any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

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Thu 16 Jul 2015 22:09

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - barney100

if you put petrol in a diesel car and don't realize what would be the symptoms?

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Thu 16 Jul 2015 22:20

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - Manatee

Depends how much you out in, and how much diesel there was to mix with it.

If the tank was substantially empty, and you filled it with petrol, I think you would know - in all probablity it would stop a mile or so down the road. If you put a gallon in, realised what you had done, and filled up with diesel then there may be no effect at all.

I once filled up a Scorpio 2.5 diesel with petrol - that had an old-tech VM boat engine, also fitted to Range Rovers once upon a time. It ran, sounding like a bag of spanners. I topped up with diesel as space allowed and it seemed not to have any lasting effect. Modern CR diesels with high pressure fuel pumps etc would likely be a different (and possibly very expensive) case.

One concern that people legitimately have is whether a second hand diesel car may have been misfuelled without them knowing. Quite possibly there may have been damage.

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Thu 16 Jul 2015 23:08

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - Happy Blue!

April 2014, I had an almost empty tank in my S-Max TDCi. I filled it with petrol and drove away. Within 0.5 mile the engine died, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and I was stranded at the side of the road.

£300 later I was resuced by the RAC and filled the car at the same station - this time with Diesel (there was a person who went back and again topped up with petrol!!). From April 2014 to February 2015 the car ran with complete reliability, no indication of mis-fuelling and no change to the running economy.

Perhaps it helped I was stopped at traffic lights when the petrol hit the cylinders? Maybe a car being driven away from a motorway service station at high speed would have suffered more major damage I don't know.

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Thu 16 Jul 2015 23:26

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - Graham567

April 2014, I had an almost empty tank in my S-Max TDCi. I filled it with petrol and drove away. Within 0.5 mile the engine died, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and I was stranded at the side of the road.

£300 later I was resuced by the RAC and filled the car at the same station - this time with Diesel (there was a person who went back and again topped up with petrol!!). From April 2014 to February 2015 the car ran with complete reliability, no indication of mis-fuelling and no change to the running economy.

Perhaps it helped I was stopped at traffic lights when the petrol hit the cylinders? Maybe a car being driven away from a motorway service station at high speed would have suffered more major damage I don't know.

Do all Fords not have Easy fuel system that prevents this happening.I know my Mondeo has it.

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Fri 17 Jul 2015 00:18

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - RobJP

My wife accidentally filled up a 6 month old Nissan Navara (D40 type) with petrol back in 2007 or so. Drove home (3 miles), and just as she got onto the drive it started acting up. She called out the AA, who immediately recognised what the cause was.

Cost : £3k to fix. Fuel pumps, injectors, the lot.

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Fri 17 Jul 2015 10:21

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - RobJP

Actually, no. This was just before the insurance companies started removing misfueling from their cover, so she got it all paid for, less £100 or so excess.

Thankfully

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Sat 18 Jul 2015 00:23

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - SteveLee

They still made £3K out of thin air and put a blotch on your insurance record.

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Fri 17 Jul 2015 08:48

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - Happy Blue!

Do all Fords not have Easy fuel system that prevents this happening.I know my Mondeo has it.

Not in 2009 they did not.

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Fri 17 Jul 2015 17:05

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - Graham567

Mines a 2009 Mondeo and it definately has it.

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Sat 18 Jul 2015 23:55

any - misfuelling/petrol in diesel..how would it show - Hamsafar

Under 15% I doubt most people would notice anything awry.

Symptoms would generally be a clattering/pinking sound when easing onto the throttle especially when picking up off the overrun. Worse the more you put in. Reduced power but not by much. The car will be hard to start hot or cold.

If you want to do a test, then the most common method it to take out a litre of fuel and float a polystyrene cup on it and see how much it deforms overnight. If it doesn't deform, there is no notable contamination. 100% petrol the cup will have disappeared and everything in between (shrinking/shrivelling etc..)

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