Petrol into diesel engine....now it's gone crazy!
Discussion
I have a diesel car. First time in my life I accidently put petrol in the tank (thankfully only £20 worth because pump was so slow and I was in a rush). I started the car on tick over while I went to pay (so kids could watch their DVD). My wife came running in and said she had to switch the engine off because the car was making an awful sound (so we caught the problem early). The man at counter of the filling station called someone on our behalf to "fix" the issue. He turned up in 20mins and drained the tank (and put some cleaning fluid in too). Luckily £20 of fuel only partly filled one side of the tank (it's shapped like a saddle over the drive shaft apparently). I started the engine, it banged and clonked for a few seconds and then ran smooth as ever.
Now, here's the problem: as I left to go down the motorway all warning lights came on. No ESP, no ABS, no Cruise Control etc etc. The dealership service people told me this would go away after the computer sorted itself out after a number of restarts. Well, that was Tusday and the problem's still there.
Anyone suggest anything? Any clues why this may have happened? Maybe someone with a similar experience....but please don't tell me this is going to cost me a bag of money!
Thanks.
Now, here's the problem: as I left to go down the motorway all warning lights came on. No ESP, no ABS, no Cruise Control etc etc. The dealership service people told me this would go away after the computer sorted itself out after a number of restarts. Well, that was Tusday and the problem's still there.
Anyone suggest anything? Any clues why this may have happened? Maybe someone with a similar experience....but please don't tell me this is going to cost me a bag of money!
Thanks.
Was the tank empty before you started filling? i.e. what percentage of the tank was petrol vs diesel, you might only have put £20 in, but if the was only 5 litres of diesel in the, then the vast majority was petrol.
If it was empty, Get rid, ASAP.
On a modern common rail diesel engine, actually all diesels, the high pressure fuel pump and injectors are lubricated by the fuel supply not the engine oil. Petrol does not have the same lubricated properties as diesel and if the petrol made it to the pump and injectors it will have damaged them.
How badly depends of how much and how long. It might make it to 190k miles instead of 200k, but it might pack up next week.
Sorry.
ETA: Not sure you the warning lights are connected though. Try disconnecting the battery for 5 minutes and see what happens.
If it was empty, Get rid, ASAP.
On a modern common rail diesel engine, actually all diesels, the high pressure fuel pump and injectors are lubricated by the fuel supply not the engine oil. Petrol does not have the same lubricated properties as diesel and if the petrol made it to the pump and injectors it will have damaged them.
How badly depends of how much and how long. It might make it to 190k miles instead of 200k, but it might pack up next week.
Sorry.
ETA: Not sure you the warning lights are connected though. Try disconnecting the battery for 5 minutes and see what happens.
Edited by Martin Keene on Saturday 21st August 14:34
How did the garage guy drain the tank? Could he have tampered with a speed sensor in behind the wheel. My guess is he has inadvertently unplugged or damaged something else whilst draining your tank. ESP, ABS and cruise all require speed signal but are not particularly affected by incorrect fuel or poor engine running.
SClarke said:
How did the garage guy drain the tank? Could he have tampered with a speed sensor in behind the wheel. My guess is he has inadvertently unplugged or damaged something else whilst draining your tank. ESP, ABS and cruise all require speed signal but are not particularly affected by incorrect fuel or poor engine running.
This gets my vote too.Probably disconnected one wheel speed signal near the filler, speedometer will still work with three, but ABS etc won't.
MondeoMan1981 said:
Why did you start the car while you went to pay? Never seen anyone do this ever unless moving the car to a parking bay at like a BP with M&S attached
Sym7 said:
I started the car on tick over while I went to pay (so kids could watch their DVD).
Edited by Robb F on Saturday 21st August 15:08
SClarke said:
How did the garage guy drain the tank? Could he have tampered with a speed sensor in behind the wheel. My guess is he has inadvertently unplugged or damaged something else whilst draining your tank. ESP, ABS and cruise all require speed signal but are not particularly affected by incorrect fuel or poor engine running.
He simply put a pipe in the filler hole and pumped it out. We were virtually empty before I put £20 of petrol in so was nearly all petrol. Luckily the car was only on tick over and switched off as soon as it sounded bad - hopefully we caught it in time. We paid extra for an additional cleaning and lubricating fluid after he drained it so hopefully that may have helped too. So, he didn't need to touch anything else so it's odd that all of the electrical warning systems came on. However, today it all seems to be okay so maybe not a problem now. The car goes back in October.
Sym7 said:
Martin Keene said:
Sym7 said:
The car goes back in October.
I take it is a company car or something then? No worries with how long it will last then.It only takes a few seconds to ruin the pumps running an engine like this on petrol.
Edited by Soovy on Monday 23 August 13:06
The thing that's concerning me most at the moment is the warning light situation. It's been fine all weekend but my wife's called me to tell me the ESP, ABS light have come on again. She also mentioned that when we went to pull out of the driveway this morning that it felt like the brakes had locked on and there was a "crack" noise when she first moved. This reminded me, exactly the same thing happened to me when I pulled away from the garage after having the petrol drained. Could this simply be a coincidence? I know the brake pads are low (we were hoping not to have to replace them just before giving the car back). MB did mention a couple of weeks back that brakes and discs probably only had another couple of thousand miles to go and would need to be replaced. Is it normal to have discs wear out after only 45K miles?
Martin Keene said:
Was the tank empty before you started filling? i.e. what percentage of the tank was petrol vs diesel, you might only have put £20 in, but if the was only 5 litres of diesel in the, then the vast majority was petrol.
If it was empty, Get rid, ASAP.
On a modern common rail diesel engine, actually all diesels, the high pressure fuel pump and injectors are lubricated by the fuel supply not the engine oil. Petrol does not have the same lubricated properties as diesel and if the petrol made it to the pump and injectors it will have damaged them.
How badly depends of how much and how long. It might make it to 190k miles instead of 200k, but it might pack up next week.
Sorry.
ETA: Not sure you the warning lights are connected though. Try disconnecting the battery for 5 minutes and see what happens.
In your opinion, would this be a complete new engine (it only ran noisily on tick over for about 10 - 15 secs)? Or am I looking at fuel pump etc only?If it was empty, Get rid, ASAP.
On a modern common rail diesel engine, actually all diesels, the high pressure fuel pump and injectors are lubricated by the fuel supply not the engine oil. Petrol does not have the same lubricated properties as diesel and if the petrol made it to the pump and injectors it will have damaged them.
How badly depends of how much and how long. It might make it to 190k miles instead of 200k, but it might pack up next week.
Sorry.
ETA: Not sure you the warning lights are connected though. Try disconnecting the battery for 5 minutes and see what happens.
Edited by Martin Keene on Saturday 21st August 14:34
It'll be more than a fuel pump. Not sure why you think that being "only on tickover" is a good thing - the engine was running and that's what causes the damage. You need a dealer to look at it and tell you the damage.
ETA, why do you need the engine running to watch a DVD?
ETA, why do you need the engine running to watch a DVD?
Edited by Zod on Monday 23 August 14:06
Sym7 said:
The thing that's concerning me most at the moment is the warning light situation. It's been fine all weekend but my wife's called me to tell me the ESP, ABS light have come on again. She also mentioned that when we went to pull out of the driveway this morning that it felt like the brakes had locked on and there was a "crack" noise when she first moved. This reminded me, exactly the same thing happened to me when I pulled away from the garage after having the petrol drained. Could this simply be a coincidence? ............
Most probably coincidence. The brakes have no direct connection with the fuel system. The "crack" noise could be the pads releasing from the disks after being stuck so the brakes may need looking at.Sym7 said:
The thing that's concerning me most at the moment is the warning light situation. It's been fine all weekend but my wife's called me to tell me the ESP, ABS light have come on again. She also mentioned that when we went to pull out of the driveway this morning that it felt like the brakes had locked on and there was a "crack" noise when she first moved. This reminded me, exactly the same thing happened to me when I pulled away from the garage after having the petrol drained. Could this simply be a coincidence? ............
Most probably coincidence. The brakes have no direct connection with the fuel system. The "crack" noise could be the pads releasing from the disks after being stuck so the brakes may need looking at.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff