Filled my diesel up with petrol....

[westy_pj]

I had this 2004 '53 A4 PD130 Sport for 2 years, you'd think I'd know it took bloody diesel....
Fuel light on, 2 miles from home, stopped at garage 1 mile from home.
Decided to 'treat' the old girl to some advance diesel, only with my mind on another planet I put advance unleaded in instead.
Drove 1/4 mile and car stopped, funny thing is, I immediately twigged what I'd done!
Got a tow the my local garage only just down the road - no-one left there now, but I've got to go and explain what an idiot I am in the morning.
I'm hoping this will be a drain, flush, new filter, fill it up with DIESEL and that's all...

what's the odds of injector, fuel pump etc damage?

[The Slug]

school boy error.............dam, gutted for u, hope its just a flush thats needed

[westy_pj]

Just an update.
Garage drained the system and flushed it through, put some diesel in …. And it wouldn’t start.
Soooo, more flushing and more diesel and it started!
They took it out for a decent run late yesterday, but kept it overnight to make sure it started this morning – which it did!
I picked it up and took it straight to the garage to fill with DIESEL.. how many times did I check I was at the right pump.
Done about 50 miles in it today and it’s run fine.
Garage say possibility of long term damage is low, as symptoms would really be present pretty quickly.

And the grand total of my stupidity, £65 for the ‘petrol’ and , wait for it, …. £55 for the drain and flush!

Fingers crossed it seems OK.

[Macduff]

Neighbour of mine did this on a PD A3 a few years back. Drained the tank, filled with diesel and after a few cranks it started. They ran it for around 3 years after that with no problems.

[quattrojames]

I'm sure as it's been running this long it will continue to do so - lucky chap! I have heard of people do this and it has cost them £1000's.

[1210tech]

my mrs put a full tank of PETROL in mine about three years ago.....while i was sitting in the passenger seat...DOH!
luckily i got out to go and pay and caught her replacing the green nozzle back onto the pump stand otherwise we would have set off on the two hour journey from swansea to birmingham non the wiser and would have probably only made it a few miles down the M4.

mine didn't need a flush as we didn't start it, just pushed it off the forecourt and waited for the AA. make sure they have fitted the seals properly on the fuel tank or it will leak when it is full of fuel.

[paul20v]

I work for an independant garage and you would be amazed how many people do this ,
pumps should be seperate there would be a lot less confusion .

[BILKO1]

You can't put a diesel nozzle in a petrol filler so why dose'nt every manufacturer copy Ford and make petrol in diesel a thing of the past.

[lostbok]

is it just an AA call-out?

my dad's just filled up my A4 with petrol (had 3/4 of a tank of diesel in there already, but he just figured he'd do me a favour since he'd borrowed the car...

I know he has NOT started the car and I don't think he has even put the ignition to "on"...

[Turkster]

dont they make a gizmo that sets of some sort of alarm thing if you try to even put a petrol nozzle into a diesel fuel port hole ? and the other way round ?

i did see a gizmo at a car show that said "Diesel , Diesel, Diesel" very lound the second you opened the fuel flap,

Anyone ?

[lostbok]

Turks - if they do I'll take a few for my dad!! Even his car in Chicago can have one even though they don't sell diesel there and if they do there's just one point around the back of the "gas station"....

[scottyboy99]

Does anybody know if its possible to put diesel in your petrol tank by mistake? Its 2006 a4, and my wifes driving it while im away working, and im worried she puts diesel in instead of petrol. Ive seen loads of threads with people putting petrol in their diesel tanks, but nothing about the other way round. There is a device which you can buy for around £50 that prevents you from putting petrol in your diesel tank, which was on dragons den. But i cant find a device for accidentally putting diesel in your petrol tank, leaving me to assume that the diesel nozzle wont fit in the petrol tank filler. I know this is the case for fords, but im not sure about audis, and i cant check while im away. Does anybody know the answer? Any help greatly appreciated.

Scott.

[dieselfitter251]

Nope, well mostly nope. Diesel nozzles are bigger than petrol nozzles and don't fit in most new petrol fillers.

I once put about 3 litres of petrol in my ole passat. I realised what I had done and filled up the rest with Diesel. It didn't seem to make that much of a difference, still it was only a tiny amount.....

[Wai-Fan]

There's this safety device.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product.../fuelsure.html

But I imagine it can be quite fiddly, better than having an engine repair bill though.