Petrol In My Tdi

[Ride4life]

Help,

My darling pregnant girlfriend borrowed my pristine Seat Toledo 1.9 Tdi last saturday while i was away on some buisness because it is easier for her to drive than her fiat seicento, but she called me and told me it had broken down .

I have now found that she has filled up the diesel tank with 20 quids worth of unleaded petrol . nice of her to fill the tank, just wish she'd picked the right pump. cant blame her, anyone could do it ( yer right, no only a woman could do it.)

A good friend of mine is coming to drain the tank and lines on saturday coming and i have gotten a new fuel filter cos the current one will be saturated with petrol, is there anything else i should do.

any more help would be great.

 

[AndyC567]

Sorry to hear about this...

As a new TDI owner of only a few months, I have to really think at the pumps.

After 25 years of using petrol, I do worry about doing the same as your girlfriend..

Easy done !!

 

[Sam20v]

I have now found that she has filled up the diesel tank with 20 quids worth of unleaded petrol . nice of her to fill the tank, just wish she'd picked the right pump. cant blame her, anyone could do it ( yer right, no only a woman could do it.)

A good friend of mine is coming to drain the tank and lines on saturday coming and i have gotten a new fuel filter cos the current one will be saturated with petrol, is there anything else i should do.

any more help would be great.

I think you will find that it is mainly men that do it.........if you watched one of the popular car shows recently they featured "misfueling" (fifth gear i think it was)

good move with the new filter, i also believe you need to prime the lines, flush any residual petty out of them......hope it gets sorted

 

[LEON_FR]

is there anything else i should do.

any more help would be great.

Yes take the keys of her

 

[Muttley]

You will need to purge the injection pump, fuel lines and injectors with diesel. If it is a PD engine, then the PD pumps need purging. You are going to smell like an oil refinery before you're finished. Wear some hand protection, you'll be swimming in petrol/diesel.

In the worst case, if she drove it with mainly petrol in the tank until it conked out, there is a danger that the injectors and the injector pump or PD pumps have been irreparably damaged by the petrol, as they rely on the lubricating properties of the diesel fuel for their protection. Metal particles from the disintegrating pump could have spread throughout the fuel system, every item will need inspection and thorough purging or replacement. Seals may react badly to petrol too.

I don't know how to check for any of this, other than flushing the system all through and seeing if it will start. You could check the fuel filter: if you see any metal particles in there, it will be bad news

http://www.carpages.co.uk/news/mis-fuelling-29-05-05.asp

Apparantly this is not uncommon, and most people seem to get away with it. I hope your car is ok, and that the girlfriend+sprog have not been too upset.

 

[slimjim]

Well.... drain the tank, change the filter... fill otthe brim with Diesel and pray.

If it doesn't work... torch it .... it will go up in flames like a bitch!

Seriously it depends on which TDI it is .... PD or non-PD?

 

[Ride4life]

Its a 1999 1.9 Tdi SE model, thats all i know about it.

there wa about a fivers diesel in the car when she filled her up, it conked out on a junction and she rolled through it, she stopped on the other side and tried to start her a couple of times, she did fire but would't start so I am guessing the injectors are ok, This is going by what little i know about Motorcycle petrol engine's.

I have spoken to a friend of mine who has been a diesel fitter for 15 years and he said it should be ok, he siad both fuels have the same tendancy to corrode things so the seals should be ok, he said we haven't driven on it long enough to do any real damage.

worst case scenario is the pump and injectors have gone then i have already thought of that and will be straight on the phone to aqcuire replacements from my nearest breakers.

 

[slimjim]

Its a 1999 1.9 Tdi SE model, thats all i know about it.

there wa about a fivers diesel in the car when she filled her up, it conked out on a junction and she rolled through it, she stopped on the other side and tried to start her a couple of times, she did fire but would't start so I am guessing the injectors are ok, This is going by what little i know about Motorcycle petrol engine's.

I have spoken to a friend of mine who has been a diesel fitter for 15 years and he said it should be ok, he siad both fuels have the same tendancy to corrode things so the seals should be ok, he said we haven't driven on it long enough to do any real damage.

worst case scenario is the pump and injectors have gone then i have already thought of that and will be straight on the phone to aqcuire replacements from my nearest breakers.

If you mention it to anyone... especially a dealer, you can SEE the dollar signs behind their eyes.

Id do like you said. Try to bleed the system best you can, change the filters, fill up with diesel and just try. Nothing to loose.

Oh ... what colour are the TDI letters on the back ... stupid question I know .... but still..

 

[Ride4life]

the TDi letters are all silver.

It just says

SE Tdi on the back and its all silver.

 

[slimjim]

the TDi letters are all silver.

It just says

SE Tdi on the back and its all silver.

So ... "experts" ... does that make it a 90 or a 100... a PD or a non-PD?

 

[devonmikeyboy]

Personally i would agree with your diesel fitter mate in that you would be very unlucky to have done any damage. Your fitter mate should know what he is doing as its quite straight forward on what to do in this situation as it happens to thousands of people every year. A little tip a friend told me one time to do if this happens is to take the glow plugs out and cover the engine with a blanket then turn the engine over as all the remaining petrol in the fuel lines etc will get blown out of the glow plug holes.Saves stripping everything down and getting covered in petrol/diesel/oil. PD engines self prime so they are easy the older TDI engines are abit more of a pain.

 

[Muttley]

TDI all in silver makes it a 90 bhp "simple" TDI (AGR or ALH, I think). If the I was in red (like mine) it would be the 110 bhp engine (AHF or ASV). Neither of these is PD, it would have to be a later car to have the TDI 130 engine (ARL, which is PD). PD engines have both the D and I in red.

There will be a build sticker in the boot under the carpet on the left. That will tell you what the engine code is, and what model the car is.

Its all petrol in there by now. I'd want to get diesel back into the injection pump as soon as possible by emptying tank, fuel lines and filter and then priming with diesel. I'd then take off all the injectors, put lots of paper towels in the engine bay, put each injector in jamjar to catch the fuel and turn the starter. It should be obvious when the injectors and lines are running diesel again.

Now put it back together and try to start it!

Any sign of metallic bits in the fuel filter?

 

[Ride4life]

dont know yet i cant do anything until saturday morning...

 

[Ride4life]

wahoo, all fixed, the pump was ok, and the injectors were ok too, apparently the injectors allow their contents to go down the return into the engine when you turn off teh engine so there wasn't enough fuel left in to do any damage. oh and how lucky is this.

the lad i got to do the job for me, was a SEAT engineer from the local seat dealership and brought all the tools and a special pump with him.. haha.

 

[devonmikeyboy]

Glad you got it all sorted with no problems. I would have been very surprised if anything exspensive did get broke or needed replacing.