Wrong fuel in car

[kelk]

Hi all,

A friend has done the classic thing of putting petrol into a diesel car. The history is that on Monday night they put half a tank of petrol into a diesel car. They drove off and the "fuel light" came on, they returned to the garage and topped off the tank with ultimate diesel and drove home. I don't know the distance covered.

What is the likely outcome? Do they need to have the tank emptied by one of those companies that do this service or, as they have been informed, keep topping off the tank with more diesel to dilute the petrol?

Cost is anissue for them so the best and cheapest approach is being sought.

Thanks in advance for the help

[Uhura fighter]

What car?

[RizzoTheRat]

Depends on the cars age. On an old indirect injection engine just siphon the tank and top it up with diesel, they'll run quite happily on 20% or more petrol. Modern common rail engines are more of an issue, though I'd expect a few percent petrol will much less of a problem than a few percent diesel in a petrol engine.

Rudolph Diesel's original engine was designed to run on coal dust, admittedly it exploded but the replacement was designed to run on peanut oil, and runs on pretty much anything that'll burn. Unfortuntly car companies have spent the the intevening years trying to make the cleaner and more efficient at the expence of thier fuel tollerence. My common rail can't even cope with biodiesel.

[kelk]

Thanks so far

The car in question is a chevrolet (read daewoo) 4x4