Well .. I just gone and done it .. put petrol in a diesel
My excuse is i have man flu, but started to fill up a near empty diesel tank with 4*. Fortunately the pump kept stopping and I only put in 4 litres before the awful truth dawned.

So I didn't start the engine, called Green Flag who fortunately cover such things, albeit I had to wait 3 hrs for the one mobile company acting for them came and pumped it out. He had already done 4 jobs that day and another 4 after me.

I can't believe this is still a problem and see older topics covering same problem. So.. any suggestions for a good device to stop this ever happening again .. notwithstanding a brain bypass.

PS .. how much damage would a small amount of petrol do in a full tank of diesel ??

Someone may shoot me down here but I think that you would have been ok with the 4L of petrol if you had a full tank of desiel. Petrol is less viscous than desiel and small amounts should not do any harm. Don't put desiel in a petrol engine though!

This is my first diesel and was the first full refill.
The thought of doing untold damage stopped me taking the risk and fortunately I had the afternoon free, but would have preferred not to spend 3 hrs + in a Sainsburys petrol station. depends on the situation I suppose.

I was however impressed with Green flag and their updates.. not their fault there was only one mobile guy that day doing whole of south east corner and i've waited 2hrs with RAC just for a tyre change.

petrol flashpoint is significantly lower than that for diesel, so your firing would be sooner than required in the cycle. Having said that it would run and as you replaced the fuel with a new tankful it wouldn't be as noticeable.

Significant insurance claims arise from rather small by volume contamination of diesel by gasoline (during carriage), as it is then off spec. But as above, doesn't mean it won't run

A small amount of petrol in the diesel won't hurt the engine itself (indeed petrol used to be added as a matter of course in winter to stop diesel waxing), however, modern high pressure fuel pumps are a different matter - they rely on the diesel for lubrication, and petrol can damage them fairly quickly.

That said, 4 litres in a tankful shouldn't do any harm, and I'd have risked it. The petrol won't immediately mix with the diesel, however, so for the first few fill-up afterwards don't let the tank run low - fill it up when it's still a third to a half full.

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The later models have a mis-fueling device built in to the neck of the fuel filler it might be possible to retro fit perhaps?

Ok thanks for the comments.
Luckily I had cover and was in an ideal situation to get help. But its still a worry that this is so easy to do and by all accounts its happening all over every day. I see some gadgets to help but wondered if anyone had tried any.

Quote:

So.. any suggestions for a good device to stop this ever happening again .. notwithstanding a brain bypass.

You are showing as having a MY11 model and should have the mis-fuelling device fitted, its still possible to put petrol in but the pump keeps stopping to let you know somethings up, as you noticed

Trouble is, many pumps keep stopping anyway so it would be easy just to think it was a c*** pump. Bring back fast-flowing diesel pumps with trigger locks!

EYorkshire wrote:

Quote:

So.. any suggestions for a good device to stop this ever happening again .. notwithstanding a brain bypass.

You are showing as having a MY11 model and should have the mis-fuelling device fitted, its still possible to put petrol in but the pump keeps stopping to let you know somethings up, as you noticed

Ah so .. didn't know that . Thought the pump was stopping cos of air in empty tank, but it did cause me to keep pressing the handle until realisation kicked in. so certainly not a fool proof system.

I've got a misfuel cap you can have as my last FL2 came with an integral one - if you don't mind covering postage

You are right, its not entirely foolproof and obviously it didn't operate as intended otherwise you would have needed the yellow reset tool that resides in your boot. From MY11 inclusive the device should be fitted.

Last edited by EYorkshire on 13th Mar 2015 2:58 pm. Edited 1 time in total

always wondered what that was - never really looked at it - how does it work?

richardk wrote:

I've got a misfuel cap you can have as my last FL2 came with an integral one - if you don't mind covering postage