Unleaded petrol in a diesel car....

No, not me!

Im posting this on behalf of a mate on another board as I figure some of you guys are far more savvy with engines and the effect the wrong fuel could have than I!

A mate of a mate, who's normally very sensible and has just accidentally put £30 of unleaded in his Audi A4 turbo diesel.

He drove it home (0.75 miles) with no problem but is now trying to work out what to do.

Ideally he needs to drain the tank completely and then fill with Diesel ...

But at the house he's at (his G/F's) he doesn't have any ramps, tools, etc... and is wondering if he could just ram it to the brim with diesel (getting it about 40:60 diesel:petrol) and then keep topping it up.

Googling seems to bring up a load of opinions from "15% petrol in diesel is a normal thing to do in winter" ... To "one drop of petrol in there and your cat, seals, tank, everything, is screwed". Does anyone have any geniune knowledge on this?

Im thinking he may get away with a 20% mix????????

Thanks for any pointers or help peeps

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Answered/Question51778-8.asp?Page=1

Drain it. I would. not worth the risk!!! Even if round girlfriends with no tools etc

Thanks matey

Does sound like the best course of action, he'd best just hope no damage has been done already!

Yeah, um... I have a mate.....and um, well, I put the wrong fuel in...I mean, my mate did.

Now I am at my girlfriends, shit.... I mean, he is at his girlfriends and um I /He needs some advice.

LMAO

A likely story!!!

Only yolking mate, just made me giggle

EDIT, just don't put diesel in your supra!!!!

And don't do what some f'king idiot did and use a forcourt vacuum to try and suck it out- blew the petrol station up when the fuel hit the hoover motor BOOOOOOM!!!!

Same thing happened to me many years ago when Tesco had their forecourt refurbished and altered the location of the pumps. I went in very early one morning on auto-pilot, and filled my diesel Rover 625 up with unleaded. Luckily I had 1/4 tank diesel already, and got 6 miles down the road before the car began stuttering and spewing out white smoke. I ended up getting the AA to trailer the car off to their service centre, and it cost me £150 for the stuff to be flushed out, and a new fuel filter etc. Car was fine afterwards, but I was hugely embarrassed for months afterwards.

I think flushing the tank is the only realistic option - but at least it's not terminal:)

been there done it drained it car has been fine for years:)

If you drain the tank don't you have to re-pressurise the system?

A guy I work with's girlfriend did this. We ended up with buckets of petrol diesel mix floating around the place for ages. Well WTF else are you going to do with it? Clean's up paint brushes a treat.

IIRC you could try and be a bit cheeky and just pull off the tube where the fuel goes to the rail, and then just hook the pump up to the bat and get it to pump the fuel out for you rather than pissing about syphoning. Or just call the AA.

HTH

Take it from an ex-breakdown mechanic............

Tell him to drain it, and then fe-fill with diesel and it'll be fine.

Manufacturers allow up to a 10% mix in their guidlines anyway.

IF it was a BMW still under warranty, it's have to go back to BMW to maintain the warranty, around £3k if it hadn't been started, around £5k if it had.

The main concern is the fuel pump, as diesel is a better lubricant than petrol, and they say the slightest bit of petrol will balls it up..........................maybe a few years down the line.

i've done it before on a 306 where I put about £5 quid worth of unleaded in, but as the car was nearly empty I just filled it to the top with £30-odd quid of diesel and it was fine.

LOL @ Lewis!!! It really wasnt me its a guy off the fto list! Must admit I laughed out loud when I read the bit about the guy trying to vacuum it out.

Thanks for all the replies guys, Ill pass the info on now.