Wrong fuel

[Cmaxwell1984]

Hi, 

Foolishly I put petrol in my diesel and drove about a mile without realising, drained the tank, flushed the system and filled with diesel and changed fuel filter. 

I can drive the car conservatively and keep it below 2500rpm and go up through the gears but as soon as I drive heavy footed my glow plug light come on and goes into limp mode and cuts out. Then it's takes 3 or 4 times turning over to start.

Fault code shows low pressure on common rail. Any ideas where to start? Hoping it's not the pump as it ain't so cheap!! 

Any help would be appreciated.

craig

[Brad-B5]

Hi Cmax

I don't know much about this but hopefully someone soon who know's more will leave a reply and give you helpful advice.

How annoying ;( 

Regards

Bradley

[Trevor]

Hi...welcome to the Forum

Usually when a modern HDi engine is subjected to petrol being run through the fuel system it can contaminate the seals, pipes, etc.  The fact that it's running is a good thing but maybe it's worth persevering with it and keep running it with premium diesel at lower engine speeds for a while to see if it improves.

Keep us updated on this one

Cheers  Trevor

[LEE131]

Hi cmaxwell1984

I did the same thing and put petrol. In my old mk5 golf. Didn't realise until the car just juddering. Pulled over called aa and got home drain the fuel and filled with diesel with a cleaner. But from then on we just had problems. In the end our insurance covered incorrect fuel and they ended up rebuilding the whole engine at a cost to the. Of over £2700 with all diagnostics etc. The car was just worth that.

After that it seemed fine but the wife wouldn't drive anymore.

Worth a call to your insurance company before the high cost of a diesel specialist comes!

 

Good luck

[Magnet]

Hello Craig,

Sorry to hear about your problems, and I sympathise with your plight. I recall doing the opposite when I had hair, and putting diesel in a Morris 1000. I thought they would go on anything, but not that one, so it as drain it off and start again with no harm done.

My experience points to diesel into petrol engines results in far les issues than petrol into diesels - for which you usually don't get away with without problems. I would guess that the fault " low pressure on the common rail" is an affect rather than the primary cause, and the primary cause is possibly a now unserviceable fuel pump/s. Unless things have changed (and they may well have done) then two things can happen when diesel gets contaminated with petrol :- the very high compression diesel  engine will knock its heart out, and two, the petrol is likely to have an adverse affect on the seals of the pump - and you end up with what you have. I appreciate that if this is correct then this is not good news, and if it were mine, I would be putting as little miles on this car before getting it  to a diesel specialist for their advice.

Lee makes a good point about insurance companies and mis-fuelling cover. You may find you are covered, but many of the cheaper quotes on comparison websites are just that, and provide only a basic cover quote to which you add the cover which is important to you, but certainly worth a go. 

Hoping you get out of this with the minimum affects on the pocket.

Kind regards, 

Gafeth.

[Trevor]

I know what 'Gazole' means in French....Diesel.

Found this out after putting a tank-full of Diesel in my Mini back in the eighties because I thought 'Gazole' meant 'Gasoline' as the Americans call their Petrol.

Pushed the car out of the fuel station, took the tank out, dumped the fuel in a road digger that was parked across the road, pushed the car back over and asked the woman serving to fill it up with Petrol....felt like a right divvy !  

[NinjaDaz]

Put 25 litres of petrol in a brand new diesel Astra.  Ran it a mile to the nearest Vauxhall dealers where it juddered to a stop on the forecourt.  They drained and cleaned the system and was OK after a couple of hours of rough running.  Lucky really I suppose as it was the wifes company car so wasnt overly concerned.  When I think I could have caused a lot of damage just by starting it up in the first place.  I did put about 5 litres of diesel in an E reg Vauxhall Cavalier once abpout 20 years ago. I just topped up with petrol. It actually felt that it ran better.  It felt torquier.  The engines were not such finely developed lumps  back then and could take minor issues like that I suppose.

[rbdazza]

hmm, you could be lucky and the petrol has just agitated some crud in the tank, blocked your filter again. i'd try replacing it again just in case.

it is possible that the seals in the fuel pump have warped/perished with petrol. there is a fantastic guy in the north, diesel bob. he can diagnose, repair, etc. diesel pump/injectors/etc. and is very reasonably priced. i found the diesel specialists local to me (midlands) to be really expensive for high pressure (common rail) diagnostics and repairs.  

for the record, a small amount of petrol (say 10%) in your tank will not do any damage, in soem cold countries they add it as standard to stop the fuel gelling. but pure petrol will cause damage.

[Pitstop]

Diesel fuel is a lubricant for the high pressure fuel pump. If you put petrol in it, the chances are the pump has run unlubricated and basically chewed itself up. Usually, the fine metal particles produced by running the pump without lubrication eventually find their way into the injectors as well and that's why its normally bad news when the pump has to be replaced. Best take it to a specialist for confirmation. You could try running it a bit longer but a broken engine is not like a broken bone or a cut to the skin - it won't get better by itself!