Disaster of a day!

[Jamo]

Diesel pumps don't like petrol much, as it's not very lubricating. Sorry to hear that Chris, I'm sure it will be ok.

You sure? as all chip fat burners I know add petrol for lubrication

[s2dude]

You sure? as all chip fat burners I know add petrol for lubrication

Stu is correct mate

With a modern diesel the diesel fuel also acts as a lubricant...petrol is a spirit and will not lubricate but brake down the lubricant that the diesel provides . Leading to big problems with the High Pressure fuel pump and common rail system from what Im told

This is from an RAC technician:

Land Rover stipulate that if petrol has been added in a diesel and the engine has been run for more than two minutes then the complete fuel system must be replaced- fuel tank/fuel lines/injectors/fuel pump etc.......(£5k plus)

The reason for this is diesel fuel contains a lubricant that lubricates the high pressure pump in the system.What the petrol does is dry out that pump and as the tolerances are so small in the high pressure pump what will happen eventually is that it will seize and cause further damage especially if driven by a timing chain as most modern diesels are.

[Jamo]

Ah key words there modern day diesels, good old manual injection can be battered. Remember Diesel engines originally were invented to run on peanut oil!

[Ian Simmonds]

Land Rover stipulate that if petrol has been added in a diesel and the engine has been run for more than two minutes then the complete fuel system must be replaced- fuel tank/fuel lines/injectors/fuel pump etc.......(£5k plus)

I'd have to say I'd question that, the tank and lines are solid, static objects that would only, at worst, need a bloody good clean. The injectors would (possibly) survive a similar experience and the pump is anyones guess...

[Ross]

I think the rac technician is in bed with the landrover sales girl

[Jon441cc]

I think the rac technician is in bed with the landrover sales girl

And her mum!

[jogi730]

OK,
Apart from draining the tank, presuming no damage to turbo, what else would need cleaning?
Is it a simple case of cleaning plugs and then running engine to let the petrol clean all before it? Just adding some injector cleaner into petrol? Or will I have to have injectors properly looked at and cleaned by specialist (ultrasonic cleaning)?
Anyone suffered this before or any mechanics out there?
Cheers
Chris

[s2dude]

I think the rac technician is in bed with the landrover sales girl

Granted, its a bit OTT about the parts replacement stuff he mentions. But I posted it more for the bit about drying out the high pressure pump due to lack of lubrication (several months after the event usually!)

[repo]

Chris, I don't think You need any other kind of cleaning but flushing the fuel line.

Problem is, how to get all the diesel off. It tends to foam if You only rely on pumps, so some of it wants to remain in the tank. IOW You need to pull the tank off the car.

Diesel won't harm the injectors, but still it might be wise to put them into a test / clean bench, as You have pretty extreme setup. This just to make sure.

Also, check, if motor oil smells like diesel, if does, change the oil and filter. Might be wise to do anyway.

I cleaned a system of a customer's 1.8T a3, did nothing else but pulled the tank and flushed the lines. Stupid enough, the system had fried 3 out of 4 coilpacks, 'cause the diesel refused to ignite.

Bimmer 3 litre td pumps get jammed, if You put gas in tank. When diesel pumps gets jammed, timing belt looses teeth. When timing belt loses teeth, pistons hit the valves. Everyone can imagine the rest.

In these cases people, (and every more often also the mechanincs at the shop before investigating) ALWAYS blame the chip, if installed...

[pixsaudisex2]

just to add on this there was a fuel station by us that had put the wrong fuels into the wrong pumps so you was not getting what you thought this cost my mate his engine in his derv jetta but amazingly the company turned around and said oops our fault send us the bill so make sure they havent done this...


and yeh either way with modern cars your up a creek with out a paddle ...
sorry to hear you have done this you car looks so nice as well tell me was it the fastest derv ever do you think...

[jogi730]

sorry to hear you have done this you car looks so nice as well tell me was it the fastest derv ever do you think...

Never looked at it like that ..... maybe for the 10 miles it lasted - who knows. Was diesel petrol mix though.

Was told normally not a problem as petrol would clean most of the diesel out. However, 2 problems woith my car. 1. The big injectors 2. Low CR engine (remember am running 7:1). Turbo hopefully will be ok, maybe just shortened it's life but will still have to wait and see, so having injectors cleaned as better safe than sorry.
Just no idea how long we talking about here?
Will post as soon as I know something. Be a real pisser if miss yet another GTI.
Cheers
Chris

[volcano rs]

i don't think you'll have done much damage .
try to take the fuel pipes off and blow air through them with a compressor hopefully that should get rid off the little bit off diesel which might be left in them .
replace the fuel filter fill the tank up with petrol it will hopefully start.

[bazookachicken]

I work for the AA (stop the groaning in the back).
Sorry to hear this happened to you mate, we literally get hundreds of these a day if thats any consolation. I must say BP have a poor policy at the pumps and we get many complaints about this, if I remember correctly when they first bought out the ultimate range they made the diesel pump blue and people were putting it in their petrol cars left right and centre I think they've changed them all back to black now after the complaints but it's still not the clearest (everyone can be in a rush and not concentrate sometimes).
Anyway as far as your car goes I don't see any reason you would have shortened the life of the turbo/injectors. If there is a local place that is licenced to drain the fuel we can usually get it done while you wait, they just drain the tank completely change the fuel filter (poss the pump if damaged) and fill up with the correct fuel and off you go. As has been mentioned before our main problem nowadays is modern high pressure common rail diesel engines they really do get well and truely mullered by the wrong fuel and it costs a fortune to put right. But the audi's a tough old girl you should be fine, if not a bit frustrated and with a slightly lighter pocket

[martinjs]

Here in New Zealand all diesel pumps in all petrol stations have a metal flap covering the nozzle which you have to lift up in order to remove the nozzle, and this has 'warning diesel' plastered all over it. Even the BP stations have these. Its a great idea IMO.

Good luck with it Chris, im sure it will be ok.

[dan_b]

It's not as if BP Ultimate is that good a fuel anyway! Nightmare story, hope you get it fixed with not too much bother.