Petrol in a diesel BMW......How bad is it?
Discussion
Right, 'A friend of mine' has put petrol in his diesel car.
He was on the way to the airport and had 10 litres of fuel left, he unknowingly topped up with 20 litres of PETROL and drove 30 miles to the airport without any problem.
A week later he collected the car and drove back. Within 5 miles of leaving the airport the car was running rough, lacking in power and sounding like a jar of nails for the 30 mile drive home. Sorry for the 'O' level math type description, but I thought distance travel/fuel used might be helpful.
The next morning he drove the car and it was just as back, rough to start and smoking. He took it to the local BMW AD thinking it might be a turbo problem, to be adressed under warranty.
Shock phonecall later from the AD,to be informed that the car had been contaminated with petrol, and that the entire fuel system would have to be replaced. The tank, fuel lines, pumps injectors.....everything. At a cost of over £7000!
Is this necessary, does everything have to be replaced or is he being taken for a ride by the AD? Or can the car be drained and re-filled with diesel? Will the petrol dilute sufficiently not to damage the engine/injectors/pump?
Does anyone have any expertese of this?
He was on the way to the airport and had 10 litres of fuel left, he unknowingly topped up with 20 litres of PETROL and drove 30 miles to the airport without any problem.
A week later he collected the car and drove back. Within 5 miles of leaving the airport the car was running rough, lacking in power and sounding like a jar of nails for the 30 mile drive home. Sorry for the 'O' level math type description, but I thought distance travel/fuel used might be helpful.
The next morning he drove the car and it was just as back, rough to start and smoking. He took it to the local BMW AD thinking it might be a turbo problem, to be adressed under warranty.
Shock phonecall later from the AD,to be informed that the car had been contaminated with petrol, and that the entire fuel system would have to be replaced. The tank, fuel lines, pumps injectors.....everything. At a cost of over £7000!
Is this necessary, does everything have to be replaced or is he being taken for a ride by the AD? Or can the car be drained and re-filled with diesel? Will the petrol dilute sufficiently not to damage the engine/injectors/pump?
Does anyone have any expertese of this?
MrFlibbles said:
If its going to cost £7k, draiinging the tank and refilling with Diesel can't make it any worse!
That's what we though, however the service representative informed us that if we did the diesel pump could fail with catastrophic consequences resulting in a new engine. Is this bullsh*t and an AD taking advantage of a technical ignoramus or is there some truth here. Are these engines (330D 204hp) that sensitive, we thought diesels were bullet proof...
Dominic H said:
MrFlibbles said:
If its going to cost £7k, draiinging the tank and refilling with Diesel can't make it any worse!
That's what we though, however the service representative informed us that if we did the diesel pump could fail with catastrophic consequences resulting in a new engine. Is this bullsh*t and an AD taking advantage of a technical ignoramus or is there some truth here. Are these engines (330D 204hp) that sensitive, we thought diesels were bullet proof...The engines run at very high fuel pressures which is achived by VERY close tolerances in all of the components.
When this car was run on Petrol - the dealer would have removed the fuel level senders in the fuel tank and looked into the fuel baffle.
Here - it would be very visible and evident that there would be metal particles present - they would have come from the pumps , injectors and high pressure pump.
As a result - high pressure is lost as the components rely on the diesel to lubricate the moving parts.
Petrol has no such properties.
If you simply replace what you consider to be necessary - I can assure you that there will be swarf present somewhere in the system - and it WILL wreck the new parts fitted.
Futhermore - if the car has a BMW warranty - and a complete repair is not agreed to - then BMW would be informed , and your warranty would be void.
Run the cars on the fuel that they were designed for - and they are bullet proof.
Only old version diesels from the eighties with distributor style pumps could suffer such abuse.
Sorry - this is the price of BHP , effeciency and drivabilty.
Drop me a line if you need any more info.
Good luck !
Coupe'-racing is quite right, a full fuel system will be required. As he said the components, especially the high pressure pump run very close tollerances, in fact just one tea-spoon of neat petrol in an H.P. pump will ruin it. And as they run off the enigines timing chain, a seized pump can mean snapped timing chain!
Not to mention the swarf.
I know this to be true because i have replaced many fuel systems and a couple of engines due to this very problem.
Everyone loves the BMW diesel engine for it's great performance, but feed it the wrong juice?...... Time to put your kidneys on ebay....
Not to mention the swarf.
I know this to be true because i have replaced many fuel systems and a couple of engines due to this very problem.
Everyone loves the BMW diesel engine for it's great performance, but feed it the wrong juice?...... Time to put your kidneys on ebay....
These systems run at a starting pressure of 300 bar and a maximum of 1600 bar.To wash the HP ump and injectors with petrol with such close tolerences will destroy them.
Diesel is their only source of lubrication,petrol is a corrosive liquid and will wash the diesel and protective layers away.
Diesel is their only source of lubrication,petrol is a corrosive liquid and will wash the diesel and protective layers away.
Buying any used vehicle can be a complete lottery though and you could apply that rule to almost any complex vehicle system.
How do you know that the nice clean 5 series PETROL you have just bought, hasn't had a dodgy aftermarket phone kit fitted at somepoint in it's life which was litterally 'ripped' out before you bought it? Resulting in loose wires behind the dash moving about and shorting out, killing a couple of control units and costing you £2000 in parts and labour?
I've seen this happen, and the car was less than two years old.
How do you know that the nice clean 5 series PETROL you have just bought, hasn't had a dodgy aftermarket phone kit fitted at somepoint in it's life which was litterally 'ripped' out before you bought it? Resulting in loose wires behind the dash moving about and shorting out, killing a couple of control units and costing you £2000 in parts and labour?
I've seen this happen, and the car was less than two years old.
Coupe'-Racing said:
Dominic H said:
MrFlibbles said:
If its going to cost £7k, draiinging the tank and refilling with Diesel can't make it any worse!
That's what we though, however the service representative informed us that if we did the diesel pump could fail with catastrophic consequences resulting in a new engine. Is this bullsh*t and an AD taking advantage of a technical ignoramus or is there some truth here. Are these engines (330D 204hp) that sensitive, we thought diesels were bullet proof...The engines run at very high fuel pressures which is achived by VERY close tolerances in all of the components.
When this car was run on Petrol - the dealer would have removed the fuel level senders in the fuel tank and looked into the fuel baffle.
Here - it would be very visible and evident that there would be metal particles present - they would have come from the pumps , injectors and high pressure pump.
As a result - high pressure is lost as the components rely on the diesel to lubricate the moving parts.
Petrol has no such properties.
If you simply replace what you consider to be necessary - I can assure you that there will be swarf present somewhere in the system - and it WILL wreck the new parts fitted.
Futhermore - if the car has a BMW warranty - and a complete repair is not agreed to - then BMW would be informed , and your warranty would be void.
Run the cars on the fuel that they were designed for - and they are bullet proof.
Only old version diesels from the eighties with distributor style pumps could suffer such abuse.
Sorry - this is the price of BHP , effeciency and drivabilty.
Drop me a line if you need any more info.
Good luck !
Had my 04 525D virtually dry of fuel the other day, crawled to the local shell and started filling up
...........DOHHHH!!!! After a minute or so realised that I had put 14 litres of unleaded in!!!!!!!!!
After the initial panic I remembered that I had done this once before a few years ago although only put about 7 litres in. On that occassion I just filled the rest with diesel and all was OK.
Anyway I decided to add to the tank again and go for the diluting option and keep my fingers and everything else crossed.
Anyway I am now 200 miles on from this situauin and the car seems to be OK (Fingers Crossed still). I have kept adding diesel at every opportunity and although the odd hesitation all seems to be OK.
Will update accordingly but I am hoping all is OK!
...........DOHHHH!!!! After a minute or so realised that I had put 14 litres of unleaded in!!!!!!!!!
After the initial panic I remembered that I had done this once before a few years ago although only put about 7 litres in. On that occassion I just filled the rest with diesel and all was OK.
Anyway I decided to add to the tank again and go for the diluting option and keep my fingers and everything else crossed.
Anyway I am now 200 miles on from this situauin and the car seems to be OK (Fingers Crossed still). I have kept adding diesel at every opportunity and although the odd hesitation all seems to be OK.
Will update accordingly but I am hoping all is OK!
Deva Link said:
Can't give an opinion on whether it's necessary to replace everything or not, but many insurance companies seem to pay out on this.
Yes, technically putting the wrong fuel in your car is an accident, so insurance should pay-out. Obviously check the small print of your policy and consider the long-term expense of losing your no-claims bonus against the short term expense of forking-out for the repair yourself.Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff