Petrol in diesel

[rayprice48@aol.com]

Went and done a daft thing i have put approx 5 gallon of petrol into my car that had approx 6 gallon of diesel drove for 2 miles in it with no problems so had fuel fixer come out and drain the whole lot out and they put 20 litres of clean diesel into car my problem is i am now getting 28 mpg instead of my usual 37 mpg power is the same its just my mpg has dropped a fair bit would anyone have any idea's why this has happend i was thinking fuel injectors may be to blame the petrol could have damaged them

[Jon Hyde]

Hi Raymond,
I'm astonished that the misfuelling protection allowed you to put that much petrol in, mine on the one occasion I made the mistake cut me off after about a pint!
However, that's in the past, so I would guess you're right - damaged injectors!

Maybe the gauge sender needs to settle down though, as petrol and diesel have different densities?

Does your real consumption match with what the gauge is telling you? It could just be a calibration thing?

All the best,
Jon

 

[rayprice48@aol.com]

Thanks for your reply, Jon the total mileage showing when I filled up was  reading 490 miles  when full to the neck I have done 13.5 miles and now showing 394 to empty so quite a reduction starting to think I should get my injectors looked at or use it for a week or so and as you suggest see if  the gauge  settles  itself down

[Carl Gibbs]

I would put the higher grade fuel in.

Fill the tank with the expensive fuel as that should help clean the injectors. If after a week or so you see or feel no different then you'll need to get it looked at properly.

 

This is obviously dependent on whether you still have access to fuel in the current climate!!! 🤣

[rayprice48@aol.com]

Cheers Carl my head is done in now

 

[The Voices]

27 minutes ago, Carl Gibbs said:

I would put the higher grade fuel in.

Fill the tank with the expensive fuel as that should help clean the injectors. If after a week or so you see or feel no different then you'll need to get it looked at properly.

 

This is obviously dependent on whether you still have access to fuel in the current climate!!! 🤣

I would agree, put in a tank full of the best grade 'super diesel' you can find and a bottle of injector cleaner for good measure.

Then run it for a week, probably with a few motorway runs and see how it does.

Would be very surprised if 2 miles with petrol in has damaged the injectors, especially if you aren't noticing any change in how the car drives. 

 

[Craighudson1]

I’d drain it all off and refil it with fresh diesel, my van was misfuelled with a ratio of 50/50 but still ran, after 100 miles the dpf cracked because of the extra heat caused by the petrol, £2500 later it’s fixed, wish I’d spent £150 getting it drained now !!!

[The Voices]

2 hours ago, Craighudson1 said:

I’d drain it all off and refil it with fresh diesel, my van was misfuelled with a ratio of 50/50 but still ran, after 100 miles the dpf cracked because of the extra heat caused by the petrol, £2500 later it’s fixed, wish I’d spent £150 getting it drained now !!!

I think he said in his original post that it had been drained and the 20 litres of fresh diesel added ?

[Craighudson1]

Ahh so he did, hope it’s ok now and you’ve regained good mpg

[PaulT]

Is it not the case that some of the seals in the fuel system are fine for diesel but disintegrate when exposed to petrol?

[Tomato]

I think that is correct Pault, also petrol burns at a higher temperature so certain components can deteriorate faster. Hopefully not too much damage. 

 

Never understood why you can put petrol in a diesel but hoses designed to stop diesel in petrol which I think causes less issues.