Petrol into diesel

[Jonc220amg]

Sooooo yesterday horror struck me.
I put 13 litres of petrol into my 60 litre diesel 2013 c class 220 cdi amg tank which was basically empty

I spent the next 15 mins just looking at the green nozzle in disbelief of what i have just done.

Luckily I had not started the engine

Weighing up my options I spoke to garage and explained rather embarrassingly what had happened they gave me a card for a specialist in such matters who can come and drain the tank.
Bare in mind we are 3 weeks after xmas money is not so freely flowing as other months.

The guy quoted me £200 as did others via a quick google search.

So I rang a friend of mine who owns a panel beating garage, who said anything under 10 litres topped up SHOULD be ok I was at 13 litres he said it was my call.

I went for it so £50 of diesel later I start my engine, all seemed well got home had some lunch engine cools petrol/diesel settles, I thought If I took it for a long drive I could refill it again thus diluting the petrol even more.

Go in my car..... tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick...bingo alot longer than normal but it started nether the less, ran it for an hour with no issues what so ever infact it felt a bit quciker, I went to a friends house and had a coffee whilst I was made a laughing stock of my mistake.

Back in the car tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick, heart pounding, tick tick tick, bingo, I then proceeded to drive for 3 hours straight half a tank and a refill, absolutely no issues running and no odd noises either.

Got in this morning and it started first time and driving fine.

Do you think I have dodged a bullet or could damage done show up at a later date or would it pretty much be instant?

Has anybody else survived this?

(I am aware I am an idiot)

 

[brucemillar]

Bullet dodged, I would think. It may even help give the engine a clean up with that ratio. I suspect no long term damage.

 

[GeeJayW]

Sounds like you may have gotten away with it and I truly hope you have. However, you should've paid the £200 to get the tank drained before you started the engine. The fuel injection system replacement cost is cripplingly expensive, so the downside of the gamble you just took makes £200 look like a total bargain.

Do not mention it to MB even in passing. If MB get a whiff of this event you can probably kiss goodbye to the warranty for any engine related issues as they will claim that your actions have caused the damage (even if not the case).

Sorry @brucemillar; Unlikely to have done anything more for engine cleanliness than the diesel additives already in play. As for long term damage, only time will tell. The fuel pump and injector tolerances are so tight these days that fuel lubricity (which petrol/gasoline doesn't really have much of) is key to long term operation.

 

[Neiltodd]

Friend recently pit 10 litre petrol into his diesel astra, realised and filled rest of the tank with diesel. His has been ok since.

 

[clk320x]

same happened to a family members RR, refused to start the next day, no damage, fuel extracted and diesel filled up, working fine since

 

[Deletedmember130310]

Worth getting the fuel filter changed as a preventative measure.

 

[a111r]

You should be OK.
If you'd also added 1 litre of new rapeseed cooking oil when you first topped up the tank with diesel, then your fuel blend would have bettered the lubricity of diesel.

 

[a111r]

Worth getting the fuel filter changed as a preventative measure.

Not really. 20% petrol has no effect on the filtering media (paper element) at all.

 

[Markssl]

You should be OK.
If you'd also added 1 litre of new rapeseed cooking oil when you first topped up the tank with diesel, then your fuel blend would have bettered the lubricity of diesel.

That’s a great word, “lubricity”
I shall get that into a sentence tomorrow!!!! [emoji106]


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[Markssl]

Sounds like you may have gotten away with it and I truly hope you have. However, you should've paid the £200 to get the tank drained before you started the engine. The fuel injection system replacement cost is cripplingly expensive, so the downside of the gamble you just took makes £200 look like a total bargain.

Do not mention it to MB even in passing. If MB get a whiff of this event you can probably kiss goodbye to the warranty for any engine related issues as they will claim that your actions have caused the damage (even if not the case).

Sorry @brucemillar; Unlikely to have done anything more for engine cleanliness than the diesel additives already in play. As for long term damage, only time will tell. The fuel pump and injector tolerances are so tight these days that fuel lubricity (which petrol/gasoline doesn't really have much of) is key to long term operation.

Possibly recorded in the cars memory? I don’t know for sure, but maybe worth clearing the stored codes?


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[GeeJayW]

You should be OK.
If you'd also added 1 litre of new rapeseed cooking oil when you first topped up the tank with diesel, then your fuel blend would have bettered the lubricity of diesel.

Do NOT do this!

Raw materials for bio diesel such as rape seed oil, have to go through a process (esterification) to become methyl-esters (RME for rape seed) in order to be suitable blend components. Putting unprocessed bio materials in the fuels tank is not a smart thing to do.

There will now be a bunch of people saying that this is all rubbish and that their mate has been running his diesel on chip fat for years and it's been fine. With modern fuel injection and exhaust after-treatment systems, it is just not clever at all to simply add a litre of rapeseed or another 'cooking oil' type of material to the fuel.

 

[GeeJayW]

Possibly recorded in the cars memory? I don’t know for sure, but maybe worth clearing the stored codes?


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Not sure how the car would 'know' that it was partially filled with gasoline. It may end up having to make some fuel trim adjustments, but with a bit of luck these would be minor. The main concern is mechanical damage in the high pressure pump and fuel injectors which rely on the lubricating properties of the diesel and its additive package, which since going over to zero sulphur diesel spec needs to include a lubricity enhancer.

 

[Rory]

I've come so close to doing this - noticed as I pulled the trigger. With 13L in I'd have bunged some Miller diesel power in or even some 2 stroke, although you've got to use the right stuff.

 

[modelman093]

Petrol floats on top of diesel so continue topping the tank at the halfway mark for a month or two.

 

[a111r]

Do NOT do this!

Raw materials for bio diesel such as rape seed oil, have to go through a process (esterification) to become methyl-esters (RME for rape seed) in order to be suitable blend components. Putting unprocessed bio materials in the fuels tank is not a smart thing to do.

There will now be a bunch of people saying that this is all rubbish and that their mate has been running his diesel on chip fat for years and it's been fine. With modern fuel injection and exhaust after-treatment systems, it is just not clever at all to simply add a litre of rapeseed or another 'cooking oil' type of material to the fuel.

That's about 2 %...
You're scare-mongering, directing the 'risk-averse' to these 'pump-out' providers, which are not required.

 

[a111r]

Petrol floats on top of diesel so continue topping the tank at the halfway mark for a month or two.

No ... they're miscible, so they mix and won't separate.

As ever, anything DIY biofuel related on here appears pure 'pub talk'.

 

[Markssl]

Not sure how the car would 'know' that it was partially filled with gasoline. It may end up having to make some fuel trim adjustments, but with a bit of luck these would be minor. The main concern is mechanical damage in the high pressure pump and fuel injectors which rely on the lubricating properties of the diesel and its additive package, which since going over to zero sulphur diesel spec needs to include a lubricity enhancer.

I should imagine if the wrong fuel is pumped through the engine the ECU will detect any issues it causes! I’m no expert but it seems to pick up everything else!


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[E53AMG]

Sooooo yesterday horror struck me.
I put 13 litres of petrol into my 60 litre diesel 2013 c class 220 cdi amg tank which was basically empty

I spent the next 15 mins just looking at the green nozzle in disbelief of what i have just done.

Luckily I had not started the engine

Weighing up my options I spoke to garage and explained rather embarrassingly what had happened they gave me a card for a specialist in such matters who can come and drain the tank.
Bare in mind we are 3 weeks after xmas money is not so freely flowing as other months.

The guy quoted me £200 as did others via a quick google search.

So I rang a friend of mine who owns a panel beating garage, who said anything under 10 litres topped up SHOULD be ok I was at 13 litres he said it was my call.

I went for it so £50 of diesel later I start my engine, all seemed well got home had some lunch engine cools petrol/diesel settles, I thought If I took it for a long drive I could refill it again thus diluting the petrol even more.

Go in my car..... tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick...bingo alot longer than normal but it started nether the less, ran it for an hour with no issues what so ever infact it felt a bit quciker, I went to a friends house and had a coffee whilst I was made a laughing stock of my mistake.

Back in the car tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick, heart pounding, tick tick tick, bingo, I then proceeded to drive for 3 hours straight half a tank and a refill, absolutely no issues running and no odd noises either.

Got in this morning and it started first time and driving fine.

Do you think I have dodged a bullet or could damage done show up at a later date or would it pretty much be instant?

Has anybody else survived this?

(I am aware I am an idiot)

Well it's too late now! I did the same to my Jaguar XF 3.0d s, research and Jag club members said as long as you haven't started the engine you can drain the tank, change the fuel filter and flush the fuel lines and get away with it (I had put in 27l). Luckily I filled up right next door to a Jaguar dealership, they sent their Apprentices to push it to the workshop and I stumped up £200 for peace of mind.

The warnings I received were that even if not started and the ignition is turned on to unlock the steering and gear lever a certain amount of fuel gets drawn through the lines. If started the petrol acts like a cleaning agent stripping the diesel from the fuel pump and other parts of the engine which use diesel as a lubricant. I was warned that long term damage could be caused to those parts but it depends on quantity etc in tank.

My car was out of warranty which according to the dealership was a good thing as otherwise to keep the warranty intact Jaguar insist the head is stripped down as well and all parts cleaned. Technician said probably overkill as engine had not been started and said in my case not necessary.

I read elsewhere 10l or less would be ok if tank topped up with diesel as you said the quantity is too small to damage.

You made your choice and you now have £200 towards any future damage, what is done can't be undone so pointless worrying, hopefully you will be ok or sell the vehicle before any damage surfaces.

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[brucemillar]

It is worth remembering here that the dealer network are told by the manufacturer when they ask them (what should we do about a 'miss-fuel' that the "correct answer" is to strip the cars fuel system and replace every singe component that the fuel "may have" come into contact with.

This is primarily, to cover themselves (not you) against any future warranty claims. Doubtless, there will be (at some point) some science behind this response. But that science, will far outweigh your real life situation in the forecourt, where you are not measuring fuel with a pipette whilst wearing a white coat and mad hairstyle.

There will always be somebody out there willing to help you. They can tell you how, their Aunt's uncle Fred, knew a bloke who once met somebody, who's Son was engaged to a girl, who's Dad had borrowed a car and parked it up down the road from Essex. Where there are several Fuel Refineries. The fumes from one of these refineries, blew into his tank and rotted, his entire fuel system and tyres, causing him to lose control of the car, which crashed into a crowd of people setting fire to them all.

There will also be people who, whilst stood at the pump realising their mistake, think "oh bugger" and immediately fill the tank with the correct fuel, start up and drive off, never to mention their mistake, or to be found out. They are unlikely to mention when selling the car, that once upon a time, they mistakenly put a fivers worth of the wrong fuel in and carried on driving.

It is a risk, but so is waking up each day.

When (if) you miss-fuel? the fuel mixes with the existing fuel in the cars fuel system (no science here as I do not know how much fuel you have in your car at this point in time). So unless at that point, you stop and drain, steam clean your tank, remove you fuel filter, pies & pump and replace all of them? Then you are in for a life a pain should you wish to be. Alternatively you could take the view that catching a venereal disease from the toilet seat is very unlikely to happen and less likely to be believed by (a) your wife/partner, (b) yourself.

 

[GeeJayW]

That's about 2 %...
You're scare-mongering, directing the 'risk-averse' to these 'pump-out' providers, which are not required.

Not scare mongering, merely giving my opinion based on more than 25-years of developing and testing fuels and lubricants as an engineer with a major oil company, prior to which working as an engineer in a company that designed and developed fuel injection system test equipment used by companies such as Seimens, Lucas/Delphi, Ford and so on.