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Wife has just phoned. She is awaiting Green Flag as she has filled our 2007 diesel Xtrail with unleaded and driven until it died.
I am assuming this is very bad news, is there anything that can be done or am I looking at a mahoosive repair bill
Get it drained, should be fine - or won't be, but you'll only know afterwards; so just have it drained first.
Top tip: don't throw away the contaminated unleaded, it'll go fine in a petrol car (diluted a bit).
Oooshh! Not good I'd say. I misfuelled once but stopped once I'd realised & shoved the car off the forecourt. (bit dim of me considering I'm an ex petrol station owning car mechanic!)
Think it cost me something like £180 all in. My mate did same with an Audi a few years ago & it cost him £800.
I've done this with my VW - changed filters and drained and all fine. Drove mine until it wouldn't start.
Anyone got any experience with mobile fuel drain company?
and driven until it died.
Not sure, but this bit may or may not have some bearing.
Best case drain add new filter refill with diesel carry on as normal. Worst case the high pressure fuel pump will be damaged and potentially injectors on a extra bad day.
Anyone got any experience with mobile fuel drain company?
Your breakdown insurance might cover it. Worth a shot.
I keep hearing conflicting views about which is worse, but I'm sure petrol in a diesel is not good, as it damages seals in the system. I'd cross your fingers.
[url= http://www.fueldrainer.co.uk/?gclid=CLOz-pyzn8cCFQQXwwodbakKDA ]Fuel Draining Company[/url]
Green Flag are going to drain it on the spot apparently. Here's hoping.
If the car is in warranty DO NOT take it to a dealer or tell the dealer.
VW will invalidate the warranty on the complete fuel system if the complete system isn't changed I don't know about other manufacturers. read expensive.
RAC did mine, specialist van that only did that. The £180 included the amount of fuel I'd put in (about £50-60) plus the disposal fee to get shot of the cocktail. Didn't think that was bad for being a Nobhead. 🙄
I did the same in an almost new Skoda Octavia - the drove it til it died bit was only about 300yds. I had it drained and drove it for another 3 years without any problems.
I also managed to put 20 litres of unleaded in my current Passat, I realised what I had done and just filled it with diesel. Turns out that 20 litres of petrol in a 70 litre diesel tank makes the car a whole lot faster - just a bit difficult to start in the morning. 🙂
She's just driven the car onto the drive...looks like we could be (mostly) OK
Petrol in a diesel engine can damage the fuel pump because it relies on the diesel fuel for lubrication. Hopefully you got away with it, but try not to drive it next time
Better to have put petrol in a diesel than the other way round. Cost me 40 quid to put right when I did it (I'd been in work all night and had about 2 hours sleep so wasn't concentrating).
Hope it's not the fuel pump, if you have to go to Nissan your going to be shocked.
Saying that my xtrail survived a similar incident and went on for another 100k to 190k before the fuel pump failed
Petrol in a diesel shouldn't be a big issue. I used to run my Hilux on vegetable oil, during the winter I'd dilute it about 1/4 petrol to stop it coagulating. Plenty of people getting hundreds of thousands of miles like that.
[i]Petrol in a diesel shouldn't be a big issue. [/i]
Except it'll stop running...
"Petrol in a diesel shouldn't be a big issue. I used to run my Hilux on vegetable oil, during the winter"
out of date information is out of date.....
not sure a hilux has the same engine as an X trail.... its not even the same generation of technology.
bit like comparing a 56k modem and a broadband connection.
Oh yeah, silly me. I guess that's progress, going from an engine that'll run on basically anything to well, one that won't.
thats emissions for you.
200tdi here . will run on old engine oil if needs be 😀
Kind of annoying really. The robustness, simplicity and flexibility of traditional diesel engines gets compromised for common rail, because it's supposed to be cleaner and more powerful but the power gains are marginal and now we are told they are poisoning us anyway.
No wonder old Toyotas are worth their weight in gold in Africa.
they are cleaner - they are more efficient and they are quieter - more petrol like to drive.
i like a rattler though.
also mostly what i see in west africa at least are old dutch/german taxis. - it was mostly VWs
[i]Kind of annoying really. The robustness, simplicity and flexibility of traditional diesel engines gets compromised for common rail, because it's supposed to be cleaner and more powerful but the power gains are marginal [/i]
Marginal? You're having a laugh.
Years ago I had a Xantia 1.9 TD, pretty much one of the best diesel engines of it's time and about 90bhp and 40mpg.
Now you can get twice the bhp and better economy at the same time as well.
"Now you can get twice the bhp and better economy at the same time as well"
at what cost to reliability..... but given the average new buyer/renter of a car - the market that the manufacturers care about only keeps it for 2-4 years .... well.
Well if yhat Xantia had the same 1.9 engine as the zx I had teliability wasnt a strong point!
because it's supposed to be cleaner and more powerful but the power gains are marginal
Marginal? I suppose if you call chugging along to a responsive pulling machine then yeah it's marginal.
b rMarginal? You're having a laugh.
Years ago I had a Xantia 1.9 TD, pretty much one of the best diesel engines of it's time and about 90bhp and 40mpg.
Now you can get twice the bhp and better economy at the same time as well.
Hang on, hang on. I'm having a laugh? (insert incredulous face smiley).
First off, there aren't many (if any) 180bhp 1.9tdi's out there unless you remap them. Yes there are some sports models and top of the range 2.0 tdis and cdtis etc that some manufacturers make which have that kind of bhp but most are still languishing around 105-140 bhp for 1.9 to 2.0 tdis. That's the reality. So you're talking 15 bhp and maybe +15mpg for 20 years of progress, a huge increase in complexity and a nosedive in reliability.
That hilux was 2.4, normally aspirated and had 90 bhp and 190lbs ft of torque. And that's 25 year old technology. Oh and it's still running, saw it on gumtree a few months ago. Guy was looking £6000 for it.
We'll see how many of these current cars are still running in 20 or 30 years.
back to the subject at hand... I put about 20 quid of petrol in a 1.9 audi diesel engine and realised I'd made a mistake. I stopped and topped up with diesel and had no problems.
First off, there aren't many (if any) 180bhp 1.9tdi's out there unless you remap them.
Dads BMW 320D is 183hp out of a 2 litre and is not a sporty model. But yes most seem to be 140-150ish. There was a slight jump in economy and drive-ability when peugeot ditched the IDI 1.9td for the DI 2.0 HDI but the power was the same as they left the intercooler off. When they put the intercooler on it got a 20hp boost and figures have just kept climbing and they've been able to keep increasing the economy through higher pressures, variable turbos and better engine management. The engine in the 320d is a world apart from early common rail diesels in power and delivery.
[i]200tdi here . will run on old engine oil if needs be[/i]
Often their own...
thats an occasional thing with 200tdis .... i guess the guy will do a propper rebuild next time.
carbon dioxide fire extinguisher into the in take or even 5th gear stood on the brakes and bumping the clutch would have stopped that without it throwing a rod out the block rendering it scrap.
old 19js used to do that with alarming regularity from near new !
[i]Well if yhat Xantia had the same 1.9 engine as the zx I had teliability wasnt a strong point! [/i]
160k miles in 4 years with only a single breakdown - one of the suspension 'bags' failed, needed a replacement. Most reliable car I've every driven/owned.