What happens if you put Diesel in a Petrol engine

[obi_waynne]

We had a pretty busy thread the other way around about wrong fuel and it appears that diesels in the main are quite forgiving (with some exceptions!)

But what about petrol engines. Assuming you put diesel in by mistake what happens to your engine, which parts need renewing or is it fatal?

Have you ever put the wrong fuel in your car? What did you do?

 

[Sendasheepagainstwolfs]

hi, i put diesel in my petrol buy mistake it was only a tenners worth so just topped the rest up with unleaded and it was ok. but i believe it will cause damage to the cat

cheers

 

[HDi fun]

You'll probably get away with it tbh. Ten quid doesn't buy much fuel now, more's the pity.

 

[obi_waynne]

Is the diesel pump nozzle larger or smaller than the petrol one? I know it's meant to be impossible to put fuel in the wrong one but only 1 way round and I can't recall which was round that is.


I don't think diesel would do your injectors much good either.

I know it probably belched out a lot of smoke SASAW?

 

[HDi fun]

Is the diesel pump nozzle larger or smaller than the petrol one? I know it's meant to be impossible to put fuel in the wrong one but only 1 way round and I can't recall which was round that is.


I don't think diesel would do your injectors much good either.

I know it probably belched out a lot of smoke SASAW?

Diesel pump nozzle is bigger. I doubt the injectors would suffer much - when you consider the 2000 Bar plus pressures that diesel injectors use.

 

[ronniecalcutta]

Diesel pump nozzle is bigger. I doubt the injectors would suffer much - when you consider the 2000 Bar plus pressures that diesel injectors use.

Yah... the injectors, the filter will suffer. Result will be a bad combustion due to poor atomization & low compression pressure and temparature, carbon formation inside combustion chamber, ignition retardation/advancement producing a knock..so piston or connecting rods will suffer too..plus the cat will not be able to handle the heavy unburnt exhaust...

 

[HDi fun]

Yah... the injectors, the filter will suffer. Result will be a bad combustion due to poor atomization & low compression pressure and temparature, carbon formation inside combustion chamber, ignition retardation/advancement producing a knock..so piston or connecting rods will suffer too..plus the cat will not be able to handle the heavy unburnt exhaust...

Nothing too serious then.

 

[turbonutter69]

Nice of Ford to stamp this out with their easy fuel system.

 

[HDi fun]

Nice of Ford to stamp this out with their easy fuel system.

I know Ford is not known for being the most inventive of car makers but when it does come up with something it's usually absolutely brilliant. and The Ford easy fuel system is one of the finest examples of this.

For those who don't know it's IMPOSSIBLE to use the wrong fuel and there is not even a fuel cap!!!

 

[turbonutter69]

Yup No cap and No lock on flap either.

 

[HDi fun]

It does lock with the CL though just like other cars

 

[turbonutter69]

It does lock with the CL though just like other cars

Nope.

 

[HDi fun]

Explain how it's secure then I'm stuck

 

[turbonutter69]

There is no need for it to be locked. You couldn't get the fuel out even if you wanted to. If I run out of petrol I have to use an adaptor just to refill with a petrol can.

 

[HDi fun]

There is no need for it to be locked. You couldn't get the fuel out even if you wanted to. If I run out of petrol I have to use an adaptor just to refill with a petrol can.

Thankyou for clarifying this - hadn't occured to me they'd taken it a stage further.

 

[turbonutter69]

Yeah they have done a good job. You can't get a pipe down it so it doesn't really need to be locked.
Would be quite funny actually watching someone trying to remove the fuel with a hose pipe.

 

[HDi fun]

Yeah they have done a good job. You can't get a pipe down it so it doesn't really need to be locked.
Would be quite funny actually watching someone trying to remove the fuel with a hose pipe.

I honestly didn't know they'd gone that far with it. I know about the no screw/bayonet cap thing when I hired a Focus last year. That was a petrol one so clearly the diesel pump wouldn't fit.

Am I right in saying that the TDCi models have a different filler mechanism so that the smaller U/L pump nozzle won't fit either?

 

[turbonutter69]

Correct. I'm not entirely sure how that one works but yes it's more or less the same. It will only take diesel.

 

[turbonutter69]

Infact I think the pump nozzle acts as a sort of key for each opening.

 

[HDi fun]

I've just had a quick read up and that is exactly what the blurb says.

Thanks again.

 

[turbonutter69]

Your welcome pal.

 

[obi_waynne]

I had no idea this had been solved. Why don't all manufacturers do this?

 

[HDi fun]

I had no idea this had been solved. Why don't all manufacturers do this?

It might not be totally solved.

If, for the sake of an extreme example, you're filling your car in some far flung and yet beautiful East African town then the pump nozzles may not be uniform as they are in Europe and as such the Ford solution might prove to more of a handicap than a benefit. This, however, does not represent the more usual market for new Fords.

But Ford has done what Ford does best, which is to provide an elegant and cost effective solution to something which, although, not quite a cliffhanger, is otherwise still possibly substantially inconvenient and costly to its customers who otherwise might use the wrong fuel.

Ford was the butt of much motoring press baiting and general slagging-off during the 1980s. Possibly deservedly. That's not the point of this post, however. When Ford gets something right it gets it very very right indeed.

Even during the 1980s a certain UK motoring glossy described the door aspheric door mirrors of the Ford Sierra as 'the best mirrors in the business, period.' OK, they derided everything else about the car.

But look at the MkI Focus in 1998. Even now it's handling is up with the finest of its kind.

Current Mondeo, well, I'd take a new one over a new BMW or Audi simply to be different to the crowd.

 

[MasterAuron]

Correct. I'm not entirely sure how that one works but yes it's more or less the same. It will only take diesel.

I'm not dumb enough to have tried to put diesel in my petrol or petrol in my diesel so I didn't know this. The Zetractor just gets better and better Now if it weren't so common and didn't have big horrible hard plastic door cards or a horrible sounding rickety french engine it would be perfect pmsl.

 

[HDi fun]

I've never done it either. Nearly loaded unleaded into the old Seat once but that engine would probably run reasonably on a 30:70 petrol:diesel ratio at a push.

 

[turbonutter69]

I've never done it either.

 

[jarrus]

it probably would run, it would smoke like a bugger for a while,
Our old land rover go filled to the brim of petrol instead of diesel so we had to siphon some of the petrol out before would could take the tank out and petrol doesn't taste nice at all.....