I accidentally put petrol in my ute in the weekend and drove about 6km where i stopped to do some shopping, didnt realise my mistake until i went back to the vehicle and went to turn the key and it not start.
Was worried I had done serious damage and called the insurance to sort it out. Thankfully all they needed to do was flush it out and replace the filter, ive heard many more horror stories, but the dealership assured me it would be OK. Anyone else experienced this? I feel a complete idiot, but have been told by the tow truck driver they see it on a daily basis.
ml6989,
Nov 3, 9:31pm
You do not say what the vehicle is nor what the petrol / diesel mix ratio was. It would concern me that the uncombusted petrol got down past the piston rings and contaminated / diluted the lubricating oil. I would change the oil and filter for peace of mind if nothing else.
tweake,
Nov 3, 9:32pm
common rail, probably ok. engine tends to stop running before major damage is done. older engines tend to keep going and thats when it wears the crap out of the pumps etc.
electromic,
Nov 3, 9:43pm
There must be a few people who do it because the attendants always second guess me when I prepay petrol for my ute. My ute is petrol but good on them for checking. Edited to add. +1 for changing the oil and filter.
smallwoods,
Nov 3, 10:10pm
Santa Fe are a costly one to do this too. BiL works for Silver Fern and they had a mix of petrol and diesels. Well it was bound to happen with employees swapping vehicles.
s_nz,
Nov 3, 10:52pm
For those fleet vehicles, or those at higher risk (especially those who drive multiple petrol & diesel vehicles), there are anti miss fueling devices available:
Note that the later only fits in 25NB fill holes (most of the utes, but general not euro's), and means you can no longer fill up with truck size nozzles.
It is a pity over the decades the auto industry / fueling industry hasn't come up with some kind of solution (keyed nozzle on petrol pump etc) that prevents this issue.
nzoomed,
Nov 3, 11:54pm
Interesting, I thought common rail was more easy to do damage, since its a high pressure pump, lubricated by the diesel itself. From what I gather, since i only drive 6KM and there was still some diesel in the mix, it was not run long enough to have damaged anything, apparently if the pump starts to wear, metal particles block the injectors,
tygertung,
Nov 4, 5:56am
Interesting fact, aircraft engines (piston type) operating in cold climates such as Canada often have a special system where before shutdown, some fuel is added into the oil system to thin the oil a wee bit and stop it getting too thick when the engine is stopped as it is so cold. When the engine starts up again, the fuel simply evaporates out of the oil as it is quite volatile.
The same thing would happen on an engine in a car or ute etc.
gblack,
Nov 4, 7:13am
With exhaust cleaners like Ad-Blue, there is a standard for nozzles. It requires the Ad-Blue tank has a magnetic catch that should prevent people from putting the cleaner into petrol or diesel tanks.
Some people still manage to dribble out some into fuel tanks which does a lot more damage than petrol into diesel or vice versa.
annie17111,
Nov 4, 7:22am
When I went from petrol to diesel it was something that really worried me. So I normally only go to one servo now and the diesel pump is by itself away from the petrol pumps. And have a pink sticker on my fuel cap saying diesel only. Glad it didn't do any damage. What year dmax?
lythande1,
Nov 4, 7:52am
Well. lucky then because petrol in diesel is worse than the other way around.
intrade,
Nov 4, 9:45am
The problem is the horror story may anything but over. I would change the filter every tank of fuel for the next 5 times. Because if one metal shaving makes it past the filter everything will be nuked. you may think its ok. if it ever dont runs 100% smooth you have problems thats for all and every new diesel with a commonrail system. it wont matter if the topgear hilux runs on 2 piston for 5 minutes . you be having a extreem destruction on a commonrail one.
intrade,
Nov 4, 9:49am
i would also add chemtech fflashlube or other additive and its good to keep that doing as that superlubes it in case you do add petrol one day if you always do this. Only use dpf save additives if they make the statement it is then it will be.
alowishes,
Nov 4, 2:30pm
Put $20 worth of petrol in a Nissan with a LD 28 before I realised it. Luckily at already still had 1/2 a tank of diesel in the tank so I topped up with more diesel on top of the petrol. Never had any issues with the motor, injectors etc.
More modern diesels may not handle it so well though.
bryalea,
Nov 4, 2:36pm
Attendant put 2 litres of petrol in my old corolla once. I noticed and we filld with diesil. drove Wanganui to Levin and back and filled again. No worries. Years later another filled it! Corolla died mid flight. Mechanic drained and cleaned everything and away she went again. Maybe replaced filters etc. But no lasting effects.
tweake,
Nov 4, 5:40pm
what seams to happen with common rail is with a lot of petrol they fail to build up enough injection pressure to run, which means your not running long enough to cause a lot of wear. the worse thing for them is small amounts of petrol which lowers the lube enough to cause wear but still allow the engine to run. big culprit is gas stations dumping miss fueled cars back into the diesel tank. they are not meant to do it but its expensive to send it away for disposal.
also i would be more worried about the tank only having 10 litres of diesel left in it. diesels do not like running the fuel tank down low.
msigg,
Nov 4, 5:46pm
Well 6k is not very far, so I think you will be all good to go with a decent flush/filter change. Don't worry about it now. If shit happens in the future your insurance will cover. All good.
sanders4,
Nov 4, 8:45pm
Put 30 liters super in my D21 Terrano and when I had it flushed by mechanic he laughed and said the week before he had a truck with 220 liters petrol.Most make a mistake at least once it seems.
ml6989,
Nov 4, 9:50pm
The difference is that the aircraft has a controlled amount added while this situation is an uncontrolled amount being added. I would still err on the side of caution and change the oil and filter.
tygertung,
Nov 5, 7:22am
Perhaps, but the chances of the fuel getting past the rings are pretty remote. There is no problem in petrol engines which have the unburnt fuel mixture in the cylinders for a whole cycle, and with diesel the fuel is burnt as the same time as it is injects.
rj-001,
Nov 5, 8:24am
Did almost the exact same thing about 5 years ago with a Kia Sportage. Probably did about 5km back to home - then wouldn't start the next day - then worked out why. Drained it as best as could be done then kept topping it up regularly. Has never missed a beat since. I think you will be ok
tweake,
Nov 5, 6:54pm
don't worry about filters, petrol doesn't harm them and changing them doesn't gain anything.
flash lube is a good idea. or use non-synthetic 2 stroke oil or marine 2 stroke oil. just to add a bit of lube. about 100ml per tank is heaps.
nzoomed,
Oct 27, 5:09pm
its a 2013 D-max (I won it in the D-Max hunt competition) and its never missed a beat over the last 7 years ive had it.
Ive always been paranoid about doing this since I own a petrol, but its a classic that i dont often drive much until I took it out last month, and I put petrol in without even thinking! Lucky it was only 20 litres and I would have had at least 10 litres of diesel still in the tank too.
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