£4.70 unleaded in a diesel.

[r11co]

thatdude said:

Same reason why you shouldnt run the tank dry on a common-rail diesel injection set up, right?

Urban myth. There's a fuel pressure sensor on the rail that would cut power to the pump supply long before anything could go wrong.

Biggest issue with common rail systems is debris in the fuel caused by the pump disintegrating due to lack of lubrication, or by a failed filter, which would block the injectors.

[Lordbenny]

Slightly off topic but after visiting the UK Passat forum I stumbled across a thread that recommends that a bottle of 2 stroke oil is added to a tank of diesel....what are the advantages of this?

[16v stretch]

Lordbenny said:

Slightly off topic but after visiting the UK Passat forum I stumbled across a thread that recommends that a bottle of 2 stroke oil is added to a tank of diesel....what are the advantages of this?

Bits of the fuel system are lubricated by diesel, petrol strips the lubrication so the thinking is that the 2 stroke oil will make up for this.

Whether its true, I don't know.

[gizlaroc]

Shove a half litre bottle of 2 stroke oil in there, will run better than it ever has before.

[Origin Unknown]

mi1ne said:

t400ble said:

Water pump damage is just comical

Thats what I was thinking. Unless im missing somthing?

Simple, he accidently put petrol into a diesels fuel tank. To compensate this, he's put diesel in the coolant.

Good job the screen wash wasn't empty, presumably the OP may have sourced something else widely available in petrol stations. Charcoal maybe.

[scarble]

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.

This. Diesel in a petrol just won't run, flush it out and it'll be fine.
Petrol in a diesel? Everything will be shagged.

Op, you're a numpty

r11co said:

Urban myth. There's a fuel pressure sensor on the rail that would cut power to the pump supply long before anything could go wrong.
Biggest issue with common rail systems is debris in the fuel caused by the pump disintegrating due to lack of lubrication, or by a failed filter, which would block the injectors.

The HP pump is mechanically driven off the crank, you can't cut the power supply to it, though one assumes that if the engine is somehow able to keep running despite insufficient fuel to lubricate the pump, the EMS would cut injection/open wastegate/close throttle and basically stop the engine before it grenades.
Perhaps if the supply pressure is too low it closes the valve that allows fuel out to the rail and uses what's left to lubricate until the engine runs down.

Edited by scarble on Friday 22 August 09:42

[cjb1]

scarble said:

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.

This. Diesel in a petrol just won't run, flush it out and it'll be fine.
Petrol in a diesel? Everything will be shagged.

Op, you're a numpty

No it won't be shagged. I know this from experience times 3 in two different makes of vehicle. Nothing was 'shagged, drained and refilled with Diesel and all was well, even after running the car for several miles on two of the occasions. It's a myth that petrol wrecks diesel systems.

[996TT02]

I once ran an old Mini on around 20% diesel mix that I had obtained for free.

Sure the SU carb needed tweaking due to the increased viscosity but other than that I ran it for a week for free.

[r11co]

scarble said:

Perhaps if the supply pressure is too low it closes the valve that allows fuel out to the rail and uses what's left to lubricate until the engine runs down.

Sorry, should have made myself clearer. When I said it cuts the pump supply that is what I meant - the supply from the pump to the rail. If a drop in pressure is detected then the flow will be cut to stop the pump running dry. It's not foolproof (if the fuel running round the system is down on lubrication because it is diluted there will still be problems) but it does protect against potential damage caused by running the tank to empty.

[Megaflow]

Diesel in a petrol is not an issue. If you can keep it running long enough, you might poison that cat, but you'd struggle to run it for that long, because it won't be happy.

The ironic thing is, you'd really struggle to put diesel in a petrol because the pump nozzle won't fit!

[IanMorewood]

A little Diesel in a petrol will cause lumpy running for a tank or two, running a diesel on a little petrol in the tank shouldn't cause major headaches it's common practice in the colder parts of the world.

[Lugy]

I once had a Golf diesel, one dark morning I put £5 worth of V-Power petrol in, realised my mistake (using the expensive stuff!), carried on with another £20 of regular unleaded then realised I was still wrong. Filled the rest of the tank with £30 odd of diesel and the car still ran perfect after that. My excuse was that Shell had recently changed the colours on the pumps for whatever name they changed their regular fuel to.

[andyt1320]

I think the simple answer is that if you only put a small amount of the wrong fuel in you will be fine if you fill up with the right stuff as it will represent only a small percentage, most fuels are a blend already so you've just altered the blend a bit.
If you travel to France and buy unleaded it had up to 10% Ethanol in it and doesn't cause an issue to 99.9% of cars so a few percent won't hurt for a short while. For all I know, you may have just created your own V-power blend!

[beko1987]

I put £10-£15 unleaded in with 50 litres of veg oil to keep it thin in these colder mornings. Runs fine, and cheaper than diesel to do the same job!

[FiF]

Lugy said:

I once had a Golf diesel, one dark morning I put £5 worth of V-Power petrol in, realised my mistake (using the expensive stuff!), carried on with another £20 of regular unleaded then realised I was still wrong. Filled the rest of the tank with £30 odd of diesel and the car still ran perfect after that. My excuse was that Shell had recently changed the colours on the pumps for whatever name they changed their regular fuel to.

Once did a similar (ish) trick on a Mundano TDCi. It was when BP were beggaring around with nozzle colours and put about 4 litres of super unleaded. Topped up with diesel and it ran fine for years. If anything it ran very smoothly and seemed to have more poke.

On the other hand the water pump pop up cheap toaster in the kitchen packed up the next day. Bloody BP's fault.

[scarble]

cjb1 said:

No it won't be shagged. I know this from experience times 3 in two different makes of vehicle. Nothing was 'shagged, drained and refilled with Diesel and all was well, even after running the car for several miles on two of the occasions. It's a myth that petrol wrecks diesel systems.

You really ran a good quantity of petrol through the engine, actually injected it? On a common rail system? Because these days, with current production systems operating at 2500bar, if they're not properly lubricated, the pumps do seize.
On an old mechanical injection engine you might be ok.

r11co said:

Sorry, should have made myself clearer. When I said it cuts the pump supply that is what I meant - the supply from the pump to the rail. If a drop in pressure is detected then the flow will be cut to stop the pump running dry. It's not foolproof (if the fuel running round the system is down on lubrication because it is diluted there will still be problems) but it does protect against potential damage caused by running the tank to empty.

Sorry, should have understood you better

[HuntsmanPH]

I'll just leave this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra5OyEWF_Ik