It has not been a good day......

Lost a house purchase.

Failed to get a £20k contract for work because the client didn't send us all the information they sent to our competitors!

Managed to be very late for a meeting this afternoon.....

And then on the way home I put 2.5L Super Unleaded petrol into the tank of my 1.9TDI Superb!

When I filled up the computer told me I had 60mile of fuel left, and from past experience I know that that is closer to 90miles, to about 9litres.

Realising my mistake I stopped filling with the unleaded and then added another 50 plus litres of diesel to the tank until it was full (don't have receipt here to check the actual amount.

Then I drive the 17 miles home without anything else going wrong!

So I have about 2.5l of petrol mixed with about 60l of diesel - less then 5%.

Am I in the deep brown stuff or will that level of dilution be ok?

Any advice from the knowledgeable bunch out there?

Thanks

Matthew

saw a thing on telly once where they left it in the car and it smoked like a pig but still worked.

this was on an old shed of diesel though.

On something like the superb I'd be tempted to have drained. Garage should be able to do it fairly cheaply.

hth

cheers

Wouldn't be too worried about 2.5l, just don't drive car too hard until you fill up next.

Diesel in a petrol will make it smoke like mad, little drop of petrol in a diesel might nake it smoke less.

Don't worry about it - that's only a small amount and it won't do any harm.

To be on the safe side , top it up with diesel a few times to dilute it a bit more , but I know people who've run with more than that without issues

I would think that that ratio of petrol/diesel would be quite safe to continue driving and not be too concerned.

The two will mix,and 60 ltr diesel to 2.5ltr petrol is probably less than people used to add to Diesel engines in the winter to prevent the fuel 'gelling' or freezing.

As everyone has said, it shouldn't cause a concern.

Sorry to hear of your woes, sounds like you have had a right day of it.

Petrol will be carbon chains of approximately 8 in length, diesel is the 10-12 length.

With a dilution ratio of about 5% you will, in my opinion, be fine. People used to put petrol in to stop the derv waxing, so the only concern you may have is lubricating injectors.

Obviously skoda don't advise using fuel additives, but a dose of something like millers power 4 wouldn't hurt to up the lubricity for this tank.

Many thanks for all your replies.

I'll stop the panic, and get myself a beer.

If I could workout how to thank people on this forum I would, but its eluding me!

So "Thanks" for all the replies.

Cheers

Matthew

just thrash it and fill it up everytime you see a petrol station,

Just a thought does petrol mix with derv or does one just sit on top of the other, in other words do you just have a layer of petrol sat on top of your derv in the tank????

Planned to fill up everyday to keep it diluted.

Not sure if they mix properly or not. "Think" they do, but not sure!

Cheers

As per all others - don't worry, keep filling up to dilute and it'll be fine.

Petrol and diesel fuel mix and stay mixed. At the dilution you have, there should be no problems at all. Don't thrash it though - this is seldom a solution for anything other than a coked up engine.

If you had added a lot more petrol, I would suggest adding a little self-mixing 2-stroke oil to the fuel but I'm confident that that this dilution, no harm will result.

One advantage of the PD system is that most of the working parts of the fuel system are lubricated with engine oil and therefore protected.

I keep a plastic glove in the compartment behind the door of the fuel flap - this reminds me to fill with diesel and sometimes it's handy if the pump nozzle is dirty.

rotodiesel.

The petrol should evaporate overtime anyway.

Not when mixed with diesel in a closed tank.

rotodiesel.

leave the cap off (when parked)

leave the cap off (when parked)

nice one ....or don't bother and just keep filling it up to dilute!

I keep a plastic glove in the compartment behind the door of the fuel flap - this reminds me to fill with diesel and sometimes it's handy if the pump nozzle is dirty.

rotodiesel.

Ironically, I had already put on the plastic gloves from the dispenser, and checked the price of the diesel. Just picked up the wrong nozzle!

Muppet!!

Hi

I have accidentally joined the plonkers club. Unbelievable I managed to put 5.3 litres of unleaded into my Octavia Classic Sdi (1.9L diesel with no turbo) I didn’t start the car and managed to push it to the side of the filling station fore court. I then read some stuff on the web to see if there was anyone else as vacant as me. After reading a few web sites I decided to return to the car fill it to the top with diesel and start it and see what happens.

I think that I am right in saying that my car has a 10% mix of petrol in the diesel as 5.3 litres of unleaded is mixed with 49.7 litres of diesel in a 55 litre tank. I have driven my car 18 miles and it seams to be running no differently to when it only has diesel in it.

Dare I ask is there anyone willing to risk an estimate of the upper limit of unleaded in diesel before it is necessary to drain the fuel tank?

... I think that I am right in saying that my car has a 10% mix of petrol in the diesel...

Personally speaking, this is about the upper limit to what I would consider "safe" for my car, but then it's not my car. Consider some of the additives suggested above, ease up with the right boot, top up the tank frequently and I promise I won't tell anyone.

Worrying I know, but I don't believe its a catastrophe.

it's not going to hurt it at that dilution, just drive it normally and as soon as the tank allows (about 10 litres top up with diesel and do that for about the next 200 miles) then forget it happened.

People used to mix a bit of petrol with the derv to make it start easier and not wax up in winter so dont worry

I have had 10 litres in and no problem. A friend of mine had a FULL tank, and managed to drive 250 miles before he had an issue (or realised) in a VW Bora, had to have it cleaned out and new injectors fitted afterwards tho.

So a smal ammount like you have will make no difference I'm sure

Just a question

What happens if you fill up with the wrong type of fuel though?

The AA or your recovery company would drain the tank obviously but

do you get a refund on the fuel you bought?

What happens with the fuel you've just put in?

They cant just spill it, and it's prob classified as "contaminated". Does it get recycled?

They burn it in an old petrol or old diesel car

I used to put a few litres of petrol in the fuel tank of trucks in deepest winter to stop the diesel turning to "porridge".

As has been said, you should come to no harm at that dilution

Many years ago before we had ‘Winter Diesel’ automatically in our Petrol Stations, drivers used to add up to 10% petrol to their Diesels in order to stop the fuel waxing up in sub zero temperatures.