A mate of mine has just mis-fuelled his car (currently getting it drained).
After the proper fuel is added and a new fuel filter (and provided no damage done), what is the best way to drive it ?
I.e. does he let the engine get hot then give it a good blast down the motorway to get all of the fuel lines recoated ?
The car is an older Vauxhall Asta (02 reg) if thats any help.
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Could be worth spending £10 on a bottle of Millers diesel Plus and triple dosing the empty fuel tank, before it is filled with diesel. Might help lubricate the pump or might be unencessary but can't do any harm
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it will either run or not? m if the tank is drained , there will always be a small emount of petrol there , don,t brim it , just a gallon or so to water the petrol down and re do this several times , changing the fuel filter in a few 100 miles would not hurt as well
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Tell him to drive it carefully to specsavers.
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...Tell him to drive it carefully to specsavers...
Given the amount of fuel you buy, Humph, that's a remark you might live to regret.
Unless all the various Humphmobiles are petrol.
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I don't think Vauxhall/GM had a common rail diesel back then luckily. I'd think keeping topping it up often to dilute the last bit of petrol and replacing the filter again fairly soon is all that's needed.
Maybe the friend has learned a valuable lesson before they get a CR diesel next!
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its only a vauxhall so the mil light will flash anyway
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I did the same trick and realised before i started the car. The car's tank was drained and I just drove off.
Surely if you don't start the car diesel is still in the fuel lines so draining the tank should restore the car to how it was before the mis-fuelling. I had no bother with it, if you start the car with petrol in it thats the trouble maker.
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I am perfect, and haven't missfueled in 20 years of diesel driving. In fact I am so confident that I will never make a mistake, I fitted an anti missfuel device after my Bro in law put £50 of petrol in his diesel Omega. :-)
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Thanks for the replies.
I did let him know and he appreciates the advise.
He did ask if he should give it a good ragging with £10 worth of diesel to get the dregs of petrol out ?
I said just cycle a few £10 worth in the tank and drive normally.
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Up until a couple of years ago I had only owned diesel cars, then I had a petrol for just under a year, one day, I very nearly filled the wife's diesel car with petrol, having only just remarked to her that I had to remember to put diesel in........next thing I know, I am stood there with the petol nozzle in the tank, the only reason I spotted my mistake was looking at the pump and thinking to myself "blimey, diesel is cheap today!!".
Up until then, I had never imagined I could fall into the trap, luckily for me, I got away with it.......
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Just had a call from my mate.
he has changed the fuel filter, drained the tank and refilled a jerry cans worth of diesel.
He managed to start it and it ran for about 15 seconds before conking out.
Now he has a flat battery.
Looks like I will have to pop over and jump start it with my car.
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I did try and help yesterday but to no avail.
On further investigation it would appear that there is no fuel being pumped around.
I am starting to wonder if my mate should have just put the car into a garage to fix as he is still having no joy.
Just to recap, after draining tank till empty, reloading two jerry cans of diesel and changing the fuel filter the engine ran for all of 15 seconds before cutting out.
Now it will not start.
Any ideas or a garage job ?
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If the filter was fitted dry, that's exactly what I would expect to happen.
Drop the filter off, and fill it with clean fuel. Then, try to start it, being careful not to crank over for too long in any one go - leave for a little while between attempts. After a while, the fuel will bleed through, and the car will start.
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I believe the fuel filter was fitted dry (there was plenty of fuel sitting in the container for the fuel filter).
We did have numerous attempts to restart last night and I had my car connected via jump leads to keep the battery charged while we had several attempts.
I may help him give it another go tonight then and just try again.
I never thought it would be so difficult.
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Fill the filter first - it will otherwise take lots of cranking to fill it.
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I suppose the days of a manual priming lever on the fuel pump are long gone?
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is the filter on the wrong way round as they have a check valve in some of them to stop fuel siphoning backwards
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The fuel filter will only slide down in one direction to fit, so I assume it cannot be placed the wrong way around.
I did have a look under the bonnet and there is no manual primer anywhere in the engine bay.
I will get my mate to prime as much of the fuel lines tonight and hope for the best.
Edited by diddy1234 on 09/02/2010 at 13:12
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has the engine light come on yet? :-)
you should always fill filters if you can or otherwise you are injecting air
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Loosen the injector pipes and crank it until it fires then tighten them this should expel any air trapped in the pipes.
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It lives !
I didn't have to bleed the injector pipes in the end.
I just cleaned out the fuel filter of fuel, half filled it with diesel and then disconnected each fuel pipe and (using a funnel) filled with fresh diesel.
After 20 odd starting attempts (10 second starting with a 5 second pause) it eventually fired into life.
Sounded rough as hell and ran rough for the first few miles but eventually cleared.
I am happy, my mate is happy.
Thanks for all of the replies from everyone.
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congrats , now change the fuel filter a few times , and all will be good ,,,,we hope
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