Putting diesel in a petrol engine?

Have a sniff of the tank - the smell of diesel's quite distinctive.

Someone who knows a better way of telling will be along shortly :)

Si

Can you describe how diesel smells different from petrol? Never been near the stuff before.

Cheers! Dan

Diesel smells more "oily and dirty" - nothing at all like petrol. I can't really describe it, but the smell is that different from petrol, you'll know if you've done it!

Mike

Not quite, it smells like cat pee with a faint aroma of rose petals. DaveK.

Look at the receipt you got from the filling station - it usually says the fuel type.

Darren

Find the recipt from the garage?

I doubt it'd idle smoothly and rev roughly on a petrol/diesel mix, I'd expect it to maybe idle really rough and smooth a little whilst revving.

If you can smell fuel in the engine bay and it's running rough maybe you have a fuel leak? I'd run the engine and have a jolly good look around the fuel lines, you'll not likely see a hole but you may see fuel dripping.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Who gets a receipt from a petrol station other than those looking to reclaim petrol expenses or those that are so anally retentive they keep a record of when the last time they farted?!

Difficult to discribe a smell. Best way would be to just find a lorry. They always stink of diesel around the fuel tank. Mike.

I do. I pay with a card and I'm not so anally retentive as to compulsively clean all the old receipts out of the door pocket every few days. It gets done when I wash the car - once a year or so...

Cheers,

Colin.

If it's a fairly recent unleaded only car the diesel fuel nozzle will be way too big to enter the filler "recepticle" so it would normally be nigh on impossible to use leaded fuel or diesel.

Dilbert Dorkins

Is it not possible to siphon a little off and see if it lights? A small amount of course.

Barry

My Metro when I bought it was running on diesel. Actually didn't tick over too badly, other than a miss on #3, which turned out to be a manifold gasket. Drove like a sack of whatsit though, smelled bad too, and seemed to be running very very hot (the temp sender had broken, but it had that "hot" smell to it).

The general consensus of those around at the time was A series engines really are mystical, as nobody had seen a petrol car run so well on diesel.

As for how to tell, I was changing the fuel filter as part of the "why doesn't this thing work properly" routine, and the moment I took the line off, I knew full well it wasn't petrol in the pipes. Diesel has a very nasty smell, also a very different, greasier texture.

My car's started behaving very badly, it idles ok but when you apply power it judders and fights, and generally lacks power. There is a general "fuel-type" smell and some smoke coming from the bottom of the engine once it's been running a while. This started happening shortly after I filled the tank up so I'm slightly paranoid that I might have but diesel in by mistake. Sure I can't have been quite that stupid, but would like to confirm it!

lots of white smoke out of the exhaust

When I'm using company cars I have to keep receipts for accounts. When I'm in my own car I keep the (card and cheque) receipts until they show up on the next bank statement. Can't remember the last time I farted though - if you're interested I'll keep a log...

Darren

very helpful G-man - perhaps if you were more anally retentive you'd have a license by now

It is highly unlikely you have diesel in the tank. Apart from the fact the nozzle is too big it is unlikely to run. I suspect you have a different problem.

I have been reading this newsgroup for a while now, every week or so someone comes up with a 'diesel in petrol' or vice-versa question. Howver I thought that this one was quite an interesting variant, well done !

PS.

I had a dream ( nightmare ) about doing this the other day.. is that sad or what ?

Simon

This is true. A quick google might serve people better.

Likewise could be said about you + and a life...

G.