Help ASAP Please (Gas in diesel engine)

Well, it's not much you can do now. Suck the gas out, change the fuel filter and pray that no serious damage happened.

The old diesels should bear some gas, since it was an official advice to mix up to 30 or 50% (I don't remember how much exactly) of gas in winter, to keep the diesel liquid (with no "arctic" diesel around).

Not good, but you may be lucky. Get the mix out of there and refill with diesel and change the filter. With luck no noticeable damage done. It sort of depends on how far you drove, how fast, and exactly what the mix was.

Drove about 7 miles @ about 50 mil/hr. The tank was right on empty so the mix must have been >95% gasoline. Uggh. I'll drain it and hope for the best. Thanks for the help.

If it runs, you might be fine to not even drain/change the fuel filter. I would just try to idle after replacing the fuel tank contents. I don't present this as a knowledgeable opinion tho. I have never had a diesel.

In the old days, didn't they say a diesel could run on gasoline in a pinch? Now that is probably not true for a computerized engine.

I bet you'll be okay. There was diesel fuel in the lines, water separators and filters, so the engine probably wasn't getting 100% gasoline until it flamed out. And, as someone else pointed out, you can add a fair amount of gas to diesel fuel in the winter to prevent gelling, so it's obviously not the end of the world for some gas to get in there.

Suck out as much of the tank as you can, drain out your separators, re-fill it with diesel -- and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Used to happen ALOT when I had my 83 Jetta - and it was when an attendant filled the tank! Just take out as much as you can and refill with diesel - you shouldn't have to change the filter. The only problem is disposing of the bad gas - you really shouldn't add it to a gas based car after being in your tank.

Disposing of waste fuel is a major PITA. Maybe you can buy some 5-10 gallon cans and drain the fuel into there. Then add 1 gallon back into your tank at each fillup until its gone. You shouldn't have a problem with a 10% mixture. Being able to reuse the fuel should pay for the cost of the cans to store it.

dan

I am not sure this is a good idea with modern diesel engines. In the old ones it was fine, although it did and will create an additional fire hazard, but modern engines are not the same and I am not at all sure it would be wise to mix any gas in the diesel. Are you sure the fuel system is designed to handle gasoline and that it is safe and will not damage injectors etc.

The only thing I'm sure of is death and taxes. This isn't a "modern" PD-TDI vehicle, its from the 80s, is it even turbocharged? I've been told by numerous people (including TDI owners) who I regard as knowledgable that it's okay to run a mixture of gas and diesel in both gas and diesel powered cars. I was told as long as you keep it under 10-15% diesel in a gas powered car you should be fine. My understanding is that diesel engines are more tolerant of gasoline than gasoline powered cars are of diesel, so I think you should be fine with a 10% gas/diesel mixture. You could always try putting in a half gallon with a tank first and see how the engine likes it and then build up.

If you've never tried to get rid of waste fuel before, you'd be surprised at how hard/expensive it is to get rid of fuel thats been "contaminated" by sitting in a tank that you just paid $2.50/gallon for. If you can burn it off in the engine, trust me, its a good alternative.

dan

The main problem with gasoline in a diesel vehicle is that gasoline is not as good as a lubricant as diesel. This tends to wear out the internal parts of your injection pump from friction. So while you might have knocked a few thousand miles off the overall life of your injection pump, you'll probably be fine as long as you drain the tank and fuel filter and refill both with diesel. If it were me, I'd also add some diesel additive or ATF directly to the fuel filter for good luck. :)

I would say you were lucky so far, and have done none , or a miniscule amount of damage. As long as you were not hot rodding it the 10km. You have to drain as much as possible gas out of the tank and refill with diesel. I would siphon the gas tank into clean buckets and put the gas in another car through a filter. Or drain it out the water seperator, under the floor boards if you have one . My 85 and 86 does. 30% or less of gas will be ok after what has happened now in a diesel VW engine of those years.Its in my

85 owners manual. I do not know the tolerance of a TDI. 10% diesel >> notmyrealname wrote:

"Id use some in a snow blower or my lawn mower."

Say, gasoline contaminated with diesel should burn nicely in a 2-stroke gas engine since diesel is pretty much a form of oil anyway. Good thinking.

notme wrote: ..

In this case I would suggest running the stuff, like a half gallon at a time in a gasoline powered car. Far safer in my opinion.

Save the gas and use it in your lawnmower or other less than critical machines. A weedwhacker, with it's 2-cycle oil mixing, might be a fine candidate.

But if you get your car back in working order without undue expense, losing that money on gas is a CHEAP way to learn that lesson!

Several here have mentioned the reason for running some gasoline in a diesel car, especially in the winter.

What, then, would be the reason to mix some diesel in with the gas in a gas car?