Petrol into a Diesel powered car....

[superatticman]

Hi All

2 years ago my gf managed to put petrol into her 2017 Nissan Juke 1.5 TDi. Drove for about a mile before she realised and just about made it home before it conked out. Car was drained etc and put back onto the road. She's only done 2-3000 miles since then as she's spent quite a lot of time away from home with me but what was once a very reliable runner is now a total liability. Only has 36,000 miles on now but since the wrong fuel incident, has needed the MAF sensor replaced, numerous running issues including injector faults. For me its too much of a coincidence and that 5 minutes of driving before realising may have made the difference. I know Juke's attract a bit of ridicule in the motoring community but if anything they should be fairly reliable. 

Currently in the garage having an injector replaced having broken down last weekend. Gut feeling is maybe they all need to be replaced after the episode. 

Difficult to assess from afar but do you reckon persist or chop it in at a main dealer and let the warranty company deal with it in its next life?

Cheers. 

 

 

[ColinBarber]

The petrol wouldn't have any effect on the MAF sensor but it can cause problems for the injectors - whether it is related or you're just experiencing the general poor reliability of the injectors is difficult to say.

[Steven Lockey]

Normally petrol into a diesel doesn't cause long-term issues once its flushed out.
The other way round is however an engine killer.

This is cos diesel is a lot thicker than petrol. It gets clogged in the tiny holes.

Sometimes cheaper made cars just start falling apart when they reach a certain age. 
Sensors and injectors are often the first bits to go.



 

[NemesisUK]

4 hours ago, Steven Lockey said:

Normally petrol into a diesel doesn't cause long-term issues once its flushed out.
The other way round is however an engine killer.

I think you may have this the wrong way round. Diesel is used as a lubricant and adding petrol strips this from the various moving parts depending on this.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know-how/wrong-fuel-recovery/#:~:text=Putting petrol in a diesel car is far more serious,well away from the ignition.

 

[ColinBarber]

Modern diesels are much more sensitive to having petrol in them than they were 20+ years ago. 

[Lmafudd]

4 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

Modern diesels are much more sensitive to having petrol in them than they were 20+ years ago. 

I agree with that Colin. Over 20 years ago I put petrol in wife's Peugeot 206 diesel. I realised immediately and pulled over to the forecourt and called the AA. I thought the engineer would pump it out but he just showed me how to prime the fuel pump by hand and said to put some diesel in at every opportunity as I drove the 100 miles home. Car ran lovely. Next day I popped around to my friend and he sucked out the contents of the diesel tank with an enema syringe! Had the car for another 5 years and had no issues.

[Steven Lockey]

On 7/28/2023 at 6:22 AM, NemesisUK said:

I think you may have this the wrong way round. Diesel is used as a lubricant and adding petrol strips this from the various moving parts depending on this.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know-how/wrong-fuel-recovery/#:~:text=Putting petrol in a diesel car is far more serious,well away from the ignition.

 

You may be right. 

I do know a guy who put diesel in his petrol car and it basically wouldn't run till everything had a flush that cost him over £2k (+ towing)
Basically the injectors and filters all clogged up. He only got just outside the garage before it died.

It may be a case of simply if you catch the petrol in the diesel car quick enough you can flush it with basically no damage, but
if you leave it in longer than it can cause more serious damage, since it'd take time for any damage to occur via lack of lubrication.

[Cotswold Pete]

I wonder if as petrol burns hotter than diesel that even though the petrol is not going the car far it is enough to cause problems of a longer term if the hotter combustion does more than just damage the injectors.

I might be talking twaddle, but just a though.  FUnnily enough the other day I panniced as I had my wifes petrol mazda (my oil burner in getting a new wheel bearing), and having filled the Mazda up started thinking OMG I have put petrol in a diesel car. 

All the people I have known who have got it wrong have realised with 100 yards and pulled over to no long term effect, other than a red face and some more cash spent on making sure all traces of wrong fuel removed.

[ColinBarber]

The big issue is the petrol we use in our vehicles cannot handle the high compression ratio of a Diesel engine and so you will get pre-ignition which will cause damage to the engine. Diesel engines and the fuel system components are also designed based on the lubricating properties of the diesel fuel, something that petrol doesn't have and therefore these components will be damaged through heat from the excessive friction.

[NemesisUK]

"The diesel pump nozzle is bigger than most petrol filler necks, so it doesn't really fit. That makes it far less common to put the wrong fuel in a petrol car than putting petrol in a diesel car."

https://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/advice/wrong-fuel-advice#:~:text=The diesel pump nozzle is,petrol in a diesel car.