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19.07.2014, 16:22
| | Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
So having a game of "wonder what that will cost me"
I put about 20 litres of petrol in my diesel car today.. A few hundred meters from the gas station it felt a bit funny/jumpy and I suddenly realised, said merde and pulled over..
TCS came out and towed the car to a local garage. What do we think the cost will be? Garage is closed today so I haven't spoken to them yet.
Doh!
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19.07.2014, 16:35
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
I would have stopped the car ASAP, if no evident damage and not too late. Drain the petrol out of the tank and refill it with diesel.
Good you didn't drive the car too far because all sort of damage could have happened along the way e.g. pistons, injectors. If any of the petrol has reached the high-pressure injection pump then you will be in trouble. Usually up to ten liters might be ok. Double that not so sure? Petrol can float in a tank above a diesel for a while but it must be drained quickly.
Few hundred, I say to be on safe side.
Last edited by jacek; 19.07.2014 at 16:55.
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19.07.2014, 16:50
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: England
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
It cost me just over £200 for the same mistake in the UK a couple of years ago. No lasting damage as I realised quite soon as well.
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19.07.2014, 17:23
| Forum Legend | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Switzerland
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
if it is an old diesel car (with no common rail etc), you can probably even drive with it.
worst of tanking the wrong fuel is actually a damaged male ego | This user would like to thank k_and_e for this useful post: | | 
19.07.2014, 17:31
| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!! | Quote: | |  | | | if it is an old diesel car (with no common rail etc), you can probably even drive with it.
worst of tanking the wrong fuel is actually a damaged male ego | | | | | Aye it's an old 2002 model but i think they do have common rail?
And yes it was rather embarrassing. My only excuse if i can call it that I was at a different gas station to normal, the pump had these odd little glass domes where you can see the fuel moving through the pump.. I was looking at that and not thinking.
The car is need of a service anyway, hey ho.
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19.07.2014, 17:56
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
I found this (german) http://www.tcs.ch/de/auto-mobilitaet...ff-getankt.php .
It looks like if you are unluck you can expect repair costs of CHF 3'000 to CHF 5'000. In the best case you pay CHF 3.- /Liter for the disposal of the mixed fuel. It looks like you can buy a special cover/cap for the fuel tank to make such errors less likely in the future.
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19.07.2014, 18:01
| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
Hmm wikipedia says i don't have a common rail .. so maybe fine.
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19.07.2014, 18:21
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
That's a coincidence; I'm just reading a friend's google+ post where he says he put 40l of diesel in his petrol car in Germany. Cost was 800 Euros (including the 1km tow to the Volkswagen dealership).
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19.07.2014, 18:24
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!! | Quote: | |  | | | That's a coincidence; I'm just reading a friend's google+ post where he says he put 40l of diesel in his petrol car in Germany. Cost was 800 Euros (including the 1km tow to the Volkswagen dealership). | | | | |
Not the same thing, you can't run a petrol on diesel. I would have siphoned the fuel out of the tank myself and brimmed it with diesel. Diesels are tough. They can take a bit of petrol.
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19.07.2014, 18:32
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
Yes, petrol in a diesel car is a much less expensive mistake than diesel in a petrol car. They're likely to simply drain the tank, refill with diesel and off you go.
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19.07.2014, 18:41
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
The diesel nozzle is too big for petrol cars anyway.
Back in the day people would put 10% petrol in diesel cars to avoid it freezing but 20l is probably a bit too much
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19.07.2014, 18:42
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!! | Quote: | |  | | | Yes, petrol in a diesel car is a much less expensive mistake than diesel in a petrol car. They're likely to simply drain the tank, refill with diesel and off you go. | | | | | So the cost is bound to be less than 800 Euros, since the job is a lot simpler. (Predicated on the OP getting his car to Germany...). Our work here is done.
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19.07.2014, 18:44
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
Anyway, too late to cry over spilled milk. I usually take a good look at the pumps and the worst mistake that can happen to me is selecting 98 instead of 95. Soon you realize few cents less in the pocket but slight boost in engine performance all the same.
Good practice to double check the pump number. If you pay at the garage you must give the pump number at the till anyway. And that last requirement might be enough to open up eyes for possible mistake.
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20.07.2014, 00:06
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
I did exactly the same thing last year with my 2003 VW Passat.
I put a full tank of petrol in my diesel tank. I knew there was a VW garage
right around the corner and tried to make it there - I didn't. But they
towed it in, drained the tank, no damage, refilled it. It was not
as much as I expected - can't remember exactly - but a few hundred CHF
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20.07.2014, 00:40
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
Could have been worse - at least you didn't, fill up with used veg. oil. | 
20.07.2014, 09:21
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
We've done this before (petrol into a diesel car). Fortunately realised at the pump after about 10 litres had been added. The advice of the car organiser at work (it was a company car) was to top up with diesel and use the car as normal without letting the tank fall beneath about 25% full - the diesel fuel sits beneath the petrol apparently. After a while apparently the petrol all gets mixed around a bit and progressively diluted in the diesel and used up. This worked fine for us after spending 3 months keeping an eye on the fuel gauge. Yes, diesel engines are tough!
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20.07.2014, 11:21
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
@OP - a few hundred bucks. | Quote: | |  | | | Could have been worse - at least you didn't, fill up with used veg. oil. | | | | | I have a friend that used to do this with an old VW. He always smelled like either a french fry or a wonton, depending on which restaurant gave him the oil. | 
20.07.2014, 11:32
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
There are two cost factors, the expensive towing charge of course is free if you are a TCS member, and the garage might be expensive if it is not a private garage.
If you only put 20 liters of petrol in your diesel tank, was it already half full with diesel? You might get away with no damage to the injectors, otherwise expect big bucks!
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20.07.2014, 14:09
| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!!
I can't link on my iPhone, but if you search in general off topic, there is a thread called "stupid car tricks" from 2008, where I described putting about 10l of petrol in my diesel Alfa and driving 1km. I believe the damage was around chf 500 for draining the tank, replacing the filters, tow and refil of tank.
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20.07.2014, 15:39
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| | Re: Arrgghh I put wrong fuel in the car!! | Quote: | |  | | | The diesel nozzle is too big for petrol cars anyway.
Back in the day people would put 10% petrol in diesel cars to avoid it freezing but 20l is probably a bit too much | | | | | The truck diesel nozzle is even bigger, heavier and often dirtier than the regular diesel nozzle (always use gloves). I once realized that I took the truck nozzle because I couldn't fit it into the fill pipe. Since I had already paid (self service), I couldn't change the nozzle, I had no other choice than pressing the nozzle very hard against the filler neck and squeeze the trigger lightly.
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