There's a lot of discussion about putting a bit of petrol in a diesel, but it all seems to revolve around a couple of litres, a small %age of petrol.
I have a different problem.
The car (Vectra 1.9 CDTi) has 15 miles left, according to the display. I fill it (to the brim) at a Shell garage, I'm sure with diesel. After 150 miles, it starts to hesitate a bit, now 3 days later and at 250 miles, it's flat out at 60 mph on the motorway. Engine management light flickers off and on, first mostly off, but now mostly on. It sounds unusual, a bit "knocky" and driving it, it "feels" like a fuel problem, it goes then it doesn't, it goes then it doesn't. Vauxhall dealers plug into it and can't see the reason for the fault, and want the car back next week.
I'm now totally unsure if I put diesel or petrol in (never had a diesel before, had this one about a month). I've thrown away the receipt, and seem only able to communicate with bored checkout girl at the garage, who keeps saying the manager will ring me when he's found his copy of the receipt. No news yet and I'm not holding my breath. I've buried my nose in the fuel filler hose and it smells not disimilar to my friends diesel, but inconclusive really. Not sure.
So my question is this - Would that car even drive 250 miles on pretty much pure petrol? Is the fact that it's done that mileage proof enough that it was diesel, or have I just well and truly goosed it? COmputer says 51 mpg, so that's about 5 gallons gone through it.
Comments appreciated!!
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Would it go 250 miles on petrol - No
Is 250 miles proof it's diesel - Yes
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Thanks for the post Dave - I feel a bit less tense ! It's not like I'm watching this post like a hawk or anything.
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A quick sniff at the tank should also help to put your mind at rest?
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A quick sniff at the tank should also help to put your mind at rest?
To quote HC "I've buried my nose in the fuel filler hose and it smells not disimilar to my friends diesel, but inconclusive really. Not sure."
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If you put petrol in it would not be running now.Would suggest finding out what the reason is for fault light flashing..Unlikely bad diesel. more like possible sensor fault?
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Steve
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Modern diesels (and petrol cars for that matter) circulate the fuel at high presure. If you'd filled with petrol it probably wouldn't even have started.
One other point not mentioned already is that it's not considered to be a good idea to run a car so low (you said 15 miles - that really taking a chance on the accuracy of the computer) and it can disturb crud at the bottom of the tank - although for the reason above this probably doesn't matter so much these days.
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There is still a small possibility that your problems could be related to dodgy fuel. It does happen whereby the fuel in the tanks at service stations get contaminated with other fuel, ie petrol gets put into the diesel storage tank. Also if you fill up whilist the tanker is offloading the fuel and water and crud that lies in the bottom of the storage tanks all gets mixed up and stirred up and can find its way up through the pump nozzle and into your car.
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This could be water contamination so clean all fuel filters and water seperators and try again. Regards Peter
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Chaps,
FYI..
Fixed with new fuel injectors..they didn't find a faulty one, just replaced all 4 with fingers crossed under warranty, and problem solved.
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