the garage. My question is, is there anything else I should be doing?

 

[Benzowner]

Have a search on the forum, I don't want to sound pessimistic, but that distance could almost be terminal for the engine, I sincerely hope you are lucky though.

 

[Tripitaka]

Have a search on the forum, I don't want to sound pessimistic, but that distance could almost be terminal for the engine, I sincerely hope you are lucky though.

Only posts I could find were quite old - looking for some advice based on more up-to-date info.

Nothing personal but hope to bejesus that you're wrong

 

[Robbo]

you will need to have your fuel system cleaned out and the high pressure diesel pump will need to be replaced. At a main dealers you are talking several thousand pounds of work unfortunately.

 

[DieselE]

This thread will show you the problems of petrol in a CDI

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=32385

Have it towed to a main dealer. If you're really lucky you'll get away with a fuel system flush (around £300-500). You probably don't want to know the cost if you've been really unlucky but as has been mentioned already a new engine is not out of the question.

 

[Tripitaka]

you will need to have your fuel system cleaned out and the high pressure diesel pump will need to be replaced. At a main dealers you are talking several thousand pounds of work unfortunately.

Didn't think I'd get off this lightly...

The garage is 5 miles away and they are planning to bring my car back to me on Monday. Should I tell them not to?

What would you recommend as my next course of action?

 

[DieselE]

The garage is 5 miles away and they are planning to bring my car back to me on Monday. Should I tell them not to?

Only let them bring it back to you on the back of a trailer. Driving it until you've had the extent of the damage properly assessed is likely just to make things worse.

For my money, a Mercedes dealership is the only place for this particular problem. As you will have found out if you read the thread link, you're far from the first to make this mistake.

 

[pammy]

How did you manage to put petrol in instead of diesel in the first place? I know people have managed to claim compensation for this in the past as the pumps have not been clearly enough distinguishable from each other. IIRC BP was particularly bad for having petrol and diesel handpumps and piping that looked very similar.

 

[Robbo]

I think this thread highlights the issue yet again of how easy it is to cause catastrophic engine damage by a simple mistake. This shouldn't be allowed to happen IMO. The fuel companies and car manufacturers need to come up with a system to prevent this occuring.

 

[Gollom]

I did this once myself - but was lucky in that I realised before turning the engine on after filling so it only cost me about £200. So very easy to do - just a brief moments inattention

I will cross my fingers for you - hope the gods are smiling

 

[Satch]

I think, "Woe, woe and thrice woe" covers it.

You most likely have metal shavings in your fuel system. Suspect you will be needing new fuel pump. injectors, flushing and all that goes with that. £3k seems to be the going rate.

 

[230K]

Hi

Just check Mobilolife warranty covered this particular mishap at one stage i think. Someone is bound to correct me.

230K

 

[fuzzer]

Might well be covered by your motor policy insurance if you want to chance your arm with a claim.

Other point about taking it to an MB dealer is the remaining 14 months of the warranty will become null and void on the drivetrain i would imagine.

Once its fixed , offload it at the soonest convienience.

Ignore my advice at your pearl ..

 

[neilrr]

Who's Pearl?

 

[fuzzer]

Who's Pearl?

mine

 

[Tripitaka]

Couple of points:

Still couldn't believe I did this so went back to the garage to have a look. It's an Esso garage and the pumps are very similar. Both have white text and grey livery with only a 2" wide black or green stripe to indicate unleaded or diesel. The nozzles are identical with the fuel name spelt out in white text on top of a large advert for something. Un be frigginleivable - everyone else uses black or green but some £*^$*&^&$^* in Esso's "Marketing" Dept thinks it's better to have uniform presentation than worry about informing the customer.

Following advice from this thread I spoke to the (non MB) garage that picked up my car. They advised that they have a motorised pump that sucks all the fuel out of the system. There will be some left in the tank due to the ribbing at the bottom (which is there to strengthen the tank apparently). They will then fill with 20 litres of diesel and advise to top up asap and keep topped up. Cost will be circa £130 (£85 drainage and £1.20 per litre disposal charge)

They are now doing 30 of these "repairs" a month and are confident that there is no cause for further concern (cited BMW, AUDI, MB etc as using this as an opportunity to fleece its clients). They are contracted by Green Flag and have several branches...

Now here's the kicker - this is a lease car with a service due in 600 miles (about one month's driving) and the lease expires in 8 months (approx 5000 miles driving).

Really value your input so what do you reckon - what to do?

If I go along with the garage and they're wrong am I facing a huge repair bill later? Or, am I facing one anyway and may as well risk it?

Have to say - this has not been a good week

 

[masqueraid]

How did you manage to put petrol in instead of diesel in the first place? I know people have managed to claim compensation for this in the past as the pumps have not been clearly enough distinguishable from each other. IIRC BP was particularly bad for having petrol and diesel handpumps and piping that looked very similar.

Did just this at a BP station last month.

Forecourt was packed so instead of patiently waiting for a pump on the right like usual pulled up at one on the left and carefully looped the filler pipe over the back of the car.

I'd put about a litre of unleaded in the CDI when I realised that the fillers on the left hand side were in the reverse order of those on the right so instead of (RHS) Diesel Ultimate and then Regular followed by Petrol Ultimate then Regular on the left is ran petrol first then diesel!

Phoned MB who assured me that if I flooded the rest of the tank with Ultimate Diesel I'd be OK (and phoned an engineer friend to confirm!) but talking to the manager there he said it was a regular occurence for drivers to start putting the wrong fuel in and 9 times out of ten the customer would say it was becasue they were used to the pump order on whichever side they used most often.

 

[Gollom]

Couple of points:

Still couldn't believe I did this so went back to the garage to have a look. It's an Esso garage and the pumps are very similar. Both have white text and grey livery with only a 2" wide black or green stripe to indicate unleaded or diesel. The nozzles are identical with the fuel name spelt out in white text on top of a large advert for something. Un be frigginleivable - everyone else uses black or green but some £*^$*&^&$^* in Esso's "Marketing" Dept thinks it's better to have uniform presentation than worry about informing the customer.

If that were me I would be taking pics and writing (by recorded delivery) to (the garage or Esso?) with the eventual bill and requesting that they contribute - if you have a solicitor friend who could word it that could be helpful?

I agree it is unlikely - but it will cost you virtually nothing.

 

[BonzoDog]

We did this about 4 weeks ago on the B200CDI putting a half tank of V power petrol into the B200CDI's half tank of diesel.
V-Power petrol and diesel were next to each other, V-Power being the prominent name.
However we noticed it before starting and called MB. They sent a pick up truck and we had it back about 2 hours later. They said that it would have been okay to drive it the 3km to their garage but we opted not to.

 

[crockers]

Simple solution to stop this happening...On unleaded they introduced a smaller nozzle with a restriction on the filler neck so that leaded petrol couldnt be put in and ruin the Cat. So for deisel why not use a triangular nozzle with a triangular neck in the filler for it to fit into -- then if you pick up a round nozzle you will know it isnt diesel. For older cars like ours .. then the triangular nozzle will still fit but we will know it isnt petrol because of the shape...then no recourse to petrol companies if you put a rounded nozzle into your car...Or am I wrong as this just seems to damn obvious.