Should I use the diesel from my dead Megane?

[DisplayName]

Hi fellow Fabia owners (of which I am a newbie!)

Got a question, but first the background:

Had a Renault Megane DCI which I stupidly put petrol in. Had it drained and ran for a little while and then died. Long frustrating story short, I got a new car. I completely filled the Megane (with diesel, after running about a week after draining) when it died about 1 mile after filling!

So basically I'm not sure if I should risk using the diesel I will siphon from the Meganes tank (which should be fine in theory as the tank was pumped out), in my 59 plate Fabia 1.4 (80).

I've been looking online and I'm just getting too many different opinions! Also is it a PD engine? (Really not a mechanic!)

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[mac e]

For the price of a tank of fuel why risk it?

[combi31]

I brimmed my old Mk 1 Fabia VRS with petrol back in 2004, Doh!

I drained the tank completely, into 25l containers, which I kept. I used this over a period of a few months in the wife's saxo vts, we put about a gallon in her car each time she filled the tank. My logic being that approx 90% of the fuel in the fabia tank was petrol and around 10% diesel, by mixing just a gallon with pumped petrol each time we filled the VTS tank we reduced the proportion of diesel to just 1-2% and didn't waste £70 quid of fuel.

I would imagine the saxo engine would be less affected than the 1.4tdi so not a recommendation either way. Having said that I drove 200 yards in the fabia before the engine stalled, it took me a few seconds trying to restart before I realised what I had done but it didn't seem to cause any lasting damage.

Obviously storing 50 litres of fuel in the garage; shed or garden is not particularly clever and I'm not too sure whether or not this is legal, certainly not advised by authorities.

[Guest]

Hi DisplayName, and welcome to the site. Congrats on buying a very good car in the Fabia 1422cc 3 cylinder diesel. They are a great car. I've owned one for 5 years without any issues but now have another Fabia version. Do keep posting to us all about how you are getting on with it in the coming months/years.

The Fabia 1422cc diesel is a very tough little engine. It IS the PD (Pump Dusse) type, and is therefore much more resilient to fuel problems regarding the issue you are highlighting than an ordinary Common Rail diesel with a standard high pressure pump. This is because standard CR engines use the fuel itself to lubricate the fuel pump. If petrol gets into the fuel the pump looses much or all of it's lubrication and the bearing fail very quickly causing the engine to loose fuel pressure and the engine looses power and eventually stops running. Petrol is also very bad for the injectors. It sounds as if your Renault suffered maybe from this scenario. Now the PD engines DO NOT rely on the fuel itself to lubricate the bearings in the fuel pumps. You Fabia has something called Unitary Injectors (combining the pump and injector together, one for each cylinder) that uses engine oil to lubricate the pumps vital bits. This is much better. So petrol in small quantities won't have the same effect on a PD engine.

So returning to your original question, if the petrol in your tank had been flushed there cannot be a problem with the new fuel itself that is in your Renault, and it can safely be used in your Fabia. In other words, your Renault died from the effects of previously ingesting petrol through it's system which proved just too much for it. The new fuel did nothing to contribute to the dying of your car, unless of course you suspect the new fuel too is contaminated from source.

I see nothing wrong with using that fuel in your new car, but only you can make that decision.

[Guest]

For the price of a tank of fuel why risk it?

Welcome to you too!

[DisplayName]

Thank you so much Estate Man! That's just the info I was looking for. I really appreciate it!

Thank you for the warm welcome!

Yes its a great little car and reliability was a key factor in deciding what I chose. I'm sure I will keeping it for quite some time.

[mac e]

Welcome to you too!

Fair point! guess I'm a man of few words (typed anyhow), no offence meant to OP.

My more wordy response would be that if there is even the slighest doubt that there was a problem with the fuel I would dump it for peace of mind. Mind you I'm always considered a pretty risk averse kinda guy. I never observed the 3 second rule lets put it that way.

Anyhow. Welcome to the forum "DisplayName", though I'm more of an observer than a participant in the debate, as a new fabia owner I sure have learnt a lot from being a member here.