petrol in diesel disaster

[darrian]

I stupidly put petrol in my 330d, "M57 TU" diesel.[54 reg]
I immediately stopped the car when I noticed a few twinges in the engine.
After about 1-2 mile driven.
I read through the forum, and found the post I quoted hereunder quite helpful.

Does it matter that I only drove one-two mile ???

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 M47TU - M57 - M57TU and the latest versions of any BMW diesel engine has been engineered to run on Diesel.
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 !

[rassi]

You need to 1) pull the fuse to the fuel pump, 2) have the car towed to the nearest BMW dealer or trusted independent and 3) cancel Xmas shopping, as this is going to be a world of wallet pain.

Sorry about this.

[blueg33]

I completely filled my 530d with petrol one friday night. It was all pumped out and tanks drained, and refilled with diesel. It was fine for the next year and 25,000 miles, i left the company (company car) but I hear that it is still going fine another 3 years on and has just been bought by the Finance Director

[Deva Link]

Insurance companies will pay those £6-£7K bills, so they must think it's necessary.

[Shelsleyf2]

Ermmm done this twice, once a 330d 05 reg. Was filling up and suddenly after 6 litres realised I was putting Petrol in, car was empty so switched to Diesel and carried on filling...No after effects. Isuzu pickup almost empty brimmed with petrol drove off...aware engine sounding funny and needed more throttle to maintain 70 mph. Pulled receipt out of pocket...Ohh bugger. Carried an 20 miles to motorway exit drove off motorway and parked up. Drained tank...refilled with diesel...no after effects. I am yet to meet anyone who has had actual failures of pumps or injectors etc. Hear all sorts of monster bills for precautionary repairs...In the real world why not drain and refill...flush pumps etc and carry on, seems like you might get a big bill, seems like you might not.Just my real world experience..and also a mates, in a VAG product.

Land Rover engineer told me that although they will change everything if a customer reports having put petrol in Diesel, he confesed that when they had made the same mistake at the works, they elected to flush and carry on, vehicle suffered no ill effects.

Seems like its big business..if you can sell preventative maintainance at £5000 a go.

[DSM2]

Drain/refill give it a go. what have you got to lose?

This must have happened to a dozen of our company cars in recent years. Never done anything other than as above and never had an issue.

[darrian]

thanks for replies

bmw dealer sorted car out, drained/flushed replaced all sensors/filters.
they are happy that no futher damage has been done

£465.

Retained full warranty [6 moths approved warranty left]

Also my insurance company [prudential] would have covered any costs under accidental damage [fully comp]

[john_p]

I can understand filters, but sensors?

[Deva Link]

darrian said:

thanks for replies

bmw dealer sorted car out, drained/flushed replaced all sensors/filters.
they are happy that no futher damage has been done

£465.

Retained full warranty [6 moths approved warranty left]

Also my insurance company [prudential] would have covered any costs under accidental damage [fully comp]

Phew.

Apparently the same people do this over and over again. I've developed a routine of putting the nozzle in place then standing back and re-checking before I squeeze the trigger.

[B3pete]

Large london taxi garage had about 50 black cabs.After every service they would put in a few pounds of petrol on a full tank to give the "bits and pieces a good clearout".

[darrian]

B3pete said:

Large london taxi garage had about 50 black cabs.After every service they would put in a few pounds of petrol on a full tank to give the "bits and pieces a good clearout".

black cabs [used to] have diesels fairly similar to the one designed by Rudolf himself !!!

[Allanv]

errrrr

Did this in my 320D 03 drove for 6 miles, took it tot he garage (an indi) once I realised what I had done.

Cost £156.

New filters, drain and clean plus £30 of new fuel.

That was 2 years ago. She is still going fine now.

[darrian]

yes after > 10 years of driving diesel, how airheaded !!!!!

[jt racing]

Did the same in my spacewagon. Brimmed it from fuel light on with petrol and when i was driving down the road found it was running very bad, Dawned on me what i had done, drained the tank and refilled it (with diesel this time!). RAn fine and passed the nct a week later. Few months later the car became hard to start and drive so cahnged the fuel filter that was full of sludge and all has been well since then. She's now done over 208000miles, and without tempting fate, running well for the last 2 years since.

[Shmee150]

Deva Link said:

Apparently the same people do this over and over again. I've developed a routine of putting the nozzle in place then standing back and re-checking before I squeeze the trigger.

Me too, got in the habit when I got my first car, albeit only 5 years ago, but every single time, I insert the nozzle, then take my hand off, check it's right and then go. Fingers crossed I'll never get it wrong, but I benefit from being forced to check by alternating between petrol and diesel cars, also increasing the need to check I guess.

[hss111]

why don’t they just make petrol nozzles that only fit petrol cars and the same for diesel? No they will not do that because the motor industries makes waayyyy to much money from peoples screw up’s. When I did this last year to my car ( petrol in to a diesel) the rac man said he gets about 10 to 15 people doing this every week. Now can you imagine how much money that most generate dealerships garages etc etc etc!!!!

[philmots]

My mate did this in MK5 Golf 170... Conked out in the middle of a roundabout, got it recovered to someone who specialises in VAG, changed the filters, drained etc a bit of new diesel think it cost him 78 quid plus new diesel. No word on what it's like now as it was a loan car as his had been in an accident.

[Shmee150]

hss111 said:

why don’t they just make petrol nozzles that only fit petrol cars and the same for diesel? No they will not do that because the motor industries makes waayyyy to much money from peoples screw up’s. When I did this last year to my car ( petrol in to a diesel) the rac man said he gets about 10 to 15 people doing this every week. Now can you imagine how much money that most generate dealerships garages etc etc etc!!!!

You know some new cars do exactly this?

A diesel nozzle is bigger than a petrol ever so slightly so won't fit in at all. And a petrol nozzle being smaller won't release the magnetic catches on the flap of a diesel.

Meaning, in my 1er coupe anyway, you in theory *can't* get it wrong, I'm not going to say I've tried to fill it with petrol, but I've had a damaged diesel pump not work because the nozzle was dented!

Tim