You have put wrong fuel in your vehicle, what do U do?

I have put the wrong fuel in my vehicle, what do I do?

Firstly don’t start the vehicle. If you’re at a petrol station forecourt you’ll find the staff are normally sympathetic to your situation as they will have seen this on many occasions. You may even get a push off the pumps into a parking bay! The next thing is to establish if there is a company who can attend your vehicle and remove the fuel without recovering you to a garage. This type of mobile service can be researched from your phone and a good provider should be able to attend within 90 minutes.

Can I drive the vehicle?

Do not drive the car. By running the engine, or driving the vehicle, the incorrect fuel penetrates further into the vehicles fuel delivery system and associated ancillaries. The bottom line is you may make it a certain amount of miles down the road in a mis-fuelled diesel vehicle, however, a petrol vehicle is unlikely to run for more than a few seconds.

Can I turn the engine on?

The same rules as in question 3 apply here. In an automatic vehicle you may find yourself in a situation where you want to start the engine in order to select neutral, and then push the car off a pump, or into a more convenient location. If the situation is critical then this can be done, but switch the engine off as soon as you have engaged neutral.  Because most fuel pumps will be drawing fuel from the bottom of the tank the brief period of time you’re switched (enabling selection of neutral, freeing up the steering lock) will most likely only bring through the remainder of the original correct fuel.

Will my filter need changing?

If the vehicle has been started, it is a wise precaution to change the fuel filter fairly soon after the wrong fuel has been used. When a vehicle has been started after having the the wrong fuel put in the tank, a knowledgeable technician will flush the correct fuel through the fuel delivery system before re starting. Having carried out this process, and the vehicle is driven for a number of minutes, any contaminated fuel left in the filter will have been removed. However, a fuel filter is a relatively inexpensive part  and simple to fit, usually half an hour to an hour max. One word of warning! If your vehicle is under manufacturer’s warranty take caution. If you go to your main dealer to change the filter they might ask questions about why you want the fuel filter changed. Be wary how you approach this as there have been cases where customers have been told their vehicle’s warranty will be invalidated unless they replace numerous components, including the fuel tank. This type of work will cost a much

I have driven my car with the wrong fuel, have I made it worse?

Sadly the answer is yes – but dependent upon a number of factors – by degrees. If you are in a modern diesel car by its nature the ancillary equipment is strong and the engines management systems will respond swiftly to changes in the fuel in use, therefore damage can be limited to almost non-existent. However, even with a modern robust vehicle petrol has a corrosive effect on certain ancillaries in a drive train designed to run on diesel fuel. Therefore it is essential to act quickly in order to minimise risk. This is certainly a good example of how a mobile fuel drain unit is preferable to recovery to dealer, where it is quite possible the vehicle might sit in a car park for several days before work commences. With older vehicles the damage will normally become apparent over a shorter distance, and once the vehicle breakdowns it is harder to re start. The most likely ancillaries/ parts to fail will be fuel pump and catalytic converters. Petrol vehicles will quite likely not start – but if they do expect them to run for a few minutes only. Diesel is a much thicker fuel than petrol and is considerably less combustible. It can still be drained and flushed but expect lots of smoke when the vehicle is restarted – there will be plenty of sticky diesel that is burning off. In terms of damage a similar rule will apply, the potential for problems increases the older and higher mileage the vehicle.

Fuel Type Specific – What to do

Petrol in diesel. As previously discussed the best course of action is to not start the vehicle. However, with a diesel vehicle sensitivity to the wrong fuel is less so than in its petrol counterpart. Therefore, should you own a very modern automatic car, that doesn’t have the traditional key, and the car must be started in order to take it out of park and disengage the steering lock, a matter of a few seconds with the engine running is unlikely to cause any problems. Call in your workshop who can dispatch a technician to attend and drain the vehicle immediately, and no further action should be necessary. If the vehicle has been driven the same basic rules apply, however, it is highly recommended that a quality additive is included once the contaminated fuel has been removed and the vehicle re started, and for extra peace of mind the fuel filter should be changed within the next few days.

Diesel in petrol.  Again, it is highly recommended that the car or motorbike is not started. In this instance call your technician, who can attend the scene of the breakdown swiftly, should be utilised to remove all of the diesel. From here the car or bike should be a simple re start. If they have been started, or driven, they will require a thorough flush through once the drain has been completed. This process will normally take at least 50% longer to carry out than if working on a diesel engine equivalent. However, once completed the car or bike should start quickly, initially producing a fair quantity of smoke while any diesel residue is burnt off, then running as before the mis-fuelling incident.

Source: autofuelfix