6-7 litres of petrol in diesel car

[Psybbo]

Accidently put 6 litres i honda civic diesel have kept topping with diesel. Ahy damage?

[SlackAlice]

You may well get away with that, just keep topping up with diesel for a while.

[scotman]

That sounds rather a lot. Tank seems to be about 45l capacity. Can you syphon any out? If you can't then top up frequently and don't drive it hard until you are sure you have got rid of most of it.

[Psybbo]

Thank you both, will keep topping up

[JonnyBoy12]

The last person on here to put the wrong fuel in only put on about 30 pence worth, so am with scotman on this one. Not sure what to do. Sipon all the fuel out and then use it to light fires with, perhaps?

[MarkRae]

Playing devil's advocate here, read this:
http://www.telegraph....A-costly-mistake.html

[Toureman]

And this!

http://www.whatgas.co...petrol-in-diesel.html

[ladybirder]

If you've filled your tank to the brim with the wrong fuel what do you do with your car while you're waiting for help to come and drain your engine? The garage isn't going to be very pleased if you leave your car sitting blocking a pump.

[denis567]

Seems funny, but in the olden days (I am talking 50 years ago) lorry drivers used to add a bit of petrol to their diesel tank, in winter to prevent the diesel from freezing.

[mjwman]

I filled my tank with diesel last year. Oh, it was a 1978 Triumph Spitfire!
( my other car is a diesel) I was at Morrisons. Luckily I was at pump 1 and drove 20 ft straight ahead to the side of the forecourt shop.Using the petrol in the carbs I guess.

They were not in the least concerned and simply handed me a leaflet for a firm that would come in "a couple of hours" and remove the fuel for about £140! It apparently happens all the time.

I phoned my breakdown people who came in 15 mins put it on the truck and took me to my son in laws VW specialist garage where his apprentice syphoned it out. I put a gallon of petrol in and drove to the nearest garage and filled up. Then a swift burn up the A5 for 10 miles or so. Suprisingly it took that long to stop pinking and knocking. Aftwer that it has run perfectly!

Not that this answers your query. I suggest that if it is running ok just keep on what you are doing. You have not put a huge amount in really.

[TWR]

You are right on that Denis, In sever weather Derv Jellyfies ( Lumps) although illegal we always use to add Petrol / Paraffin to the diesel, it never give us any trouble but at that time we were running the old Gardener Engine, not many things stopped them running.

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe it is me being cynical but one wonders why different fuels don't have incompatible nozzles for the different fuel tanks. Not in anyone's interest except good old Joe Public I suspect. And who cares about them.

[TWR]

As a rule O.G. the nozzle on the Derv pumps are larger that the Petrol ones, Well, it used to be that way.

[Old_Geezer]

So you can put a petrol nozzle into a derv tank.

One would have thought an agreed system of keytags or different shapes could have been adhered to.

[TWR]

In my own opinion O.G. the derv pump should stand on its own as they used to be, the Nozzles where bigger so you could not make the mistake, It does not matter how brainy we all think we are Its easy to make the mistake, why the garages mix derv pumps with petrol amazes me, to a point they are at fault.

[vulcan]

Some diesel pumps used to have a device that stated " this is diesel" when you lifted the nozzle, that seems to have been removed as well.

[ChuckFickens]

Diesels nozzles are bigger than unleaded nozzles. (diesel nozzles and the old 4star nozzles were the same size, unleaded is smaller than both of them)

I disagree that it's the garages fault at all too, if people are too busy to spend 2 seconds checking they are using the correct fuel then it's their fault, not the garages.... and if anyone doesn't know what fuel they should be putting in the vehicle they are driving then they shouldn't be driving it.

Anyhow, to the question, in an old diesel it would do no harm, in a modern diesel it will damage things.

[beso]

If it is a Common Rail diesel then even a small amount can do severe damage.

[chas2008]

wouldnt lose any sleep over it, you are doing the right thing.It rarely if ever does any serious damage,the scaremongers will have you believe it will damage pumps,injectors etc. in reality it doesnt.
I have worked in the insurance garage/repair industry for over 15 years and we have never had a vehicle to repair which has been misfueled, bearing in mind an injector pump can cost in excess of £2,000 so it could easily be an insurance claim.
The most we have ever done as a favour is syphon the fuel out & replace the filter....