Petrol in a diesel car.

[hollyhee111]

Dunno what topic to post this in sorry . Help!!! I just put petrol in my husbands car and it's meant to be Diesel 😭😭 I only put £6 before I realised . I then put £60 of diesel to fill it up in the hope it will dilute enough to be ok ( instructed by my mechanic ) anyway has anyone done similar and was your car k?? I'm driving to the airport tomroow and last thing I need it to break down on the way . It drove fine home from petrol station 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I did this once, with about the same amounts. The dilution worked and the car was fine.

I think it's fine as long as its a tiny amount and the older the diesel the car the more likely it will be OK. How old is the car

I think you should be OK. Isn’t it diesel in a petrol car that’s the real problem?

You'll most likely be fine I'd think but with such an important journey coming up you're right to be concerned.

There's not a lot can be done apart from to top up again just to further dilute it before you set off tomorrow. Just leave plenty of time and have AA on speed dial just in case :)

Fortunately £6 worth of petrol isn't much these days!!!

My partner did this to my 15 plate Fiesta, I had been on nights so he was driving, we needed fuel so pulled up at the petrol station, he began filling and said to me "It's petrol, right?" I stupidly said "Yes" then realised. He stopped and filled her up the rest of the way with diesel, she was fine. I think he'd put about £5 before we realised what he'd done and she usually took at £45 on an empty tank (which it was).

Isn’t it diesel in a petrol car that’s the real problem?

No, I think it's petrol in diesel that's worse. I remember reading that the oil (diesel) apparently also act as lubrication for some parts, so the absence of that lubrication causes damage.

My shoulder has done this twice. Pretty sure we had some kind of misfuelling insurance the second time he did it and we called them and they came and drained it. The first it had to be towed to a garage to remove it.

Why did you put diesel in after? I mean dilution can work, but you just did it in the 'hope' it would be ok?

Best solution is to have the tank drained, to ensure the fuel does not go through the engine.

Is it an older reg OP? My DH told me that it was impossible to do this now as the newer models will only take the correct pump for the fuel. ie: it being a different nozzle size.

Just googled and read this
Spot your mistake quickly as you’re filling up, and there’s a chance you’ll get away scot-free. That’s because it’s commonly agreed you can mix up to 5 per cent petrol into diesel fuel without disastrous consequences. If there’s no room in the tank to top it up with diesel at the required 95 per cent ratio, you’ll need the services of somebody who can drain the tank.

Similar amounts and scenario in a new car and was fine. Did not tell DH

Shelling out hundreds of quid to have the car towed and drained (and however much a hire-car for the airport would cost) is not going to make a difference at this point, I wouldn't think: the car was driven home from the garage and the mixed fuel has already been being used. So if the engine were going to be damaged by the mixed fuel it already would have been.

I'd say listen to the mechanic, who presumably knows his stuff, and the people here who have done the same as you did without it destroying the car.

MrsMop7 OP says she did it on the advice of a mechanic.

My DH told me that it was impossible to do this now as the newer models will only take the correct pump for the fuel. ie: it being a different nozzle size.

Sort of. Except one will always be bigger (diesel) which means the other will always fit in it.

Some petrol cars have smaller holes so the diesel nozzle won't fit, not all though.

Diesel cars, which require a bigger hole for the bigger nozzle can always be misfueled, because the petroleum nozzle is smaller.

The should have made them square and triangles or something

I've done this. The advice from the RAC when I called and told them how many litres (about 5 in a 70l tank) of petrol I put in was to carry on, just keeping it topped up every time I used 1/4 of the tank.

@MoistOwlette

Missed that

MrsMop7 It happens!

The should have made them square and triangles or something

This is actually genius.

DH did this once. He filled up his diesel car virtually from empty with petrol. He didn't even realise until he had gone a few miles and the engine spluttered out. Apparently the hose at the pump he had used when he filled up was black rather than the usual green for unleaded petrol. So he believed it was diesel. The RAC took him back to that fuel station when they collected him from where he had broken down. They were also surprised at how badly the pumps were set out and labelled, admitting that they too would have thought that pump was diesel.

It still cost about £150 to get the tank drained.

I would hope that as you only put a fairly small amount of petrol in before changing to diesel you might be OK? Just keep topping up with diesel as and when you can for the next week or so and fingers crossed.

Or take advice from a local mechanic or the AA/RAC.

It'll be fine. Done it more than once :) The worse that will happen is you might get a random popping noise. I was told up to 50% petrol is safe in a diesel car... whereas a splash of diesel in a petrol car is a major issue!

The other way round, but yes recently and all was well.
I have started using the best grade of fuel I can find, also bought a fuel additive to clean out filters, and it’s running fine!

I've done exactly what you did, and it was fine.

My husband did this recently to my car. Put £20 of petrol in my diesel car. I didn't start the engine.

The AA charged us £200 to fix it.

No one can say whether it'll be fine or not. I worked in a company which leased predominantly diesel cars and the most common call out we got was customers putting petrol in the vehicle and it breaking down as soon as they'd left the garage.
The advice is, in the event of filling up with the wrong fuel, to not start the engine.

But, you've already done that and the car has broken down so you should be ok. Keep the tank topped up!

Done the exact same thing twice in my car, almost same amounts of diesel vs petrol too. Car is still going strong. It should be absolutely fine. X