Petrol in Diesel by mistake, What to do?

wrinklet1 · Post by **wrinklet1** » 11 Sep 2004, 17:23

Hi, my wife put £10 of petrol into the diesel tank by mistake. I told her to brim the tank with <u></u>diesel<u></u>. I once read (in a BX handbook) that in winter conditions, that you could put petrol in the diesel tank to prevent 'waxing' of the fuel. If I keep topping up the tank with diesel, the mixture will thin (or thicken) and go back to 100% diesel.
Will this do any harm? I understand that the engine may run hotter than normal and that it may smoke as well.
Am I ok to run it? draining isn't an option as we have a wedding to go to in 3 hrs.
Regards
Paul.

Stempy · Post by **Stempy** » 11 Sep 2004, 17:53

Stick a bit of veg oil in there too. £10 of petrol isn't much these days, looks like you'll have to risk it.

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 11 Sep 2004, 19:41

Concentrate on the wedding [:p]
- and you might even forget for good that your BXdiesel is running partly on petrol.

bikeboyz · Post by **bikeboyz** » 12 Sep 2004, 02:29

Should be fine, its true you can mix petrol in to diesel to stop winter waxing of the fuel. Modern automotive diesel has this added for you, although I believe its optional still in red diesel.

prm · Post by **prm** » 12 Sep 2004, 02:43

£10 of petrol -- about 12 litres. Just add about 1/4 litre of std. engine oil. May run hotter, but allow to warm up fully before revving. Once you've cleared that tank full should be fine.
R

wrinklet1 · Post by **wrinklet1** » 12 Sep 2004, 20:41

I brimmed the tank, it has run okay so far with no difference at all. We drove 120miles, I am going to fill the car up again with Diesel....
Thanks,
Paul

wrinklet1 · Post by **wrinklet1** » 15 Sep 2004, 12:47

UPDATE,
Have covered 155 miles and topped the car up, no problems at all. Mpg return is 55mpg, cracking or what? I may do this again (not)
Regards
Paul

P 2501 · Post by **P 2501** » 15 Sep 2004, 13:10

55 mpg! Looks like i'm having a squirt of unleaded next time i fill up...

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 15 Sep 2004, 14:17

Adding a gallon of petrol to a full tank of diesel once a year is regarded as a good injector cleaning tip by some...

FFX-DM · Post by **FFX-DM** » 15 Sep 2004, 14:26

According to Radio 4 yesterday morning, motoring organisations reckon that there are 120,000 wrong fuel incidents in the UK every year. Don't know how they get their figures. It's on the increase though, due to fuel companies fannying about with pump colours, inc one actually using the same colour for diesel and super unleaded!

xsaraowner · Post by **xsaraowner** » 20 Sep 2004, 19:54

new to the site - what a boring user name, but its an on the spot thing. anyway.
one fuel is lighter than the other, cant remember which though.
so basically one will sit a the top of the fuel tank. handy info if you ever make that mistake!!
just need to know which is the lighter of the two fuels!

NiSk · Post by **NiSk** » 20 Sep 2004, 20:07

Xsaraowner - thats true - petrol is lighter than diesel - however, both are petroluem based fuels, and they mix easily - so you won't get a chance at separating them that way!
However, water is heavier than both petrol and diesel and that doesnt mix, so if you get water in your fuel it will automatically fall to the bottom of the tank and . . trouble !!
//NiSk

wrinklet1 · Post by **wrinklet1** » 22 Sep 2004, 15:15

Thats why, if the warning light comes on, on your dashboard to tell you water is in the filter, drain the filter asap. Or as in my car, it flashes at random anyway, even when there isnt a filter in, when changing it..!!!!!
Paul

TomH · Post by **TomH** » 22 Sep 2004, 17:25

If only they'd thought of some sort of system with different shaped or sized nozzles and fuel caps that meant you couldn't do it!

wrinklet1 · Post by **wrinklet1** » 22 Sep 2004, 20:45

They Have, only a lot of petrol station havent changed over. Unleaded is supposed to be small, then LRP and the biggest is diesel. Only, the petrol ones fit the derv ones.
Different shapes would be better, only they could spark therefore causing an explosion on the forcourt.
Not Nice to the paintwork
Paul.