Unleaded petrol mixed with Diesel in a Chrysler 2.5CRD

Except that that the VSR cure is a £150 head machining job and this problem could cost more than the car is worth.

I sent him a reasoned well thought out critique and asked him to comment. No answer wehn it first came out. Most of it was bollocks then and it's probably the same now. IF you brimmed it with neat petrol, then all you need to is drain and refill the tank (with diesel). There's no reason to spend seven grand cleaning the bloody pumps out - just present it with diesel and switch on.

The message from "Knight Of The Road" contains these words:

To whom?

Just curious: who is "we"?

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Erm, engine hasn't been run yet?

-- Called Pete? Join The Pete Collective NOW at

Heh. I know people say a car with 12 month's ticket is worth about £300 all day long no matter what it is.... but you have to draw the line at a s**te old Sierra.

There is a minimum value to just about any vehicle that runs , doesn't have huge holes in the bodywork , and can pass an MOT

By what the SP was saying, it's going to cost that to prevent it. Seems to me if the solution is to replace all the components of the fuel system, including pump, injectors, filters and high pressure pipes, plus perhaps even the fuel tank, then you might just as well run these parts to destruction and replace them when and if that happens.

Goodness knows how Honda think a dead diesel pump will damage the transmission, but I can see all manner of reasons to recommend replacing pretty much the whole car, if I was selling thousands of pounds worth of parts if my advice was taken. Given even a tenuous excuse.

Given a CRD can cost up to thirteen grand less then the OP's car when new, that's hardly surprising.

I would like to confirm that it is a load of bollocks. It does serve a purpose though. That is, to make people think hard before filling their tank.

Huw

OK you kind people

Many thanks for your helpful input, Here's the update

Because the silly moo had already accepted the RAC mans view that it was safe to drive and brought it home from 3 miles away I decided to take a gamble and NOT have the thing flushed out and take your good advice on the ****riskier option****

I dumped half a litre of Diesel engine oil into the petrol tank last night and took it out on a 50 mile round trip, topping off the tank with =A38 worth of diesel afterwards

This morning I drove it for about almost 80 miles and topped up with Diesel again before carrying on another 120 miles and topping up once more with the right stuff

I have to say that I havent noticed anything untoward at all, and I've had the music turned off all the time, if anything, the engine appears to have been running sweeter than usual and the other noticeable difference is the smell of the exhaust, which is different but not alarmingly so

Fair enough, some have said that effects may be apparent only in the long term, but as far as I can see right now I may have got away with it

Cheers

Mike

And where do you buy for £300 a fully running car, MOT and no particular mechanical issues in the near future. With some luck, I suppose.

wrote in

I have to say that I havent noticed anything untoward at all, and I've had the music turned off all the time, if anything, the engine appears to have been running sweeter than usual and the other noticeable difference is the smell of the exhaust, which is different but not alarmingly so

huw That'll be the oil.

Fair enough, some have said that effects may be apparent only in the long term, but as far as I can see right now I may have got away with it

Cheers

Mike

huw again Happy motoring and don't give it another thought let alone a worry.

Huw

The message from Johannes contains these words:

All over the place. The country's lousy with cheap cars.

I'm not sure about that Huw

In fact, what is a VM unit ?

All I know in my ignorance is it's a 2.5 liter common rail turbodiesel

It used to be quite noisy, till my missus dumped a tenners worth of unleaded in it and drove it home again !

On the whole it has been a pretty good car Huw, it is my wifes familymobile and I only drive it when I have to, but I must say I enjoy it, you can even throw it into bends if you're a bit careful, for a big MPV it handles more like a saloon

Reversing it aint easy, you cant see much behind you and parking spaces in the UK don't seem big enough for it

The Turning circle is not fantastic too but hey, it is a long vehicle

The main bugbear I've had reliability wise was the brake discs ( rotors ) which needed replacing after just one year and 12,000 miles !!! ( Rhymes with PLANK ! )

This was OUTSIDE of the warranty and classed as a ****wear and tear**** item, much to my disgust, I have a Lexus LS430 that warps one front disk about every 15,000 miles ( a known common issue ) and Lexus give me a new pair and throw in Free front pads too, big difference !

Also our GV is too old to have the stow and go seating (2004 MY onwards) which I imagine would be a BOON !

The seats in ours are nice, leather upholstered etc but they weigh an absolute ton, a single "Captains chair" needs a bit fit chap to remove it, the badly named "Easy Out" roller seat in the rear, a bench seat for 3 pax, takes 2 bodybuilders to remove and 3 to re-fit

Once yopu take them out you need somewhere safe to store them and they are BIG !

Having said all that, the stow&go seats look very thin and wimpy in comparrison

Thanks a lot for your valued opinions By The Way Huw

Regards

Mike

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hmm, slightly better.

Actually, the average warranty labour rate is about £42. Some manufacturers supply the parts for warranty uninvoiced (VW/Audi/Seat do I know), so there is no opportunity to make anything at all.

But then I'm considering many more factors than you are. A drain and refill might take a couple of hours or so, and we could charge for a bit more, but then that is how the techs make bonus isn't it?

The insurance or warranty repair is a much larger job, fixed by a standard book time, and discounted parts. It could take a full 4-5 hours to do the components replacement, or a lot more if the engine goes. Some of the modern engines are complex enough that you don't get them done much quicker than book time anymore.

So, work out a, say, 18 hour engine replacement at 100% efficiency, or a drain and flush and 16 hours of servicing at 130% efficiency.

I work it out that we make about £300 extra by not doing the big repair on labour alone. We also get a much larger margin on fast moving service parts too. So yes, it's more profitable to do the flush.

Hmm, I hope I don't buy a car from your garage. One thing you seem to have forgotten is 'liability', if the manufacturer recommends we do a job a certain way, we basically have to do it that way, it has f*ck all to do with stitching up the consumer - they already did that all by themselves when they insisted on liability, block excemption and data protection. All we do now is to cover our arses.

?

My dealership, or any main dealer come to that. It's a 'royal' we.

...or its maintenance (i.e., timing belt replacements when 100% maintenance-free gear-driven cams could be made to work). You've hit the proverbial nail on the head.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')