Wrong Fuelling

p20 · Unread post by **p20** » 05 Jun 2006, 21:27

Fifth Gear ran tests this week with wrong fuelling. They were bangers, but both cars ran with the wrong fuel (approx 5ltrs on empty tank)for approx 20miles without major problems. The then filled up with the correct fuel(no draining), no filter change, both passed emission tests.

Obviously no report on long term damage, but not the immediate disaster that you'd think.
Brief report: http://fifthgear.five.tv/jsp/5gmain.jsp ... our%20tank?

Program repeated Sat 10th June 11.40am

bxbodger · Unread post by **bxbodger** » 06 Jun 2006, 00:17

What cars did they use?? I can (and do...) lob all sorts in the BX tank and its fine, and my brother in law, who does recoveries and pump-outs, runs his ZX diesel on what he gets out of misfuelled tanks, but I wouldn't want to try it in anything modern!!

The wifes Kia has the HDI system- there's a big red label saying 'diesel' inside the filler flap- its there for a reason as I think misfuelling that one and then driving off would probably kill it.

howiedean · Unread post by **howiedean** » 06 Jun 2006, 00:56

bxbodger wrote:What cars did they use?? I can (and do...) lob all sorts in the BX tank and its fine, and my brother in law, who does recoveries and pump-outs, runs his ZX diesel on what he gets out of misfuelled tanks, but I wouldn't want to try it in anything modern!!

The wifes Kia has the HDI system- there's a big red label saying 'diesel' inside the filler flap- its there for a reason as I think misfuelling that one and then driving off would probably kill it.

Agreed, My old ZX had allsorts put in its tank: Hyd oil, gearbox oil, parafin and vegoil mix, biofuel, petrol and occasionally diesel.

Regards

ACTIVE8 · Unread post by **ACTIVE8** » 06 Jun 2006, 09:56

I managed to see that programme, Jon Bentley was the reporter who carried out the experiments. The two cars used were an old Escort MKIV with a petrol engine, and an old Astra diesel.

nick · Unread post by **nick** » 06 Jun 2006, 10:09

My uncle once made the mistake of filling the tank of a VW Passat TDi hire car with petrol. He realised what he'd done before starting the engine & rang the hire company to ask what to do.
Amazingly they said don't worry, just drive the car as normal for the rest of the hire period (a couple of weeks), put some derv in the tank as soon as you can to dilute the unleaded, but if it packs up phone us & we'll send a tow truck & another car

Not the response he was expecting at all !

np · Unread post by np » 06 Jun 2006, 21:03

My wife TWICE put petrol into her Mondeo TD.The 1st time was a full tank from empty.Ran for about 2 miles then died.Had to drain the whole lot out,new filter,& about 10 mins to get running again.It ran ok ,but was smokey & rough as ****(not the smoothest of engines in the 1st place

)for a good week after.No lasting effects.
The 2nd time was about 25 ltrs of petrol to about 35 ltrs of derv.This time it ran rough & sluggish & smokey,but was ok.Toped up with derv every day.Untill i went to Wales in it.It ran fine there.But would not start for the return journey.Greenflag mam reckon`d the same as me,that after nearly 200 miles it should be fine,but it was`nt.Had to be towed home to Bristol & drain it all out again

p20 · Unread post by **p20** » 06 Jun 2006, 21:30

The astra they had was an old (k reg or similar) 1.7 non turbo diesel. They did state that more modern engines would probably damage the fuel pumps.

ACTIVE8 · Unread post by **ACTIVE8** » 07 Jun 2006, 12:33

p20 wrote:The astra they had was an old (k reg or similar) 1.7 non turbo diesel. They did state that more modern engines would probably damage the fuel pumps.

Well as long as the general public watching the programme, understands that there was a reason why they used old earlier models, and that they should be very careful to NOT do the same with their brand new car.

nick · Unread post by **nick** » 07 Jun 2006, 13:48

ACTIVE8 wrote:
they should be very careful to NOT do the same with their brand new car.

....or they could just try it in a hire car

bxbodger · Unread post by **bxbodger** » 07 Jun 2006, 14:06

So really, for the article to have had any relevance, they should've gone out and bought a car with a new HP type diesel engine, put petrol in it, and then sent Tiff off in it for a couple of laps to wreck it..... thats what TG would have done!!

Malcolm · Unread post by **Malcolm** » 10 Jun 2006, 20:52

I remember early 70s, my father had a motor home with Perkins 499 diesel engine. Diesel was cheap then but my father had the idea to mix paraffin, even cheaper, 50/50 ? with the diesel.

This was an admitted false economy as the fuel pump died from lack of lubricant, and that I remember was not a cheap replacement.