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Advice please - I put a few litres of Diesel in my unleaded car.

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I had to call the RAC in South London a few months ago and while talking to the bloke, he said this is one of the main things they get called out for nowadays. They've actually invested in loads of vacuum pump things and most of their vans have got one on board.

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as some have already mentioned, putting petrol in a diesel car is far worse than vice-versa, and putting only a few litres of diesel in a petrol car should be okay as long as it is otherwise full of unleaded.

 

my car is petrol and the wife's is diesel, so we are always very careful filling up.

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I've been told petrol in a diesel car also removes some of the hard facing in the high pressure fuel pump leading to failure and a very expensive replacement cost!

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Fuel grades were always marked with color coding..

Black,Blue and yellow were Diesel, Green is unleaded and Red 4 star or LRP

 

Its also harder to put diesel into a petrol filler as the nozzle of the diesel pump is fatter than a petrol pump, however i myself have filled a diesel with unleaded......

 

About 4 years ago i drove my van into a filling station in Harrogate, a filling station i had used on many occasions for around 10 years previously. I drove in and to the usual pump i use there, a pump that dispensed Diesel ONLY (positioned in the highest part of the forecourt so high vehicles could get under the canopy) i shoved the BLUE nozzle in and pumped away while my mind wandered with the fairies...after a min or so, i thought "this smells funny"... i looked down and saw the pump had a new sticker on it and the nozzle had a tag, both reading "NEW ULTIMATE UNLEADED"...i stopped pumping and read that i had put in nearly 40 litres...i went in and after a blazing row with the attendant (who had worked there for years and recognised me) i had to stump up the bill for the unleaded and call the recovery firm who after an hour waiting towed me to the garage, drained off the tank before i had to go back to the same garage and refill with 80 litres of diesel (that peed me off a bit) before going home...

 

Now, my point to this dreary story is this, the attendant knew me, knew i filled with diesel and knew that big sprinter vans DONT use unleaded, the recovery guy said that this was a regular 'mistake' at that station after the pump change and reckoned they were onto a good screw.....

 

I notice that this petrol station has now reverted back to the Diesel ONLY pump and changed the color of the ULTIMATE unleaded to green with a red 'highlight'

 

Funny eh?

 

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Thanks for the info people, it's been an interesting read :thumbsup:

 

I'm surprised to read that you can kill a diesel engine by adding petrol; I always thought the old cast-iron blocks were practically bulletproof and that if they could run on vegetable oil, they could run on anything.

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Thanks for the info people, it's been an interesting read :thumbsup:

 

I'm surprised to read that you can kill a diesel engine by adding petrol; I always thought the old cast-iron blocks were practically bulletproof and that if they could run on vegetable oil, they could run on anything.

 

 

The OLD diesels you could (pre electronic everything days)

 

Like i said in an earlier post, years ago people used to put a small amount of petrol in diesel tanks to stop the diesel from freezing up in cold weather.

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Feedback - no long term effects at all, dilution by filling fuel tank seems to have worked well enough.

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