Wrong fuel

[Mike169]

Hi All.

It's been a while since I wrote but I do log in often and read the posts.

So I was out with the Mrs, the idea was to put the car through a car wash so I thought whilst I was there at the garage I might as well top it up with fuel as well. So the wife said she'd do the fuel bit whilst I sorted out paying for it all. Now 'her' car is a petrol other make where as my Rav, 2012 is a D-Cat diesel 150. I told her to put in diesel V Power but I sensed something was wrong as I got out to check and she'd put in 4 litres of V Power petrol by mistake, derrrrrr, so I topped the car right up with V Power diesel and drove home, approx. 2 miles. Now I know 4 litres of petrol isn't a lot but I have my fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong as it uses up the fuel in the tank, comments from anyone would be welcomed..........and to top it all the car wash wasn't working, ggrrrrrrrrrr!

[mickburkesnr]

Fifth Gear did a test like this, and I think that if the diesel was running on pure petrol it'd be bad news. But because the petrol is diluted amongst the diesel (so your tank has about 40/50 litres capacity, you put in 4) you should be alright.

That reminds me of a story of what happened when I was volunteering at a horse riding event. A competitor was going to be mega late because her horse box had broken down. The father had been driving, and her mom was being kind and told him that he should go in to the services and have a coffee for himself while she filled the truck up. He went off and relaxed, came back to the truck and drove off. The truck had just joined the motorway when the engine full on exploded suddenly.

Turned out that the mother hadn't ever filled the truck up with anything before, and decided to put the petrol down the hole where the engine oil should've gone.

[Mike169]

Hi Mick and thank you for your reassurance.

Your story reminds me of a woman who was asked to fill the engine with oil as it needed topping up and she literally topped it up. The counter assistant couldn't work out why this woman kept going in for another litre, then another and so on. In her case she literally filled the engine with oil until it was full up to the oil filler cap, of course the engine wouldn't work but what was the final ending I have no idea.

[Parts-King]

Even small amounts of petrol can cause havoc with modern high pressure fuel pumps as they require the lubrication quality of the diesel, hope it all goes well for you

 

[Mike169]

Hi John.

Thanks for the information and the advise, yes I have my fingers crossed and as the fuel level goes down i'll keep topping it up with diesel. The small amount of miles I have done since the incident the engine appears to run as normal but I have taken your comments on board. You mention modern day diesels I know someone who had a 1986 old diesel Vauxhall Astra 1600cc (Sorry for swearing!) and they half filled the tank with petrol. The outcome of it all was he carried on using it and it sounded exactly the same, ran the same and showed no apparent difference overall as yes they kept topping it up with diesel but all was ok in the end, talk about lucky.

Regards.

[Aamir2892]

As bad as filling Petrol in Diesel is, I think you may be OK seeing as you filled it to the brim with Diesel and it was only 4 litres out of 60 litre what the tank is.

[Mike169]

Hi All.

Well on this occasion I was lucky as getting through that tank, about 60 litres capacity, of fuel the engine run as usual, luckily it was only 4 litres of petrol put in the tank. and the engine run as normal. I appreciate all your comments and I want to say thank you to those that replied or those that just read the post.

All the best to you all, Mike.