Now I'm not 100% but last night I filled up my car (Volvo S40 TD) at the nearby BP garage. It had around 10 litre diesel in it and I poured in another 30 litre (of diesel I hope now). I'm quite sure I filled it up with diesel but I'm not entirely sure. Last night I drove car back home which was around half a mile and it was fine but this morning after driving it for 10 minutes or so car seemed to get a little bit funny, jerking a bit. I kept on driving it and drove 40 miles to work mainly on the motorway and at speeds over 70 it was as smooth as it normally is. But when I came off the motorway it got really jerky in 1st and 2nd gear. Do you guys think I filled it up with petrol last night or is it just the diesel which I poured in from BP garage? I've got a BP petrol pump down the road from where I work so me filling it up now with Ultimate diesel would make any different or what shall i do? I'm really worried!
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Have you looked at your receipt for the fuel? That ought to tell you what you bought, not just how much you paid.
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WillDeBeest - The problem is I paid using my debit card and the guy who served me gave me only the debit card receipt so I can't check!!! :(
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Can you work it out from the price you paid? If you know you bought 30 litres, and the station is near you, check the unit prices for petrol and diesel and see which one tallies with what you paid.
Another idea - open the filler and see if you smell petrol. To me at least, it smells quite different fro diesel.
I suspect you're fretting about nothing: I wouldn't expect even an old-tech diesel engine like yours would run at all on a 3:1 mixture of petrol to diesel, never mind running normally up to motorway speed as yours did.
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Unfortunatly at the moment diesel and petrol are selling for the same price! In fact I saw a garage yesterday selling unleaded for more than diesel - quite some time since I last saw that.
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I'd have expected the car to be pouring out a lot of white smoke from the exhaust long before you got off the motorway.
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I read often, only post occasionally
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Sniff the tank.
Syphon out a few drops and try lighting it (well clear of the car). Petrol will burn, diesel won't.
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Thanks for your replies so far guys.
Ok these are the few more abnormalities I could tell you about the car.
When Idle the rev is constantly moving up and down.
I've to give quite a bit of accelerator before it'll move from stationery.
I stopped it on the motorway while coming to work and then I rev'd it to 4000 and firstly it chucked ou brown smoke and then plenty of bluish.
Blue smoke comes out when I rev it to move from stationery.
I'm going to check it during my lunch time to see if I can smell the petrol.
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further updates:
During my lunch time I tried to start up the car and it has refused to start at all. Its just chucking out the bluish smoke.
Removed the fuel pipe just above the fuel filtre (which connects fuel filter and engine) to see if I could figure out whether its petrol or diesel but to tell you the truth I couldn't! :(
I've rung a mechanic friend of mine and he's advised me to put in a litre of engine oil in the fuel tank if I've filled it up with the petrol. Is it worth me trying that?
Please help. I'm 40 miles away from my sweet home!!!
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This is a wind up.
Green smoke next.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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How full is the tank - if its only half full you could fill it to the brim with diesel and it will probably be ok. I remember the days when diesel used to wax badly below a certain freezing temperature and on the trucks we looked after sometimes it was 'aye lad, put 1 gallon of petrol to 7 of diesel' it never waxed or froze. Failing that its a drain out of most of the tank and a full refill of diesel plus a good bleed of the system.
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These are the views of Robin the Technician with 35 years in the trade. I fix, therefore I am...
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How full is the tank - if its only half full you could fill it to the brim with diesel and it will probably be ok. I remember the days when diesel used to wax badly below a certain freezing temperature and on the trucks we looked after sometimes it was 'aye lad put 1 gallon of petrol to 7 of diesel' it never waxed or froze. Failing that its a drain out of most of the tank and a full refill of diesel plus a good bleed of the system. -- These are the views of Robin the Technician with 35 years in the trade. I fix therefore I am...
Its 3 quarters full so in total its got almost 40 litres in it and I could put in another 20 litre. I doubt it its going to work or will it?
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If you added 30 litres of petrol to 10 litres of diesel then the car would not have managed the 40 mile motorway run at 70mph.
Blue smoke indicates oil being burned. I don't think you put petrol in, but I think you have a serious problem with the engine. I would call out the AA/RAC or whatever you're a member of....
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Thanks Aprilia - I've got breakdown cover with my insurance company so I'm thinking I'll get them to tow me home and then I'll get it checked there!!!
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Final update:
I thought I should let you guys know that I stupidly enough filled up the car with the petrol. Even the recovery guy was surprised how the hell did it manage 40 miles after being filled up with the petrol. I must admit the recovery man was as helpful as you would expect one to be. He pumped out all the petrol from the tank and then filled it up with the diesel for me. He charged me minimal for spending good 2 hours on the car. Car is perfectly fine now.
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Final update: I thought I should let you guys know that I stupidly enough filled up the car with the petrol. Even the recovery guy was surprised how the hell did it manage 40 miles after being filled up with the petrol.
That's amazing, I wouldn't have thought it possible. Just wondering why it was blowing blue smoke though? That's usually means oil burning.
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That's amazing I wouldn't have thought it possible. Just wondering why it was blowing blue smoke though? That's usually means oil burning.
The long sustained high-speed run on petrol has now knackered the bores and engine oil is burning?
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Chances are the blue smoke was from incomplete combustion of the fuel. Petrol cannot cope with the compression in a diesel engine and will spontaneously combust before the piston reaches Top Dead Centre (similar to 'pinking' in a petrol engine) on its compression stroke. Most common rail diesel engines have several phases of fuel injection in any one 'induction' stroke. A charge of fuel is injected into the cylinder which is carefully calculated to be slightly under the amount that would be required to result in a successful ignition on the compression stroke. The last little bit, the bit that 'pushes' it over the edge, is injected right at the very end of the compression phase. With the petrol being injected, the chances are it will be igniting before the end of the compression stroke, burning what goes in initially but therefore not the final drop introduced as the piston approaches TDC on compression. This last squirt will therefore only probably partially burn in the heat created during the unwanted pre-explosion, and partial combustion means smoke...
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I'm not surprised it ran if it's a proper old diesel - I know someone very well, if you know what I mean, who put 60l of petrol in an old-tech diesel (2.5litre VM in a Scorpio). It pinked a lot and took a bit of starting but as and when there was a couple of gallons of space it got topped up with diesel and by stages it recovered fully. It did another 60,000 miles after that with no problems.
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A friend at work filled his Ibiza sdi with a mixture of Petrol and Diesel (mostly petrol! - problem at the garage). He then drove a further 25 miles without any problems but then could not start the car the following morning. His breakdown company drained the fuel system and put fresh diesel in, it has been fine since(further 80k).
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The only likely long term damage might be to the injection lift and injections pump(s) if the system is Common Rail, due to lack of lubrication.
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Well since draining the petrol and filling it up with diesel I've done 160 miles and the car is really smooth and there's no sign or any smoke now. Its not a common rail injection system.
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It happens to the best of us...I put 6 l of petrol into the 405TD - luckily it was empty, and I noticed I was doing it. Stopped, and then filled up with diesel to the brim, about another 50l. ran fine, but I was cross, as I'd gong there to get enough diesel to get me to Dover, and was looking forward to filling with the cheap stuff once I was garlic-side. As it was I still had some left as I was getting close to the ferry for the trip home.
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