Yesterday my mate accidentally filled his '52 reg Golf TDi with super unleaded. He got about a quarter of a mile down the road before it conked out.

So today we used my vacuum pump (that I use for oil changes) to drain the tank then refill with diesel, also emptied the fuel filter, cranked it over a bit and it started up. A fair bit of judder initially for about a few seconds with lots of white smoke out the exhaust but soon settled down to normal idle. Ran it up the road a few miles and it seems fine.

Phew.

Edited 22 December, 201015 yr by Chorlton

I suggest a dose of fuel lubricant, such as millers won't hurt and also that a new fuel filter should be fitted as the petrol could well have caused the crud that builds up in the tank to have been freed and then be pulled into the filter.

I did this to a van i had years ago, it won't harm the engine, just make run a bit crap for a while till the petrol is cleared. Every time the fuel gauge needle went down a bit i topped it up with diesel and it didn't take long to go back to normal.

Done this to my fabia vrs, was fine after

matt

I did this to a van i had years ago, it won't harm the engine, just make run a bit crap for a while till the petrol is cleared. Every time the fuel gauge needle went down a bit i topped it up with diesel and it didn't take long to go back to normal.

Done this to my fabia vrs, was fine after

matt

Depends on the fuel system, so you do need to be a bit careful. CR pumps for example don't like that petrol is a solvent rather than a lubricant and can potentially have issues.

In this care, with it being a golf, then it sounds like a lucky escape.

On a PD, it seems you can usually get away with a quick drain, refill, bit of millers, and crank it over to get the diesel through again. I would probably have changed the fuel filter to be sure though. Would be likely to be full of unleaded I would have thought.

no 2002 golf was a CR

Matt

But not a CR like we know of on the recent 2 litre TDIs yes? I thought a 52 plate golf would be a PD given the fabia was using a pd diesel engine from 2001.

a 2002 Golf will be a 1.9 PD not a CR

Guys, I never said the golf was a CR,.

At 2002 it will potentially be a neither PD or CR and will have the old style pump, which probably won't care much at all as long as you don't put too much petrol in it.

Either way, I was just saying that for engines which are CR (eg nearly every current derv) then you would have to be more careful.