Petrol in diesel tank = $$$$s

[Johnnojack]

A friend recently put 60 litres of petrol in his diesel Passat. Realizing his mistake he did not even start the vehicle. However despite the best efforts of he and a couple of his mates they could not remove the petrol and it had to be taken to the VW dealer. Cost $800
Has anyone been able to get the fuel out of their VW (Passat, Golf etc)? A bung in the fuel tank sounds like a good idea but alas there is none. What the cost would have been if he had done it at Oodnadatta. Punch a hole in tank with nail and plug up with green stick? Fix later? Any ideas?

[Transporter]

If there is no drain plug, then removing the tank for cleaning is a better option than punching the hole.

[Russ59]

He should think himself very lucky that he didn't start it, having to shell out $800 to rectify the mistake is an expensive error but he'd have needed a bank loan to pay for the repairs if he'd turned the key

A quick google search shows that most newer fuel tanks do not have drain plugs, apparently for safety reasons

[Preen59]

Last time we had to do that on a customer car (Caddy 1.9TDI), I removed the glow plug leads and used the primer pump to empty the tank @ the fuel filter end. Took about 10-15mins.

[brad]

On another forum I mod at, one of the guys mates (mothers, sister, boyfriend) put petrol in his V8 twin turbo Audi Q7. Drove it home 1.2km from the service station & reckons it was "just running a bit rough". The repair bill was ~$18k IIRC

[Johnnojack]

Last time we had to do that on a customer car (Caddy 1.9TDI), I removed the glow plug leads and used the primer pump to empty the tank @ the fuel filter end. Took about 10-15mins.

They did disconnect the hoses at the filter but could neither suck no blow through them ( I said that they wouldn't be able to do that anyway as there would be too much resistance.) So where is the primer pump? Is it at the tank end? and how did you get it to work without the motor running?

[Transporter]

The pump is in the tank and you can connect 12V to it to pump the fuel out (if the pump is not compatible with petrol it will suffer the damage), but there still will be some petrol left in, and TBH, if it was mine I would remove/rinse the tank and change the fuel filter.

[davidno64]

Easiest way, if no drain plug.
Make up a pipe, say 6 to 10 mm and connect it to a low pressure fuel pump,
Stick the hose down the filler tube. Connect a battery and expell all the petrol.

As long as car has not been started. Then fill up with full tank of diesel. This
will dilute the mix and you should be safe to drive. Risk is minimal, but cannot
stress enough, the diluted mix left must be week. So all (almost all) petrol must
be pumped out. Make the diluted mix as week as possible with as much diesel as
possible.

I had this happen with my old Merc, 108 CDI and no issues. But bear in mind,
in this moden day of liitergation. Do at you own risk. If you get a serge of neat petrol
damage can occour. A blend of petrol, too stong can damage seals and cause
over-revving. So its better to avoid issue all together.

But a small amount of petrol in the mix, will boost performance of the diesel
motor, just as methanol does.

Better still, dont do it!

[Preen59]

They did disconnect the hoses at the filter but could neither suck no blow through them ( I said that they wouldn't be able to do that anyway as there would be too much resistance.) So where is the primer pump? Is it at the tank end? and how did you get it to work without the motor running?

The pump is in the tank and you can connect 12V to it to pump the fuel out (if the pump is not compatible with petrol it will suffer the damage), but there still will be some petrol left in, and TBH, if it was mine I would remove/rinse the tank and change the fuel filter.

What Transporter said. We actually just used to ignition and switched on/off/on/off/on/off.. I nearly fell asleep, but it worked.

After that, sucked the petrol out of the filter canister, replaced the fuel filter. Filled the tank to the brim with diesel and primed it another 20 times or so to get the fuel thru the lines and the petrol out. Then reconnected the fuel line to the filter, primed the filter and reconnected the glow plugs (The glow plugs seemed to be on the same relay so we disconnected them in order to not damage them).

Kicked it in the guts and after about 3-4 seconds winding over it fired to life and ran no problems. That was about 12 months ago and no problems since. The van has only come back to the old man's workshop for servicing.

[Greg Roles]

I'd punch a hole, but that's me.

[neil]

Had a bloke at work fill the diesel tank with adblue.
adblue tank 65 litres, diesel tank 400 litres.
adblue stickers are now riveted on so the bus wash brushes don't rip them off.

[bisy]

We had someone at a servo fill our mark v TDI weth unleaded I drove off it started to run rough then cut out had it towed back to dealership the cost was $240.00 to fix it. The tow truck driver said it would cost thousands to fix that was 80,000km ago still running great

[wai]

Guys and Gals,

Just get a diesel mis-fuelling device that replaces the fuel cap and prevents a ULP nozzle from entering the tank.

They can be obtained from the RACQ and RAA SA. They cost around $60 for members ($70 for nom-members) plus P&H. Cheap insurance even at the non-members price.

Oh yes. I contacted RACQ and they said that members of other motoring groups around the country with whom they have reciprocal member arrangements can purchase the item and get the same benefit as RACQ members.

Just go through the sheet which identifies which type to get.

I take delivery of my new Caddy Maxi Life on Tuesday. If there is no mis-fuelling device already fitted, I will be ordering one from RACQ.

[wai]

We had someone at a servo fill our mark v TDI weth unleaded I drove off it started to run rough then cut out had it towed back to dealership the cost was $240.00 to fix it. The tow truck driver said it would cost thousands to fix that was 80,000km ago still running great

This is why you need one of these mis-fuelling devices. You might be diligent, but you are not always the one who fills the tank.

[dieselmaker]

No risk of anyone else filling your vehicle, except another driver, if you live in Qld. Don't think I have ever had a servo staff member offer to fill anything for me in 10 years!!

Although true, it is still up to the driver to keep an eye on what is going into his tank.