Petrol in a diesel !!!!

[E-bmw]

Not sure about petrol in diesel, but I once put under 1 gallon of diesel into a petrol engined BM & immediately filled up & literally drove non-stop to get through the tank then refilled with posh petrol & it ran like a bag of rusty spanners until I got 3 tanks under the belt top to bottom,

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

BlueFocus said:

Evening,

I have a 2007 1.8 diesel Focus.

Yesterday whilst filling it i realised i had a green pump in my hand not a black one - bugger. In 20 years i have never made that mistake, i guess there is always a first. I put in about £22 worth in.

I managed to find an older post on Pistonheads suggesting if you were to fill the tank with diesel it should be ok as the petrol would be diluted ?

Does that wisdom still hold true ?

I drove it about 1 mile home and haven't used it since.

Thanks

It could have been my post. A few months ago my wife, having not driven the car in months, put maybe £20 of petrol in her Diesel insignia. It ran for a bit then she experienced a loss of power on the M1. She pulled on to the hatchings, got out the car and called 101. A Highways Officer got to her in 10 minutes, and suggested brimming it with Diesel. He drove behind her in lane 1, at a snails pace, all lights flashing, to the next services. She filled the tank, and drove the further 100 miles home with no bother. Been fine since.

[Penelope Stopit]

Filling station put 20 Euro worth of unleaded in my Peugeot 306 Diesel

Brimmed it with Diesel, drove 60 clicks and brimmed it again and again and again...................All was good

Keep brimming it as often as possible

[anonymous-user]

Penelope Stopit said:

Filling station put 20 Euro worth of unleaded in my Peugeot 306 Diesel

Brimmed it with Diesel, drove 60 clicks and brimmed it again and again and again...................All was good

Keep brimming it as often as possible

Diesels were tough back then, not so much today.

[Penelope Stopit]

JimSuperSix said:

Penelope Stopit said:

Filling station put 20 Euro worth of unleaded in my Peugeot 306 Diesel

Brimmed it with Diesel, drove 60 clicks and brimmed it again and again and again...................All was good

Keep brimming it as often as possible

Diesels were tough back then, not so much today.

Yep, she runs on piss or chippy oil

Perhaps the OP won't be as lucky

[PhilF329]

Ive done that on a diesel focus too, similar year but when it was younger and fuel was cheaper. I brimmed it with diesel, kept topping it up over a couple of months before running the tank right down, but most importantly took it easy with the right foot and it was fine. No guarantees though!

[finlo]

cologne2792 said:

Millions of years ago, before non-waxing diesel was a thing in WInter, my dad used to near fill his PC Cresta diesel and top it off with a couple of gallons of 4 star.

I appreciate we've moved on and complexities have increased about 1000 % but the principle was fine.

A diesel Cresta? Do tell us more.

[Captain Answer]

If it were mine and not really a car I was too fussy about due to age/condition I'd have just brimmed it with diesel straight after then keep it topped up with diesel to keep diluting it down

I've only made the mistake once myself, lucky i noticed as the pump hit 2litres so I just filled the rest with diesel

[tapkaJohnD]

E-bmw said:

Not sure about petrol in diesel, but I once put under 1 gallon of diesel into a petrol engined BM & immediately filled up & literally drove non-stop to get through the tank then refilled with posh petrol & it ran like a bag of rusty spanners until I got 3 tanks under the belt top to bottom,

Me too. My excuse was that it was just after Le Mans, and we left early in the morning to get the ferry.
From another car, I was said to be making seven different colours of smoke, despite three quarters fill up with petrol. It ran badly until half way home and two fill-ups later, I took out the plugs and cleaned them - they still had oily stuff around the insulators. After that, fine!

It's petrol in a diesel that's the killer!
John

[Old Merc]

cologne2792 said:

Twig62 said:

cologne2792 said:

Millions of years ago, before non-waxing diesel was a thing in WInter, my dad used to near fill his PC Cresta diesel and top it off with a couple of gallons of 4 star.

I appreciate we've moved on and complexities have increased about 1000 % but the principle was fine.

How is that of any use or relevance to the op or his question ?

As the OP was asking if using a predominant mix of diesel to petrol is ok, then the experience I quoted is confirmation that it is.

Good on you cologne, your post was just a bit of fun reminder, when diesels were just ….diesels.
In the 70’s I used to put a gallon or two of paraffin in my Peugeot diesel.