£4.70 unleaded in a diesel.

£4.70 unleaded in a diesel.

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Discussion

GREGA

Original Poster:

32 posts

233 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
Got up at stupid oclock to go to work, car had just under a half a tank of disel, thought I'd top it up as the petrol staton,put £4.70 worth of unleaded in, about 4 litres, realised straight away, stopped and brimmed it with disel, it's a 2012 Renault meganne 1.5 Td, will it be okay? Any tips appreciated!

Ta


Wilmslowboy

4,189 posts

205 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
Less than 8%

Just keep it topped up to maximise the dilution

16v stretch

974 posts

156 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
You'll be fine, just keep topping it up.

I believe the AA had a rule where if it's under 5L it's not worth draining, I certainly advised the same when I worked for Green Flag. and based on cost you've only put a little more than 3.6L in.


Raman Kandola

221 posts

122 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
I wouldnt drive it if possible, i once put £5 worth of petrol into a diesal and after realising my mistake i topped up the rest of the tank with (about £50 of) diesal. This lead to numerous little issues with the car not running right and causing me issues with the water pump and mildly reconditining the turbo, DOnt know how exactly this was affected or if it needed doing anyway but i do remember it causing considerable damage which wouldve cost alot more than a simple drain and clean!

catman

2,490 posts

174 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
Raman Kandola said:
I wouldnt drive it if possible, i once put £5 worth of petrol into a diesal and after realising my mistake i topped up the rest of the tank with (about £50 of) diesal. This lead to numerous little issues with the car not running right and causing me issues with the water pump and mildly reconditining the turbo, DOnt know how exactly this was affected or if it needed doing anyway but i do remember it causing considerable damage which wouldve cost alot more than a simple drain and clean!
I can't see how either of those issues would have been caused by the wrong fuel.

Tim

calibrax

4,788 posts

210 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
catman said:
I can't see how either of those issues would have been caused by the wrong fuel.

Tim
True, neither the turbo nor the water pump have fuel flowing through them. I could understand a small chance of a fuel pump issue being caused (seals), but not those examples.

Triumph Man

8,670 posts

167 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
Depends on the age of the diesel. My old 110 bhp Passat TDI (the tractor engined one) actually ran slightly better for having a gallon of petrol in the tank (the rest topped up with diesel though! This was Winter which was probably why. OP, as people have said, keep it topped up with diesel and it should be fine. Not ideal, but it should be ok. Unless it's a really really highly strung modern diesel.

OGR4M

845 posts

152 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
It's always better - or not as bad - to put unleaded in a diseasel rather than t'other way round - it may cough a bit when a lump goes through, but it'll work fine.

A friend of mine always ran contaminated fuel in his petrol Golf, 'cos it was about 90p a litre, and that survived - don't see why yours wouldn't.

Maybe think about getting a tub of Millers diseasel additive, a bigish bottle for about £12 where one adds about 50ml to 50l of fuel - lasts about 10 tanks, just to give it a more potent chance of firing cleanly (?) Just an idea.

ChasW

2,135 posts

201 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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I did this on an Audi with 130 Pdi engine. Checked with my local experienced garage owner and he told me not to worry. Maybe not on the most modern diesels but he advocated the benefits of slightly polluted diesel. 150k miles on no issues with the engine!

Megaflow

9,347 posts

224 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
It will be fine. During winter diesel is diluted by 5-10%, the exact number escapes me, to prevent waxing at low temperatures.

As for the suggestion it can damage the turbo and water pump? Seriously...

cjb1

2,000 posts

150 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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I once put about 4 galls of unleaded in a modern diesel(2013 Mazda Skyactive Diesel) by mistake. Stopped filling it and then brimmed it with diesel, ragged it in 4th on the motorway for 50 miles to burn off the contaminated fuel, topped it up frequently after that and it ran fine after.

t400ble

1,804 posts

120 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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Water pump damage is just comical

Sy1441

1,113 posts

159 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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Top it up, will be fine.

ILoveMondeo

9,614 posts

225 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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Just to make you feel better OP, I put 75 litres of unleaded in my diesel last year! now THAT was stupid!

Thankfully I realised my mistake before starting it, so I had a wait for the fuel pumping guy... two hours later after realising we'd never get a hose past the anti-syphon we had to empty the tank my running my engine from his fuel supply and having the pump push out all the fuel.

75 litres of fuel + 75 litres of the right fuel + £250-ish for the fuel guy, + New fuel filter.

An expensive stop at the services!

D'oh.



Edited by ILoveMondeo on Friday 22 August 08:36

Dog Star

16,079 posts

167 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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I kept doing this to the GFs previous C class. Just topped it up to the brim with diesel and never a problem. In fact you couldn't even tell.

Spoof

1,854 posts

214 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
OGR4M said:
It's always better - or not as bad - to put unleaded in a diseasel rather than t'other way round - it may cough a bit when a lump goes through, but it'll work fine.
.
Or, completely the opposite.


thatdude

2,654 posts

126 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
Spoof said:
OGR4M said:
It's always better - or not as bad - to put unleaded in a diseasel rather than t'other way round - it may cough a bit when a lump goes through, but it'll work fine.
.
Or, completely the opposite.
I was told it was the other way around, since the direct injection injectors are optimised for a particular density of fuel, and the (lower density) petrol means the actual flow rate is much, much higher than it should be thus causing a great deal of damage. Same reason why you shouldnt run the tank dry on a common-rail diesel injection set up, right?



Wills2

22,669 posts

174 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
I've did the same years ago with my old 320d, filled the rest up with diesel and it was fine.


mi1ne

307 posts

197 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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t400ble said:
Water pump damage is just comical
Thats what I was thinking. Unless im missing somthing?

Raman Kandola

221 posts

122 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
quotequote all
Raman Kandola said:
DOnt know how exactly this was affected or if it needed doing anyway but...
Ahem