Wrong fuel

Well, there's a first time for everything I suppose.

Was cruising down the A41 yesterday afternoon, and on approach to the M25 J20 started to lose power. The acceleration was a little jittery beforehand whilst on cruise control so I knew something was up. Anyway, car stopped at traffic lights. Wouldn't restart.

Called breakdown out. Worked out it was a fuel problem. Suddenly realised I had put V-Power unleaded into the car. I had about 7 litres of diesel left, but filled the tank so 8 mins down the road she'd had enough.

Whilst being winched onto the trailer, a maroon A2 with parking sensors passed me. Oh the shame of it, my poor car on the trailer, and all my fault!!

So, now I await the bill from my local garage. I'm just really hoping that there is no significant damage done to injectors etc. I've been scaring myself silly last night with Google research. No idea of the cost so I'm probably going to need to be sitting down.

I suspect most of the Googled tales of woe related to Common Rail engines where the (very) high pressure fuel pumps relies on the lubricity of diesel so the internals quickly start to wear and spread debris into the injectors once fed on petrol.
Our PD system is much more tolerant and should survive the small amount of running you did on the diesel / petrol mix, especially since all the 'wear' surfaces will have been nicely 'run in' over many thousands of miles.

Best of luck.


Cheers Spike

spike said:

I suspect most of the Googled tales of woe related to Common Rail engines where the (very) high pressure fuel pumps relies on the lubricity of diesel so the internals quickly start to wear and spread debris into the injectors once fed on petrol.
Our PD system is much more tolerant and should survive the small amount of running you did on the diesel / petrol mix, especially since all the 'wear' surfaces will have been nicely 'run in' over many thousands of miles.

Best of luck.


Cheers Spike

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Spike, your silver lining is getting my hopes up!

I'll report back with the details.

Sorry to hear this Darkhorse, I guess we will all come close if not guilty of doing the same at some point, I've diesel van and A2 and really have to be on guard having a petrol TT.
Best of luck with the outcome!
Cheers Jeff

Jeffers66 said:

Sorry to hear this Darkhorse, I guess we will all come close if not guilty of doing the same at some point, I've diesel van and A2 and really have to be on guard having a petrol TT.
Best of luck with the outcome!
Cheers Jeff

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Thanks Jeff.

Been a ridiculous week: have had two computers fail for various reasons, mobile phone died (had to go knocking on people's houses to get rescue out!) and now this. Hopefully the damage is minimal, she behaved beautifully this summer all across Europe.

Getting ready for our third child's birth in a week or two so not the best of times for it all to happen.

Ok, so got the car back today. £129 inc.VAT including disposal of 28 litres of VPower Unleaded .

They drained everything and flushed the fuel lines for me.

Funny thing is that I got to see how low our fuel gauges go. He said he put 7l in but it was a few mm below the empty mark. Quickly went to the nearest station to get some 'DIESEL'. I did struggle starting the car after refueling though, I think because there was so little fuel in it. Start ups are fine now.

Hopefully no long term damage, and the mechanics thought it would be alright. They just all had the biggest grins on their faces as I collected. What a numpty!

Been there, done that! £129 sounds reasonable. Let's hope there is no damage.

I fitted a device called Diesel Guard but it doesn't seem to be available but there is a similar unit called Think Diesel that only costs a few pounds on ebay. My Diesel Guard gives a 2 phrase warning about 3 or 4 times. The ebay lists I say didn't say how many times the Think Diesel gives the warning. It needs to be speaking by the time you've got to the filler cap, removed it and selected the right hose, stuck in the car, looked at the label and reassured yourself it's the right one - I've got a bit paranoid since my miss-fill! But for a few quid, it's worth a putt.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...sel+warning.TRS0&_nkw=diesel+warning&_sacat=0

All seems well.

But just this morning it struggled to start and needed a longer turn of the key to get going. Once running no issues at all. I'll see how it starts later on after work.

Could I have knackered the starter motor or something else? I only gave the key a few turns when I broke down.

If they have disturbed the fuel lines could be a small leak which is allowing the fuel to drain back to the tank causing the long crank time.

Simon.

I'm due a service with WOM so will get them to check it out in a few weeks hopefully. Probably end of October most likely, so hopefully it'll last until then.

If you park overnight on a slope try parking nose down to see if it helps.

Simon.

Well, all is right again. I put BP Ultimate in and gave the engine a good run today on the way to work. Jumped in to drive home and started first time. Must have needed the diesel to run through the system a bit longer.

Thanks for all the advice.

Now to the Paintmobile Robin! House needs to be re-painted for junior who is due in a few weeks!