I've had my 08 TD4 for around 6 months now and last night the wife decided she'd make the mistake of putting unleaded in. Apparently she put in around £20 before realising her mistake and subsequently stopped. The car has not been started and the RAC has recovered it and she's now sat on the drive (the car, not the wife ). Does anyone know how to drain the tank and do I really need to decontaminate it even though the car has not been started ? There was less then quarter of a tank of diesel prior to her mistake.

Get an expert in via RAC! * GONE. GS TD4 Manual MY2013. Orkney Grey with privacy, cold and clearview packs, armrests (a must!) and a spoiler.
* 2011 4.4 TDV8 Full Fat. Amazing piece of kit.
* GONE.2012 RR Sport HSE SDV6 Orkney Grey. Rocket ship. 33mpg.
* Range Rover Classic '93 200Tdi Factory fit
* 1949 80" in family since 1975

Im no expert but i would just fill up with diesel i dont think 20 quids worth of petrol will hurt too much.

Less than quarter of a tank to start with and you have effectively put another quarter of a tank in thats a 50:50 mix petrol/diesel, at that level it will do damage to the pump and injection system if its started.

If in doubt get it drained and start again unless you can brim the tank with diesel before starting it.

Glad you did not start it as you would of caused a lot more and costly damaged if you run the engine untill it stopped.
The tank is now going to be have to emptied.
There are several ways to do this. I would seperated the fuel line at one of the quick release points under the car. MAKE SURE you drain from the supply line to the engine not the return line. plug the line leading to the front of the car to stop the fuel draining down.
Using a suitable hand vacum pump, vacum pump out the remaining fuel from the tank. By draining it this way you will not get every last drop, so when you cant suck any more fuel out just simply add a few more litres of fresh keen deisel and vacum suck once again till empty.
Reconnect fuelline and add more fuel to the tank.
You will now need to seperate the fuel line on the quick release fuel line feeding the deisel filter and vacum suck untill fuel flows at this point.
Now reconnect fuel line and try to start the engine, you will now of emptied the tank and flushed both the tank and the fuel line.
Repace all covers etc and start the engine.

The tank is a saddle design, if you try and drain it from the filler neck there will be a least 15 litres of fuel left in the other side of the tank. If you try and vacuum it from the fuel line the same will happen.
The car knows about the fuel level in both sides of the saddle tank and transfers fuel from one side to the other using an inbuilt transfer pump. The designers would have no reason to activate the transfer pump if the engine isn't running, it is possible that it will work with the ingnition on, but from memory mine only works for a few seconds.
Two options, drain the active side of the tank from either the filler(anti syphon installed - good luck ), or from the fuel lines (under rear seat base or next to fuel filter), cycle the ignition a few dozen times to get as much out of the other side as possible, and then FILL with diesel.
The other option is to spend a complete day stripping out the prop shaft an diesel tank.

Me I'm for option 1 drain at the fuel filter, cycle the ignition till I get board, then fill with diesel, and keep her topped up for a few days - bearing in mind use 90 litres a week. Then go out and buy a missfuelling device, because if you do it after ripping into the wife for doing it there will be hell to pay.

You can buy a priming bulb from Machine mart, Halfrauds, or most good car parts shops for around £20 - much cheaper than the mis-fuelling services. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Google mis fuel, lots of companies can help, will cost you a couple of hundred, if you haven't run it, siphon the offside saddle, add some 2so and fill up with clean diesel.

taztastic wrote:

Less than quarter of a tank to start with and you have effectively put another quarter of a tank in thats a 50:50 mix petrol/diesel, at that level it will do damage to the pump and injection system if its started.

If in doubt get it drained and start again unless you can brim the tank with diesel before starting it.

I thought the recovery places delt with this? I know the AA do at least, they have a special fleet of vans, included in the normal charge they come out drain the fuel and top it up, all you pay for is the filter and the replacement fuel, do the RAC not offer the same?

Lucky you didn't start it, an old girlfriends mum did this to her 50k jag while the dad was away on business, drove it to the shops then a friends then halfway home before it cut out on her. It was a 8k bill from jag, insurance covered it in the end.

Jon Freelander 2, 2014 Dynamic SD4 Santorini Black

Also worth buying a new filler cap - one of the ones that stops you or someone else misfuelling - well worth the £40

Thanks to everyone for all the help, I have decided to bite the bullet and pay for one of the specialists to come round and drain it for me. I've now returned the wife's Xmas pressie and ordered her a Fuel Angel. I look forward her face light up on Xmas day

Her face light up, I would be concerned for yours, how good is her right hook

Someone i know did this but filled the tank right up with petrol and then drove a few miles until the freelander2 was like a kangaroo..A specialist company did the job and there was no lasting problems whatsoever this was four years ago and the car runs well..