IDIOT PUT DIESEL IN MY GTI!!! HELP!!!

OK, maybe I'm getting old (….maybe?) but I have just filled my Mk1 GTI with diesel


….right, you should have stopped laughing now….

…ok now…

…now then?

Anyway, the car ran for fifty yards and eventually stopped running after a little rattling and smoke coming from the injection distributor through the mixture key hole (eeek!). I then realised what I had done, and said 'goodness me, how careless'….or something similar.
I have got the car home, and drained the tank. Put 15 litres of petrol in, and tried to start it, but no joy. Have taken out an injector, and nothing is coming out….which is worrying,,,
Also disconnected a fuel line at the under bonnet filter, and no fuel comes out of there when I turn the engine over….
Have I wrecked my fuel pump?
Any helpful suggestions/experiences would be very welcome for when I try to get things going in the morning!
Thanks,
Very embarrassed Old Fart

As far as viscosity and density goes (which will affect how its pumped) its not that dissimilar to petrol so I can't see how it would cause the fuel pump to fail. Similarly, I can't see it will have done any real damage to the fuel system. I'd be tempted to bypass the fuel pump relay so it runs for a while, the petrol will circulate the system and 'wash' the remaining diesel out, except for the fuel lines to the injectors and a proportion of the metering head.

So I reckon, just bypass the fuel pump relay, charge the battery up, leave it with the pump running for a while then try start it and it will eventually start, but it might take a good couple of minutes turning the starter motor over. So, do it in bursts of 20 secs or so with 5 minutes rest in between, to avoid overheating the battery and flooding the engine.

Good luck!

Whoops!

Not done it myself but in addition to pauls advice I found the following on wiki…….. may be of some use…………

First, drain the fuel tank. Remove all diesel fuel from the tank before attempting to start the engine again. Next, determine if the vehicle has a recirculating fuel system. Many of the injected engines have a pressurized fuel system that recirculates back to the tank. If that is the case with your vehicle, fill the tank with the preferred fuel, turn the ignition switch on for five seconds, turn it off again, and repeat the process a few times to circulate diesel fuel out of the line. A small amount of diesel fuel that mixes with your conventional fuel will not harm the engine. If the engine will not start you may need to use a small amount of ether based starting fluid to get the remaining diesel fuel out of the injectors. Once the vehicle starts again it should run properly after you have worked the residual concentrated diesel fuel out of the line. If you determine that your vehicle does not have a recirculating fuel system, open the fuel line near the injectors, place a flexible tube of some kind over the fuel line and drain enough fuel to allow all of the diesel fuel to be removed. Get as much of the concentrated diesel fuel out of the line as you possibly can before attempting to start the engine. Short bursts of starting fluid should keep the engine running while you burn out any remaining diesel fuel.

as above. might be worth turning the engine over a few times with no plugs in to blow out anything in the chamber.

it may run a bit rich for a while as you'll have a bit more oil in the fuel than would be liked.

my mother did this to her mg because she has a mk5 tdi not sure how she confused the 2 ones silver the other is bright orange.

diesel is a litle thicker than petrol, but not that much… as has been said it will run, but it will be like a dog untill its cleared and a bit gutless and smokey. but thats all.

stick in some very posh fuel as the desel loweres the ron number, so u will need super to compensate

this happened to my old car when the mickyanic put in diesel instead of petrol. mine ran for approx 100 miles and i ended up having to fit a new fuel pump. as i remember he never touched the injectors and i'd just had a new fuel tank fitted. we tried changing the tank but that made no difference

Brilliant! This website is brill!

Exactly what I wanted to hear - thanks to you all!

Will try the fuel pump relay bypass tomorrow and see what happens. Much easier to see what's happening in the daylight, so I'll try to ignore it for a while and get some rest!

Will maybe teach me to be more tolerant of people's mistakes - can't understand how I managed to put diesel in a petrol car after all these years!!!

Will let you know how things work out,,,,on the bright side…surprise day off work tomorrow, yay!

as above, then get yourself to specsavers.

Thanks Wooders - thought you'd be out there somewhere!

Worst is, I have to face them all at work and their 'sympathy' for my lirttle problem!

maybe they'll forget about that for a while and just rib you for putting diesel in the tank

300,000 people make this mistake each year . Hope it all ends well for you .

You are a 1 in 300,000 person    

Hey! I'm not alone!….makes me feel much better….

Will feel a whole lot better when I get the engine running again though!

Anyone know what to do with forty litres of diesel/petrol mixture?

take it to the local pug garage. you dont need to light it (wont anyway it's diesel) just spread it round about.

or to the local tip where they have oil disposal.(this one is the only serious one)

or kill a few trees

or do you have a naighbor you dont like

etc

I've done the same myself, the same as yours the car ran for about 100yds then stopped in a cloud of smoke. Mine was low on fuel and I put 5 gallons in it so it was virtually neat diesel. Britannia Rescue got a local garage to tow me back fron Truro and the driver quoted me ?150 to drain the tank and start the car, I declined. I drained most of it and then used the fuel pump to get the last dregs out. I put a couple of gallons of petrol in it and must have cleaned the plugs at least 5 times as the diesel oiled them up after a few splutters from the engine. in the end it started. There was no damage to the pump, injectors or anything else and to be honest I thought it ran better afterwards. My son in law used the diesel in his Land Rover.  Good luck.

Sorted!

• here's how my day went….

Drained tank and put in 15litres of petrol
Cleaned and dried plugs
Replaced fuel pump relay
no start
..no fuel reaching injectors or injector pipes, but fuel reaching fuel distributor at supply pipe under considerable pressure. Fuel also reaching return pipe at pressure.
…no fuel passing through fuel distributor
replaced fuel distributor
…still no fuel reaching injectors
replaced pressure regulator
…still no fuel at injectors
checked all vacuum pipes/air intakes/manilfold connections for vacuum leaks - none found

…finally disconnected air pipe above airflow sensor and wedged open airflow sensor plate whilst turning engine over and opening throttle - engine STARTED!!!Bit lumpy at first , but gradually cleared and revved quite smoothly.
Reconnected air pipe. Car started. Piddled about with idling speed and CO until ran smoothly
Drove to garage, filled up with fuel (PETROL!!!). Patted myself on back (hardest bit of whole job!). Total cost one tank of diesrol, one wasted day, and spare parts from my stash of bits.
Now then…can any of you helpful enthusiasts explain why this worked?
1. Why did a perfectly good Fuel pump relay pack up just because the engine ran with diesel in it?
2. Why did clouds of black smoke come from under the bonnet just as the car first stopped running - probably from the air sensor/air filter housing? backfiring?
( this may have ruined the oriinal air sensor mechanism???)
3. Why did it take so long for the new air sensor to decide to start and send fuel to the injectors?

Really interested to hear your views on this. Keep wondering why this took me several hours of fiddling in the cold, and whether there was an easy solution all along!

answer to no.1 is.. because you put diesel in it!
havnt a clue but my mate did the same to mine to get it goin more or less :dontknow:

The easy solution is to use petrol not diesel .

After you had this problem i had a look at the AA report on mis fuels . 60,000 a year they attend , the fuel pumped out is kept and used after refining for heating homes with oil central heating .

We all make mistakes . At least you won't do it again .

No…I don't think I will….but then again, I don't know how I could have been so stupid/inattentive not to have noticed at the time! - Wasn't even any crumpet at the next pump!

chudd said

We all make mistakes . At least you won't do it again .

and how many times have you said that to yourself?

wooders said

chudd said

We all make mistakes . At least you won't do it again .

and how many times have you said that to yourself?

at least once a week with hangover…