VW fuel mix up

Eek. Someone posted on here ages ago that they'd put 5L of the wrong fuel in but the concencus was that a small amount doesn't do much harm (i.e. you could thin diesel down with petrol but only to a point!)

peter

tricky in what way??

naked_draughtsman wrote:

In news: snipped-for-privacy@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com, philraine wittered on forthwith;

Whoops!

The usual words of wisdom when you put petrol into a modern diesel engine are as follows - "Don't start it, whatever you do", unfortunately, it's easier to do that if you've noticed your fuel mishap /before/ trying to drive home.

What damage can it do? Lots. Really, rather a lot. Pistons and fuel pump are the main items to worry about but you may be lucky.

Drain the tank, change the fuel filter, and hope to Gott that luck is on your side. It's a matter or chance as to whether you'll need to replace the pump in a week, a month, six months or ever.

What is the damage?

For a different perspective:

The best option would be to drain the fuel, change the fuel filter (£17 from VW), ask them for the procedure for a mis-fuelling.

If it runs, take it to another dealer & part ex it, as you'll be for some huge bills if the petrol has gone past the pump/injectors.

Thanks. Hope I don't get it next.. although being a TD that's pretty unlikely...

No hope, the official line is that it's a complete new fuel system and VW will want a fair chunk of cash (well into 4 figures) VW will also want to void any warranty on the engine. I know one dozy lass who filled her Passat TDi with petrol twice.

bad luck mate that's an expensive car to put the wrong fuel in. If it's any consolation missfuelling posts seem to occur in this group about once per week.. you are not alone.

BTW The channel 5 version of 'top gear ' (what ever it's called ) did a test with a couple of old bangers, they seemed to mostly get away with it , ( from a 'well it still runs' point of view ) but the newer diesels are even more sensitive I think. My focus has 'DIESEL' written on the cap does the tdi not ? Sell it quick... to a dealer you don't like !

Simon

Simon

In short:

Drain the fuel, fill up with diesel and see if it'll go.

I've never yet seen any mis-fuelling leading to immediate injection system fuelling. Out of all the mis-fuelling I've seen, only one vehicle has given us any hassle, and that was a mazda that the driver managed to fill twice with petrol within a short time period. And even then, the high pressure pump didn't fail for a further 20k. We put it down to the mis-fuelling, but a fortnight later we got another simialre mazda in with the exact same problem, had done about the same mileage, but had never knowingly been mis-fuelled.

Nice :-)

worst nightmare !

But great advert!

Having followed this thread, I can't believe it's that big a deal filling a diesel up with petrol. The reason I say that is that in our company's fleet it's always happening but the edict we have from the fleet department is "you must have the tank drained and refilled at your own expense" and then off you go again. Is it really as disasterous as the posts in thread has made out, 'cos if so I would have expect many stories floating around work about "have you heard so-and-so's wrecked their engine", but no, only "so-and-so had to pay to have his tank emptied".

If it really is the case then it can only be that modern engines with all their fancy environmental tweaks make them much more succeptible. I remember the case of one guy asking the mechanics to look at his engine as it had always been a bit noisy. The reply was that it was noisy because he'd put petrol in it and it was a diesel! "Well bugger me, I never knew that, I've always put petrol in it in all the years I've had it" came the reply.

Bob Coates

Hmm, did you hear that first hand or is it urban legend?

MattF