I put diesel in my new Toyota CH-R

[NewToyotaowner]

Don't tell me I am stupid (I know that) but the garage says that as well as draining the car they need to order a hybrid engine charger to be delivered. Apparently it is a huge thing. Can anyone explain why the hybrid engine might be affected - I thought it was a separate system.

Thanks

[Don Mac]

By 'hybrid engine charger' I am guessing that they mean a charger for the hybrid Battery?

If this needs charging that is a separate problem from your fuelling slip up, it suggests that they have found a problem with the Battery. Have you purchased the car second hand? If so, is it from a Toyota dealership?

I would suggest asking to speak to one of the mechanics, so that they can explain to you exactly what the problem is. 

[Mooly]

Sorry to hear of your misadventure.

Perhaps the misfuelling has meant that the high voltage Battery has become discharged due to the inability of the combustion engine to run and possibly that is a a scenario that is not figured into the 'protection' for the high voltage Battery in that an assumption the combustion engine will be able to run on demand is always assumed.

 

 

[flash22]

As long as you didn't start it, you should be fine, drop the fuel out of the tank

what has a hybrid charger got to do with a mis-fuel issue

 

find someone that knows what they are doing, there are plenty of mobile services that will come out and flush the system

[TonyHSD]

I thought you can’t put the larger diesel nozzle into a petrol filler neck., sizes are different. Anyway, trouble happens sometimes. It is very likely indeed the hybrid Battery went too low and needs recharge. 
How much diesel did you put in ? 
Have you started the engine afterwards? 
Hope all will be sorted soon. 
 

[flash22]

The Battery should protect is self before getting too depleted

[Mojo1010]

Thought the larger diesel nozzle doesn't fit through also. 

Do you have breakdown cover? Sometimes wrong fuel is included in the cover. 

[NewToyotaowner]

Thank you for all your replies! And for not calling me an idiot!  To answer your questions, and update, I put a whole tank in - the nozzle fitted. I do remember that it didn't go in as far as a petrol nozzle but thought nothing of it as I killed the car...

They have flushed it already - they said - and now they are waiting for this charger - apparently there are only two in the whole of UK and they are massive things that Toyota send them out to garages who request them. @Flash 22, I did start it and I drove on it for 5 miles that day and a mile the next day until it started flashing lots of warning signs.  When the RAC collected it the 12 V Battery was a bit below 11V on testing but he just towed it as obv he could not diagnose the hybrid Hight voltage Battery. I think I trust the dealer as they are only planning to charge me an hour's labour to charge the hybrid engine Battery. Just interesting that there are only two in the country as I'll have been carless for a fortnight! Off to hire a car as no loan cars available!  Than you again for your replies, everyone.

[flash22]

oh, Ok yes there are chargers and balancers available there may only be 2 in the southeast, i would think Toyota has a few on the shelf

[Cyker]

It's the catch 22 - All the energy in a hybrid comes from the fuel, which gets turned into electrical energy via the engine.

However, the electrical energy is needed to start the engine, and unlike regular ICE cars you can't crank the engine without the high voltage Battery as the 'starter motor' is one of the high voltage motors!

But if the traction Battery is depleted, there is no energy to start the engine, so the engine can't generate electricity to charge the Battery to start the engine etc etc   

 

6 hours ago, flash22 said:

The battery should protect is self before getting too depleted

It will if it detects the fuel is low, and refuse to do anything until it detects the fuel level going up.

However, I don't think there is a fuel quality sensor, so if it senses anything there it will keep trying to start the engine until it's depleted, which I think is what happened here.

 

Anyway, because there is no other way to start the ICE, they have to get the Toyota Special Rainbow Unicorn Charger from whatever mythical location it lives in to charge up the battery enough so it can start the engine, then everything will be hunky dory again.

 

I am a bit surprised the nozzle went in tho' - Usually it's diesel people putting petrol in by mistake; This is the first time I can remember I heard of the opposite happening, so you win that trophy at least!  

 

[Rhymes with Paris]

My panicky pal filled his nearly new nissan bluebird diesel with petrol in 1990.

His solution was to drive it a bit, then top up with diesel, and so on.

This was also the chap who decided to change the oil on it about midnight before a long trip to Scotland,in the dark.

After 8 hours driving while exhausted,he said "well, you can take over now ".

Of course, I was exhausted too from trying to keep him awake, and had to stop after an hour.

I still get stick over my inability to drive after nearly two days awake 33 years later.

I think he has a cognitive disorder.

[Marjan]

Ohhhh,what a bad situation 😕

I hope you resolve fast and without any other problems 

[yossarian247]

On 9/11/2023 at 7:53 PM, Rhymes with Paris said:

My panicky pal filled his nearly new nissan bluebird diesel with petrol in 1990.

His solution was to drive it a bit, then top up with diesel, and so on.

This was also the chap who decided to change the oil on it about midnight before a long trip to Scotland,in the dark.

After 8 hours driving while exhausted,he said "well, you can take over now ".

Of course, I was exhausted too from trying to keep him awake, and had to stop after an hour.

I still get stick over my inability to drive after nearly two days awake 33 years later.

I think he has a cognitive disorder.

You could get away with putting some petrol into old IDI distributor pump diesels without any major problems, but I wouldn't have wanted to risk a tank full! The handbook of my 1989 Citroen BX diesel actually suggested adding a small amount petrol to the diesel fuel in winter to make it easier to start.

My uncle once filled up a Passat TDi hire car with petrol, realised as he was paying for the fuel, and rang the hire company in a panic. They were totally unconcerned and said something along the lines of 'try and add some diesel to the tank if you can to dilute it, keep driving the car as normal, but if it packs up phone us again and we'll send a recovery truck out with another car for you.' 😮

[Cyker]

Diesels are more resilient to that sort of thing - Theoretically the diesel combustion cycle will run on anything that burns.

The trouble is high octane fuel will resist the compression ignition diesels use (Diesels work by squeezing air until it's 600+ degrees, then spraying fuel in that just catches fire as soon as it hits the highly compressed superheated air - However, high octane fuel is designed specifically to resist combusting under such conditions!), but generally it'll burn fine if a bit lumpier.

The bigger danger is the injectors - Diesel injectors rely on the diesel fuel to lubricate them. However, petrol is a solvent and doesn't provide any lubrication, causing the injectors to heat up from friction and potentially fuse the needle-valve to the injector body.

Older diesels are more forgiving as they have larger tolerances, esp. the mechanical pump ones (Those will run on practically anything; Famous for people sticking used engine and fish'n'chip oil in them some years ago!  ) but modern ones, esp. common rail, have incredibly fine tolerances and are especially sensitive. As long as there is enough diesel mixed in you can usually get away with it tho'.

 

Diesel in petrol engines is worse - The fuel pump may overheat trying to pump the much thicker fluid, but the biggest danger is diesel has a much lower octane than petrol and will have a tendency to detonate during the compression stroke (Unlike diesel, petrols compress air AND fuel so it can go off at any time!), knocking like crazy and, if ignored too long, likely damaging the cylinder walls and scrapping the engine!

 

[Haliotis]

On 9/11/2023 at 11:29 AM, TonyHSD said:

I thought you can’t put the larger diesel nozzle into a petrol filler neck., sizes are different. Anyway, trouble happens sometimes. It is very likely indeed the hybrid battery went too low and needs recharge. 
How much diesel did you put in ? 
Have you started the engine afterwards? 
Hope all will be sorted soon. 
 

I once put petrol into a diesel-engined car. Fortunately, I didn’t start it up, and had it towed to a place where I could remove the sender unit and siphon virtually all of the contaminated fuel out.

But, as Tony says, the pump nozzle and fuel orifice is smaller on petrol cars and it shouldn’t be possible to insert the nozzle of a diesel pump.

[yossarian247]

I noticed on my Corolla that the filler neck only narrows down to the diameter of petrol nozzle a few inches in, so it would be quite possible to insert a diesel nozzle just far enough to fill the tank with diesel if someone was really determined. Obviously it should ring alarm bells if you find that the pump nozzle wont go very far into the filler, but unfortunately it doesn't always.

[Starensis]

If you can force a diesel nozzle into a petrol filler neck, then you must be very strong and determined. Didn’t you get some splash back also?

I would also speak with Toyota CR and state the filler neck is not fully error proofed. Might encourage then to look into your car and design. First I’ve heard of Diesel in Petrol for a good while.