Petrol in a Diesel. Oops

[Drains]

OK, nothing to do with welding, but I need advice. After 25 years of relative common sense with cars I have turned into a complete twonk, viz:-

In my infinite wisdom ive just put some petrol in my missus' Renault Laguna diesel. Ratio about 2 petrol to one diesel, in the tank. After about 3 miles, realised my mistake and filled up all the way with diesel, making the ratio about 2 diesel to one petrol, then drove about 3 more miles.

I'm going to vacuum pump all the fuel out and replace it with diesel tonight.
The car is running fine, but will it stay that way?

Wotchu all think? Have I killed the car, will my missus kill me? Have I stripped the surfaces off the injector pump. I have my head in my hands. I am an idiot.

By the way, before anyone says anything, I shall never criticise anybody, for anything, ever again. Instant Karma.

 

[dwc]

You could add about a gallon of petrol to a tank of diesel in the winter to stop it waxing but that was before all the anti waxing agents were introduced. I think 2 to 1 is still a bit weak in the diesel dept. The safest thing to do is drain the tank down either totally or about a 1/4 full and then add your diesel. Once thats done take the feedpipe from the filter to diesel pump and try and rig up a pipe from the filter into a container. Switch ignition on but dont start the engine, the pump in the tank will pump the new stuff through the lines and filter and into your container. That way you will only be running the engine on whats in the fuel rail.

 

[dwc]

I used to reclaim fuel from cars and vans which were passed their rental days when I worked for car rental companies. Some makes of cars were impossible to reclaim fuel due to an anti syphoning device in the neck near the tank.
The pipe going to the tank is full of bends and is quite tricky putting a syphon tube down. Not sure about Lagunas though but I wish you well.

 

[lexi]

I did it ONCE as well . Escort 1.8 turbro diesel. The thing only went a mile then chucked it. Drained the lot good as new. Mate did it a few months ago with 306 xud diesel ........50 % diesel. It didn`t affect it.
Some engines are more tolerant than others. Is yours a common rail model?

I think if it`s driving OK I would use it and as soon as you use a gallon...get a gallon of derv into it and so on.

Alex

 

[stinkbridgenine]

what year/model is the laguna?

 

[dwc]

Some diesel cars can run on a vegetable oil/diesel mix as much as 50/50. My mate ran his bedford midi on 50/50 mix with no problems. I heard the Lucas diesel pumps cant cope with the mixing of veg oil an diesel and can do the pump in.

 

[daf45]

If you're draining the fuel it'll probably be OK.
Older diesels would probably be OK anyway - you could have just poured some engine oil in with the petrol (some trucks will manage OK in places where the right fuel is scarce / too expensive) and top up with diesel ASAP.
Modern injectors and pumps CRDI / HDI etc different matter - they're very sensetive and expensive to put right.

 

[aero]

mix up a gallon of diesel with a pint of new engine oil and chuck it in. Modern or old diesels seem to run on different fuels ok. Without the lubrication of the oil you will sod up the pump.

 

[Drains]

what year/model is the laguna?

It's a T reg - 2000 I think (i've lost track of the letters/years around then). 137k on it, so a bit of wear already.

I've drained the tank completely - vacuum pump at the filter inlet, put in a gal of derv, drained it again, then filled up. What i'm more interested in is whether there's any long term damage to the injector pump. The AA website totally made me kack it. They say that petrol strips the hardfacing off the pump internals!! Im thinking though of putting half a pound of salt in with that one, but what if it's true?

I should tell the whole story. Me, missus, kid and dog were headed into East Lothian to the beach, but couldn't get out of Edinburgh cos of roadworks on the A1 so every road was chocka.

We gave up and headed back, at which point I noticed the car wasn't pulling until the turbo came in, thought it must need a service, then realised that old numbnuts here had absentmindedly put in petrol at the station. And I've been driving only diesels for ten years! So with head in hands we stopped at the first petrol station and filled up with diesel so as to mitigate the, erm, problem.

Went to start up afterwards, nothing. Engine turning over fine but just the odd splutter. Eventually, battery flat, we called Green Flag, who turned up and offered to take the car away to drain the fuel etc. Now, I'm thinking, I can do that, but she who must be obeyed demanded it be done by the pros, cos it's the best car she's ever had and she would be heartbroken etc etc.

Madam, boy and dog got the bus home while I ended up at the garage, where I found out the charge for draining fuel, disposing of same, flushing system and a couple of gallons to be going on with would be in the region of, now sit down everyone, £200, yes, that's TWO HUNDRED POUNDS.

So, after I'd picked myself up off the concrete, I got in the car, which started first time, waved goodbye to the nice man from Green Flag, and drove home.

So the lesson is... don't be a stupid plonker, like me. And if you do do what I did, sort out your own problems, don't pay a nice man to do it!

 

[Drains]

Oh, model - 1.9 TD estate. Cracking car. Even got air conditioning. Wow. A completely different kind of air conditioning to my Hilux... ho ho. (or should that read hole hole?)

 

[andrewg1323]

I worked at tesco a while back, we had a memo come around worded to the effect of shoudl anyone do the same thing under no circumstances allow them to use the on-site vacuum cleaner to attempt to remove the fuel, this was recently attempted in northern ireland resulting in a fire/explosion and the two men in question recieving significant burns

Bloody idiots but fair play for trying!

 

[Drains]

LOL. I'm in enough trouble already. If I used the Hoover i'd be singing high c's for the rest of my life!

 

[stinkbridgenine]

AA talking through their a*@e! hard internal coating? think you`d have to do considerably more miles than you`ve done to do any long term damage,so if alls fine now,would`nt worry about it. the diesel (being oil) acts as a lube to the pump internals,so running petrol through would wash the oil out+wear the internals which would lead to damage/ loss of pressure from the pump,but seems you got away with it if alls ok. just remember the threat of 200 quid+let the boss fuel it up herself!!!

 

[Drains]

Wise words. I think now she may well be happy to shoulder that responsibility! Although I always have to fix her car if it goes wrong (I did when I understood them - I prefer to leave it to the garage now).

At least now i've got 60 litres of petrol/diesel mix, some spare engine oil and a Toyota Hilux which would run on bacon fat if it had to. A relatively painless lesson learned.

 

[Brilec]

The other thing you can add to save draining completely, is a few of litres of vegetable (cooking) oil. This has a higher lubricating quality than diesel, and far higher than petrol. And it causes no smoke,which lubricating oil will.
£200 for draining and "disposing" of the contents? He would just put it in his old diesel. Nice work if you can get it.

 

[Drains]

And I thought I had problems!
Should change this thread to "petrol in a petrol car"

 

[Cappy]

Given what seems to be happening in the SE of England with fuel at the moment, makes you wonder what they're putting into their cars (big investigation by Trading Standards into contaminated fuel causing lots of damage to petrol cars).

I know on the ship once we had some really dodgy diesel which was full of some kind of bacteria that stuffed up the fuel pumps. Cost a small fortune to have the system drained and disinfected.

 

[Lippyp]

Yeah, there is a diesel loving bacteria out there, apparently it's much worse with bio-diesel (gonna have to put the car on a course of antibiotics) Maybe its the tree huggers sabotaging the fuel!

 

[Hitch]

Another Laguna owner here, 1.9 rt dti. They get a bit of bad press, but on a whole a great car for the price they demand. I bet every one of you ahs dodgy bonnet catches though!!

Working petrol through a diesel system wont do any damage unless its left in there for sometime. Then the petrol starts to damage the seal in the pump apparently. Diesel engines are VERY tollerant to abuse!!

 

[Drains]

My good lady has been driving Cavaliers for the last 6/7 years (she kept with the same type-3 of them, cos they cost nowt and she'd get the Haynes). After the last one died, she said "I want a diesel estate". So, well told, an ebay search found a Laguna in Perthshire, which we bought, and is FANTASTIC. Must admit, I know nothing about them or why they have a bad press (although it would seem the bleedin' heater matrix has a leak). But it's faster than a Hilux, a damn sight more comfy, and I like it. Also, it's not mine, but I get to drive it when I want. Fab.