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Putting Petrol Into A Diesel Car

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2 hours ago, geared said:

Diesel in petrol is usually less of an issue, it smokes abit but usually doesn't cause any lasting damage.

Diesel in petrol cars destroys the catalytic converter, even in reasonably small amounts. The saving grace, is it is very difficult to put diesel into a petrol car due to the filler nozzle on the pump and the filler neck on the vehicle being smaller. A diesel pump nozzle just doesn't fit.

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Nah it's not as bad as people make out, it might finish off an already buggered cat but on a half decent one it'd survive.

They run very hot, more than hot enough to burn off abit of diesel soot.

 

Modern cars are not as forgiving as older ones tho, so you could do damage to sensors or something.

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6 hours ago, geared said:

Nah it's not as bad as people make out, it might finish off an already buggered cat but on a half decent one it'd survive.

They run very hot, more than hot enough to burn off abit of diesel soot.

 

Modern cars are not as forgiving as older ones tho, so you could do damage to sensors or something.

Catalytic converters only start working when they get hot, or when they "light" as I call it. There will have been a lot of diesel  past through it by then, also unburnt petrol as it won't be burning it properly due to the diesel, especially if it is misfiring. (Unburnt petrol does destroy Catalytic converters) It will destroy the heater elements in the oxygen sensors too, that's a good shout.

 

All I can say to anyone, is good luck getting your car though the emissions test on the next MOT if you have run it with (Partial) diesel in.

 

 

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13 hours ago, Dardandec said:

 

 

All I can say to anyone, is good luck getting your car though the emissions test on the next MOT if you have run it with (Partial) diesel in.

 

 

My Peugeot 107 passed MOT shortly after the "event", but I haven't got away scot-free as "P 0420" shows up approx. every 40 miles, usually at light throttle in top gear.

As a start, I inspected the top oxy-sensor (very clean), but the bottom one is proving difficult to undo even with a gas torch. I've read that the ECU can be re-set by disconnecting the battery for a short period.

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On 07/05/2020 at 10:57, Stonks said:

I have recently bought a diesel car after many years of  having petrol engines.

Last week I topped up the tank with petrol by mistake, but fortunately realised straight away and so didn't start the engine.

Being  a member of the RAC I rang them and had to pay over the phone £224 : 99 to get someone to come out. A company called Fuel Doctors attended, and in 25 minutes  all was back to normal.

When I got home I checked  the internet for prices and found I could have got the same service for £95 : 00.

Not a bad little earner for the RAC,  £129 : 99 profit for just a phone call to a sub contractor.

RAC MEMBERS BEWARE

Tweet @joelycett.   He will like this one.

 

This is RAC who were set up to represent motorists' best interests, ripping them off.

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Years ago I had an old astra diesel van that  I  put about  half of a tank of petrol into by mistake. I then drove about a mile or two before it started spluttering so pulled over.

What I did was took the fuel pipe off and added a pipe to it leading to a container.  I then just pumped the petrol out using the ignition to engage the fuel pump, luckily I had a great battery.

After getting most out I then filled up with diesel and after that it ran fine.  I would guess it would cause more problems though should this situation happen with modern diesel engines.

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To do that on modern cars involves consulting manual and removing engine covers etc, yours probably just needed a jubilee clip unfastening and the pipe pulling off!

 

A neighbour (back in 50/60s) had a big diesel car and ran it on a mixture of sump oil and paraffin. Those were the motoring days!

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I've only ever had petrol cars so I'm only guessing that currently all holes and nozzles are the same shape - now don't laugh...but why don't manufacturers of cars/fuel pumps make the nozzle and filling points different shapes to prevent this from happening? Round for one fuel and square or oval even for the other for instance? Or is that just too simplistic? 

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They have to consider existing vehicles. Presently, the diesel nozzle is bigger than the petrol one.

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Guest makapaka

Did this to a brand new company car I’d had for 3 days.

 

went down well with the company as you might expect.......

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On 10/05/2020 at 16:26, Hayley1 said:

I've only ever had petrol cars so I'm only guessing that currently all holes and nozzles are the same shape - now don't laugh...but why don't manufacturers of cars/fuel pumps make the nozzle and filling points different shapes to prevent this from happening? Round for one fuel and square or oval even for the other for instance? Or is that just too simplistic? 

New cars do now have a capless filler neck on the vehicle that is impossible to misfuel as the pump nozzles will defiantly not fit unless it is the right one. These have been around since at least 2012 (Don't know the exact date) and different manufactures have adopted this system at different times. The problem is, manufactures have to work round the current fuel pump system and there are loads of older cars that don't have the misfuel capless system.    

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That makes sense, thanks 😁

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