A tale of woe...

Did that before in a loan TD5 - same sort of ratio, brought a can and filled it with diesel and drove 2 miles to BnQ brought a hose pipe, drove to the tip and drained it into their waste oil tank - emptied the can, drove back the garage and filled up with diesel (double checking this time) - drove 750 in 2 days with no ill effects.

Just had my Dad on the mobile from sunny (!) Devon with my Mum on holiday....

"Your never guess what I've done" says he...

"What, are you both Ok!!" says I....

"I've just put unleaded into the Discovery instead of diesel...." says he

He is distraught. After much saving and having never had a new car in his life before he bought a '56' Discovery TDV6 in March. It's immaculate and is his pride and joy after owning a selection of Euro boxes. Basically the Discovery was half full and he decided to fill it up before a trip out somewhere. After putting in 30litres he realised his mistake and stopped, but he moved it 50 yards off the garage forecourt to get it out of the way. Land Rover assistance took them all back to the dealer in Plymouth and he now has a Fiesta to run around in. They were coming back to the SouthEast on Tuesday but have had to extend their stay until at least Friday as the Discovery can't be looked at until Weds/Thursday. LR have told him it has to be completely drained and a 'checksheet' followed to keep the LR warranty intact. They have said he's looking at about £600 all in... As you can imagine this is turning into a nightmare of a holiday for them.

I need some advice - What's the likely damage (if any) of him driving the 50yards? Has this happened to anyone else? I've never done it in either my Disco 1 or 90 so it's an unknown area for me....but a Discovery 3 is a complex beast...

And if someone reading this knows anyone in the Plymouth LR dealer please can they have a word with them and try and lessen the blow financially :-)

cheers G

If he didn't actually conk out and the tank was already half full of diesel then no long term damage should have been done as no petrol probably even went into the engine and fuel system.

A drain and re-fuel should do the trick.

Andy

So a weak 50:50, maybe even only 1/3 petrol.

Pretty p.poor dealer who can't squeeze the job in until Wed/Thursday. Carlisle

Good grief. A D3 may be complex but a complete drain of the tank and possibly change of fule filter would reduce the petrol/diesel ratio down= to insignificant I would have throught. Might take a couple of hours so =

=A3150 (at LR dealer rates...) plus a tank of diesel. For =A3600 I'd wan= t to know in very fine detail what they "check", replace, why and how long it= takes.

I was going to say does a D3 have a CAT but the petrol was unleaded so that isn't relevant. (Lead kills CATs, CATs are expensive).

Trouble is he's pretty much over a barrel if he wants to maintain the warranty and that is what the dealer says needs to be done.

I shouldn't think so provided the engine was really only run at low revs= tick over and wasn't making any complaining noises.

So a weak 50:50, maybe even only 1/3 petrol.

Pretty p.poor dealer who can't squeeze the job in until Wed/Thursday. Carlisle

Good grief. A D3 may be complex but a complete drain of the tank and possibly change of fule filter would reduce the petrol/diesel ratio down to insignificant I would have throught. Might take a couple of hours so £150 (at LR dealer rates...) plus a tank of diesel. For £600 I'd want to know in very fine detail what they "check", replace, why and how long it takes.

I was going to say does a D3 have a CAT but the petrol was unleaded so that isn't relevant. (Lead kills CATs, CATs are expensive).

Trouble is he's pretty much over a barrel if he wants to maintain the warranty and that is what the dealer says needs to be done.

I shouldn't think so provided the engine was really only run at low revs tick over and wasn't making any complaining noises.

Beleive it or not .... they need to get to the pump and filters apparently, guess what the *easiset* way is?

Yup - BODY OFF. There are some pics on mud-club of one undergoing said "repair". I'll see if I can find them.

I did this in a VW last year but the tank was nearly empty, of course I didn't move it, got the AA to take me to the nearest garage that was deliberately NOT a VW dealer, =A375 to drain the tank and he sent me with a jerry can to the nearby garage to buy my own diesel while he was doing it.

I can understand why someone may not realise they shouldn't move it, but going to a dealer is just plain silly, what THEY don't know can't hurt YOU!. Once you've informed them they have you by the short and curlies, pay them anything they ask or your new car has no warranty 8- (=2E Greg

Understand your view Greg but when your 100's of miles from home, with no knowledge of good local garage you trust and have a callout/ breakdown service available to you from the manufacturer....would'nt you use it?

Not everyone is as knowledgeable as most on here (including my Dad) so the situation he is in would probably result in most drivers with the above scenario ringing the LR assist.

Personally I've always relied on either the RAC or AA and with several reasonable experiences of them will continue to do so. When I put the petrol in the VW I simply asked the recovery driver where he would recommend to get it drained as he knew the area and I was back on the road within 4 hours, though I suppose if he were not local it may have been different.

Actually I did call a dealer anonimously first and was quoted =A3400 for unspecified work to "fix" it even though there was nothing to fix as I told them it hadn't been started, and a week next Thursday as the earliest they could manage, oh and I had to get the car to them!. As a matter of policy I don't use dealers any more unless I need to, every one I've experience of has either conned or over charged me. Greg