Hello,

Please help!

I tried to help today by filling my husband's adored Skoda Fabia. He then took the car out and when he came back he asked me if I had filled the car up and where was the receipt. Just as he had suspected I had gone and put petrol in it instead of Diesel!!!!

I have done a google search to try and see how bad the problem is, if the car is ruined and how much it might cost. Some website believe it will cost

Hello,

Please help!

I tried to help today by filling my husband's adored Skoda Fabia. He then took the car out and when he came back he asked me if I had filled the car up and where was the receipt. Just as he had suspected I had gone and put petrol in it instead of Diesel!!!!

I have done a google search to try and see how bad the problem is, if the car is ruined and how much it might cost. Some website believe it will cost

at the most the damage would be the injectors, high pressure pump, fuel filter, in tank pump, due to there being no lubricating oils in petrol it will cause the high pressure pump grind to a halt.

hope this helps

It all depends how far it was driven I think. Have a search on here (as plenty of people have done similar) and the car tends to cut out before any real damage is done. Couple of hundred tops usually to sort it

Chris

As Chris says, the PD engines seem to fare pretty well in this situation.

Firstly - if the car is under warranty do not take it to Skoda, they will annotate the cars history.

Secondly - You'll need to drain the tank of all fuel and fill it with the correct fuel. The fuel system will then need to be purged/primed to clear out the last of the petrol.

Thirdly - Get yourself down the supermarket and get him a nice big fat Fillet steak and yourself some frilly undies - You're gonna need to make amends somehow.

Good luck - Don't worry, it's probably not as bad as it seems.

Thirdly - Get yourself down the supermarket and get him a nice big fat Fillet steak and yourself some frilly undies - You're gonna need to make amends somehow.

lol

he'll probably think it was worth it!

there is a lot of scare mongering on some websites as to the cost of repairs if petrol is put in a diesel vehicle , obviously on some vehicles there could/will be damage but the figure thats mentioned is generally for something like a BMW or RangeRover

i think we have only changed all the parts of the diesel fuel system 2-3 times , and that was only because the insurance company said they wanted it all changing (god knows how the customer got the insurance to pay)

usually all we do is drain the tank and lines , then fit a new fuel filter and bleed through fresh diesel , can't remember one coming back with a problem

PD wil be fine, tough as old boots them

As Ric says, its fairly easy to drain out for any garage. I usually power up the intank pump with a 12v supply and pull off the supply hose to the fuel filter. Drain it out that way. New filter and after a bit of chugging away she goes.

Haven't had one yet that has done alot of damage. Get it drained and replace the filter and it should be OK.

ric04vrs (god knows how the customer got the insurance to pay)

We had a customer who got the insurance to pay for new carpets and seat belts when the scuttle drain holes blocked up and the car got wet inside.

Like the others have already said.

Get the tank drained and he fuel system flushed - new fuel filter and you should be OK.

I was talking to a diesel mechanic about this when i took my car for a service and he said that VW engines are a tough as old boots these days and as long as the car has not been ran over a long period of time with petrol in it and how much diesel was left in the tank there should be no damage to any of the parts!!!

Good luck

there was a large thread a short while ago( Please search to confirm), where someon calculated that provided there was less than 50% petrol in the tank, then keeping the tank topped up with diesel, would dilute the petrol, and cause no long lasting damage.

However, to be on the safe side, ask your breakdown service to take it to a garage to be drained & the tank refilled with the correct fuel.

I would then recommend grovelling for about 3 weeks or when he forgets ( whichever is the greater) for forgiveness and that you will never do it again

Hi there , the RAC have dedicated vans for this problem who will flush your fuel system without going to a garage ( i applied for the position before i found my last job)

edit may have been AA (it was an online application my memorys terrible)

Thirdly - Get yourself down the supermarket and get him a nice big fat Fillet steak and yourself some frilly undies.

Speaking from experience Stu????? :eek: :P

Hi, Everyone

I just wanted to say thanks for all the replies. I feel much better now. I don't know about the frilly undies, he seems to think he is due a new car now I have wrecked this one! Something like a AM V8 whatever that is. I think the frilly undies are a better idea!

I have tried to search AA and RAC websites but I can't find anything about them doing the job themselves. We'll try and ring them in the morning.

I have found another website which lists loads of people who have done the same thing. SimonG.org Quite amusing to read really. One guy says he only made the mistake because he was 'looking at two very nice girls'!

Anyway, it looks like the choices are:

1 - get the breakdown to tow to Skoda Dealer?

2 - get the breakdown to fix the problem

3 - call a company called Ultra-evac ltd who charge

Like I said be wary of going to a dealer if it is under warranty as they'll relieve you of any remainiing warranty on any parts they think may have been affected.

Given that the tank is 50/50 I might be tempted to syphon some out myself and chuck some fresh diesel in it.

Best of luck Rachel.

1 - get the breakdown to tow to Skoda Dealer?

As Stu's said, go anywhere but NOT Skoda. They'll jot it down, and use it to avoid fixing any fuel/engine related faults of the remainder of the warranty.

It's a common thing, so just about any garage can do it. If you post a town or area, some kind Briskodians might give you someone to go to - might be worth asking in General Car Chat.

I thought that the vast majority of cars now have anti-siphon traps so you wouldn't be able to do this?

As above, this should be fine. It's the other way round that can cause trouble.

Petrol has a high octane rating so wont burn easily when compressed, unlike diesel which needs to burn under compression as that's how diesel engines work.

it just means that the engine wont run as the fuel wont burn. You simply drain the tank, slap in load of diesel and bleed the system.

The other way can be a problem though as diesel has a low octane rating and will preignite in a petrol engine and possibly cause engine damage. BUT, diesel is more viscous (thicker) and the injection systems on a petrol are designed to handle a thinner fluid so chances are it'll just hiccup and stall before any damage occurs.

Fixing it is a messy but fairly straightforward job. I wouldn't take it to Skoda. No way....they'll rip you off and tell you that you need a new engine or something.

A decent back street garage is the way to go if you don't have the skills or kit to do this at home.

Do NOT go to a main dealer they will put it on history and it could affect the warranty for any other fuel system claims.

If the car is under warranty when the AA complete down the job with a code the manufacturer gets this and this could also affect the warranty.

Nationwide Autocentres do a fuel drain for approx

I only put

dont worry too much,drain off as much as possible yourselves. Refill with correct fuel. Most diesels can run with 20% petrol added ( old trick to stop diesel freezin in severe weather) do the maths. good luck:)

Right, I can speak from experience here.

You have a PD diesel engine. As Ross / Lummox says (he is very technically experienced ), you can't go wrong.

I once half filled my fabia vrs tank with bp ultimate petrol (picked the light blue pump instead of the dark blue one ). Realised my mistake after putting in 25 litres or so of super unleaded. Filled the rest of it with diesel, so I had a full tank, half of which was petrol, half was diesel.

It was fine The only trouble was starting when the engine was hot - had to crank for a second or two. But other than that, starting from cold was fine and once running, no problem whatsoever.

If you have only put a fiver in, and the tank wasn't that empty, you will get away with it. Just fill it up with diesel next time you can.

What matters here is not how much of the wrong fuel you have put in, but the ratio of diesel versus petrol. From my experience above, I have got away with having half diesel, half petrol.

However, this is probably only the case with PD diesel engines. Other types of diesel engines will not respond so favourably to a 1/2 mix of petrol and diesel.

If you only put a fiver in you could probably get away with filling it to the brim (using the vent method) with diesel and keep it topped up for a while to dilute the petrol. Then just get the fuel filter changed.

Im with Eddy on this.

5 litres is only about 10% of the tank

Even better then:thumbup: