Sorry I am new here, I was reading this thread yesterday and found it very interesting, but now I can't find it and it did date back to 2002 so I thought I'd put my pennies worth here.
In my opinion a lot of people get ripped off with tank drains cleaning filters and injectors etc. resulting in a four figure garage bill. On a very new car I can understand that the tolerance is extremely low the amount of HP they can extract per litre out of new diesel cars is amazing but on older vehicles, I have to ask.. does it matter that much?
The first time I was dumb enough to put petrol in a diesel car was in a Vauxhall Corsa 1.5TD it was almost empty, I put half a tank of unleaded in it and didn't realise it drove about 2 1/2 miles and then it stopped. I had the tank drained filled it up with diesel and it drove fine for another 30,000 miles until it was sold. I believe to this day that if I had realised what i had done and simply filled it to the brim with diesel i would have got away with it.
The second time (remember I am a little older and little wiser than before) I had a Vauxhall Midi 2.4TD. (Izuzu engine) I was coming home late at night and I didn't think I had enough fuel to make it home (there was about £10 worth in the tank). I stopped at the only filling station on the way home to find that they had RUN OUT of diesel! I really didn't fancy freezing to death for 4 hours waiting for somewhere else to open, besides do you really think my partner was gonna believe a story about me running out of diesel and sleeping in the van. It was a simple choice the van was worth about £800, half my house (divorce settlement) was gonna cost me £75,000 so I put £10 worth of unleaded in it and drove home. It made no difference whatsoever! If anything the van was slightly down on power running this 50/50 mix, but I am convinced that after this event the van was slightly smoother and slightly more economical.
On a tangent... I read an article about a man who used to charge restaurants and take aways to take away their used oil, and for 2 years all he did was pour the oil as fuel into the Vauxhall Midi van that he used for collections. So whatever he charged to take away the oil was all profit! If this man can run his van on used chip fat oil I am sure a little bit of petrol would seem like a gourmet meal to the engine.
I can remember reading a manual from a car I have owned, I can't remember which one though, saying something about mixing petrol in the diesel in freezing conditions but not to exceed 25%.
True, prevention is better than cure but I have actually never seen or heard of a blown up engine and unserviceable fuel system due to wrong fuel type, maybe it's a conspiricy, maybe it's like when you were a kid and you were told the bogey man would get you if you didn't go to sleep.
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10 years or so ago I put 30 litres or so of unleaded in my 1.7td Cavalier. Hey ho - no problem top it up with another 30 litres of diesel - It ran fine.
10 years is a long time, we are now running diesels that use completely different injection systems. Some garages cant make them them wont work with diesel let alone being misfueled
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< Ulla>
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"In my opinion a lot of people get ripped off with tank drains cleaning filters and injectors etc. resulting in a four figure garage bill. On a very new car I can understand that the tolerance is extremely low the amount of HP they can extract per litre out of new diesel cars is amazing but on older vehicles, I have to ask.. does it matter that much?"
OK flex so you can't see what the problem is, why don't you give it ago then in a late HDI then & we can sit back & chuckkle when it cost's between 1-3k to put right.
There is a thread going at the moment with a guy thats put 20% veg oil mix in his 1.6 tdci & that stopped it very quickly & has more than likley wiped his factory warranty as well!
I can only asume you don't work in a garage & see all the HDI failed after a wrong fill
Doc
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