my dad put 5 pounds petrol in my TDI!!!

syed123

syed123

Registered User
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Messages
432
Reaction score
169
Points
43
Location
NULL
Hello all,

I've had one crazy day today.

So basically my dad took my car out today went to the petrol station and filled up 5 pounds of 'diesel'. ( I had 200 miles of v power nitro diesel already in here)

He went to luton and back to London. When he was on the m1 back towards london he noticed the car smoke quite abit, and the car started to shake also.

When he got back he told me he must have put the wrong fuel in ( I don't know how anyone could put petrol in a diesel) and was very sorry. Like all of us on audi sport I love my car lol

So I switched the ignition on and took like 10 seconds to start, went straight to the petrol station nearest to me which is a 2 min drive and filled up the rest of my tank with v power diesel.

During my drive to the petrol station the black smoke emitting from my exhaust was so bad that I couldn't see the cars behind me!!! The car was going bonkers I thought I wouldn't make it!

My car is under warranty and I have a remap on my car so I did not want the hassle of going into audi especially when this would be considered 'my fault'.

Now that I have the correct fuel the full tank is showing at 620 miles (odd) I only ever get between 400-500 on a full tank normally. Car is also driving fine again but I'm worried about the damage the petrol might have caused?

Also bear in mind that only 5 pounds worth of petrol caused all this!!!

I'm going to a local garage tommorow to let my mechanic know wat happened and see what happens from there.. the emissions light has come on too

Anyone with any knowledge on this please advise the best thing to do in this situation as I am very worried I've caused a lot of damage to my engine
 
No idea if it's true or not but this is what the RAC say:

What happens if you put petrol in a diesel car?
Putting petrol in your diesel car will damage your fuel pump if not dealt with immediately. In diesel cars, the main fuel pump uses the diesel fuel flowing through it for lubrication. However, when you put petrol fuel in, the mix of petrol in diesel acts as a solvent, reducing lubrication and quickly causing damage to the pump as the metal parts come into contact and rub together. Other parts of the fuel system which might not be compatible with petrol, can also be damaged.

Switching on your car’s ignition will circulate this mix of petrol in diesel through your fuel system, causing further contamination to other components..

Ultimately, if left for too long this could mean that the entire fuel system requires costly repairs, or replacing completely!
 
If it was only £5 then I wouldn't do anything apart from keep it topped up with diesel.
I wouldn't mention it to the dealer as they'd just invalidate your warranty.
People used to add a few litres of petrol to diesel in the winter to stop it freezing.
If the cars driving fine now if leave it.
 
If it was p!ssing out lots of black smoke, Id say it was quite a strong ratio of petrol to diesel.....

Personally, I would agree that theres a fair old chance of fuel pump damage. The pumps operate at incredibly high pressure and Need the lube oil thats in diesel.....

Theres also potential for damage to the DPF.....sorry, theres no good news!
 
@Kugaman1 there was quite a bit of black smoke but I am surprised 5 pounds of petrol could do this? There was 200 milles of diesel already in the tank that's why I don't know how it got this bad. When I filled the remainder with v power diesel it was still chugging under low revs only at tad bit and after 20 mins everything went back to normal as if there was no problem to begin with..

Only issue now is the emissions light has come on too now.. does anyone know a company I can call to get this sorted out?

Syed
 
Surprised that he managed... there's a gate on my car that stops you putting a petrol nozzle in, must have had to force the nozzle in quite hard if he managed it!
 
cemerson said:
Surprised that he managed... there's a gate on my car that stops you putting a petrol nozzle in, must have had to force the nozzle in quite hard if he managed it!
Click to expand...


He did say it was quite hard putting it in! :/

I've spoken to one of those companies who drain tanks out when this type of scenario pops up.. so the technician told me not to worry if the car is fine now and to keep topping up with diesel ( he didn't ssay how long I need to do that for) and the emissions light should go off by itself..

Fingers crossed!
 
Good luck!

As mentioned previously, I wouldnt mention it to Audi.....they will use it as an excuse for anything going wrong in the future!
 
People do add petrol to diesel in some countries to winterise the diesel but I think it's typically something like 5% petrol to 95% diesel.
£5 worth of petrol is just about a gallon, Assuming you had 200 miles worth of fuel at say 45mpg thats around 4.5 gallons.
So your petrol to diesel ratio is around 20-25% which is why the car wasn't running well and chucking out loads of smoke.
As stated above this won't do the DPF and engine any good at all.
The car may be running OK now but the real damage isn't likely to show for a while as the lack of lubrication in the pump may have caused damage that will only get worse now. With modern injection systems they run injection pressure of 1600-2000 bar thats 23 -29,000 PSI and that pressure has to be produced in the injection pump so lubrication is vital.
I put 2 stroke mineral oil in my car around 0.5% and have done the same in the wifes Yaris for the last 5 years and the engine runs better for it.But our cars don't have DPF's. I would have recommended adding 2-3% oil to the tank if you had missfilled the tank and realised at the time. Unfortunately the car has been driven for a good distance with the petrol / diesel mix so probably too late now for that too help but it wouldn't hurt in the short term.
I hope you have got away with it but be aware that just because it may be running OK now it's future reliability may have been affected.

Karl.
 
So say 200m is 4g's of diesel to 1g of petrol that's a 20% mix then filing up the tank you'll have 10g's of diesel to 1g of petrol a much leaner mix (9% ish) - if its running ok now id be inclined to use the tank then fuel up with a full tank of diesel to 'flush' the petrol out as soon as possible.

I'm no mechanic - just my thoughts.
 
My Dad almost did the same...but with my petrol A3 - went for a drive with it and said he'll top up my tank as a "gift".

Lifted up the black nozzle, took the fuel cap off. I was like a man possessed in the passenger seat...trying to rip off the seatbelt, banging the windscreen, yelling...amazing how sound insulated the A3 is with all the windows up.

Managed to stop him in time. Some "gift"! (I think he was jealous of my new car :p )

In his defence - he drives an A6 TDI so he was probably on auto pilot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rob2k68
^^^ Made me lol I can imagine that it must have looked like you had been kidnapped and locked in the car !
 
Surely your car has loads of writing saying DIESEL on the filler cap ?, like mine does in the supplied image I just took!
 

Attachments

  • IMAG0815k.jpg
    IMAG0815k.jpg
    235.8 KB · Views: 194
wouldn't worry too much tbh, dads done it a few times his tdi. Its now on 160k and still going strong.
 
Sorry to hear this and I can understand why you are worried.

As others have said don't mention it to Audi. A mate of mines wife put non high octane fuel in his chipped Golf Gti and it went crazy, he said it took about two days to sorts itself out once he'd put the high octane stuff back in and then it was OK.

Hope it works out for you ;)
 
Done it twice before with works van never had any probs but kept it topped up with diesel to dilute petrol but it was a transit van
 
I was scared of doing this and fitted mine with a thingy that stays locked uf you try to use a petrol nozzle ,and will open with a diesel nozzle.
I understand a diesel nozzle is bigger and won't go into a petrol filler....
 
Do you have wrong fuel cover on your car insurance or breakdown cover? If so I would take advantage of it! I know a gallon of unleaded doesn't sound a lot but it can cause a lot of damage to the fuel pump and DPF.
It's a difficult one to answer. The fact is it has already smoked badly and the emission control light is on. It may clear up but who knows what damage has already been caused. I would bite the bullet and book it into an Independant rather than Audi for reassurance as it will always be in your mind otherwise...
 
I'm going to go against the general consensus here and say I think you should go to Audi and 'fess up.

You've undoubtedly caused some damage, quite how serious is debatable but they're going to find out anyway. Your DPF will very likely be toast and that emissions light isn't going away by itself. You could try getting an independent to fix things but there's every change their work will be noticed/detectable by an Audi dealer at a later date.

The way you describe it, i.e. not driving a "bit rough" but belching out smoke and shaking, makes me think the ratio of petrol to diesel was quite high in reality (maybe he's sugar-coating how much he put in?) and I'd just talk to the dealer and take it on the chin.
 
They'd detect his remap and void his warranty anyway so pointless going to the dealer... well theres a highly likely chance at least - I hope you don't have any pics up with your plate on! :readit:

If it was me I would not have driven it and got the tank drained. If it was really £5's worth (I mean did you double check this through receipt??) on a full tank I would imagine it not to be a massive issue. :crescentmoon:

From what you described though it doesn't sound good.... :pushpin:

Added icons for ease of reading..idk :checkeredflag:
 
Update - I had one of those vans called out to come out to drain my tank and add cleaning additives before he put 10 pounds worth of diesel in.

I then went to my local shell and filled up with v power ( full tank) did a quick motorway run and car feels back to normal, very smooth.

The emissions light is still on however so going to get a diagnostic done tommorow to see what comes up..

My question is, does anyone know any independent vw specialists who could examine my fuel system to check if any damage has been made? And what sort of price should I expect for this?

I would go to audi but will my warranty even be void after this event?

@vertigo I agree it could have been more petrol but I think by the time my dad was on the way back up towards london was the time the petrol was starting to get used, before this the 200 milles that was there aready was being burned, my car came back at 165 miles and 98.4mpg lol. So that's why I don't think he put too much petrol in.
 
A3_Rider said:
They'd detect his remap and void his warranty anyway so pointless going to the dealer... well theres a highly likely chance at least - I hope you don't have any pics up with your plate on! :readit:

If it was me I would not have driven it and got the tank drained. If it was really £5's worth (I mean did you double check this through receipt??) on a full tank I would imagine it not to be a massive issue. :crescentmoon:

From what you described though it doesn't sound good.... :pushpin:

Added icons for ease of reading..idk :checkeredflag:
Click to expand...
....you mean like an avatar maybe :whistle2:
 
Ignition1 said:
Can un-map, take it to Audi for repairs, then re-map?
Click to expand...

I can do that, but what I'm concerned about is the fact that my dad was the one who made the mistake of putting the wrong fuel in.. wouldn't that in itself invalidate the warranty?
 
syed123 said:
I can do that, but what I'm concerned about is the fact that my dad was the one who made the mistake of putting the wrong fuel in.. wouldn't that in itself invalidate the warranty?
Click to expand...

I think even if you put petrol in yourself it would not be covered under the warranty - whether it becomes "invalidated" or not depends on the extent of damage and what steps you took to rectify it. I don't think Audi will invalidate the warranty but you may not be covered.

You have two (moral) choices.

1. You lie - "I was driving along at 60mph on a motorway - on my way to a Good Samaritans event - when I stopped over to save a deer who's foot was stuck was in trap. When I drove off my car started spewing smoke out the back - then it stopped but now the warning light is on"

2. You tell the truth - BUT make it clear that you took every reasonable step to resolve it - like filling up with diesel to off-set the petrol/diesel ratio, called in someone to drain your tank, added additives etc.

The problem is with option 1 - the fact that emissions light has come on will probably be a clear and obvious flag to Audi mechanics that the wrong fuel has been put in. Especially if you describe the symptoms and they take a deeper look - if the detect the additives etc. then it's game over.

To give an example of another large manufacturer trying to catch out consumers is Apple who include little water-sensitive indicators inside the phone and headphone jack. If it touches water it changes colour and they'll know if it's damaged because of that or not.

Likewise with an A3 there may be something in the system that can detect that - the warning light on the dash might be one of them. Either way if you take it to Audi I doubt it will be a free repair, so if I was you I would:

1. Go to an independent garage and explain the problem, let them take a look at it. At least get some "qualified" advice from someone independent.
2. Ask them for a quote - if it's reasonable then let them fix it.
3. If it's expensive, take it to Audi and fess up but tell them you've got advice, got the tank drained etc. Audi *might* repair it out of good will. More likely is they'll charge you...but if you're paying a lot for an independent garage, I'd rather pay Audi and avoid any issues.

Something to note in their T&Cs - "If you have modified your vehicle with additional equipment or accessories, you may be charged for the removal of the equipment if necessary.". Not sure a "remap" is classed as "additional equipment".

Does anyone have the full T&Cs schedule?? Or a link to it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
My first Audi A3 2.0 TDI 5 Door
Replies
1
Views
645
Ormesome
Ormesome
Solyarkin
My 5 Audi A3.
Replies
0
Views
554
Solyarkin
Solyarkin
Audi Ashley
Please help put my mind at rest...
Replies
4
Views
818
Audi Ashley
Audi Ashley
The Cardinal
5 alive! Introducing my 2018 S3...
Replies
37
Views
5K
The Cardinal
The Cardinal
O
A few pics of my 5 day old S3
Replies
7
Views
1K
NickyF
N
Top
Back