Can I expect any bad effects from adding (accidentally) approx 10% (6 litres in 60) unleaded petrol to a diesel engine car. The car appears to run OK at present. Will the two fuels have mixed.
Please keep (deserved) abuse to a minimum and answers to a maximum!
TIA
I believe they are different densities and the unleaded will sit on top of the diesel like salad dressing. I might be better to drain off the tank before the diesel runs out and you start to get unleaded into your engine. As the level of diesel gets lower the sloshing about will cause some of it to be drawn into the engine and it will start chugging.
I might well be wrong but the unleaded doesn't burn until the compressed and hot diesel ignites thus causing a kick when the unleaded ignites. Another possibly wrong fact is that putting diesel in an unleaded car is worse as the diesel sinks to the bottom guts sucked into the engine and fails to ignite thus filling up the cylinders.
Cheers
Jonathan
Taken from the AA Web Site:
They will mix just fine, and it will have no adverse effects on your car (it's a diesel, how much worse can it get anyway??).
Wasn't adding a small amount of petrol to diesel a trick used in very cold weather anyway?
Yes - this is a perennial problem which appears on NGs from time to time. Petrol into diesel is not usually a problem. I can't remember the percentage but I have at least one car manual which recommends mixing petrol in with diesel in cold winters to prevent waxing. And it doesn't clog the carburettor or foul the plugs :-)
As stated elsewhere diesel into petrol is a whole different ball game!
Cheers Dave R
You should be fine. One of our diesel lease Focus's at work keeps getting petrol in it. According to Ford it can run at about 30% petrol. However keep topping up with diesel (ie. it dilute the mixture) and you should be fine.
Yes, as it lowers he temperature at which diesel stops being liquid like.
Yes, they are...
But they are miscible, unlike, say, oil and water.
It's unlikely to fire properly!
Hmm..gullible and unscientific, it seems :-)
As your 10% petrol in diesel is unlikely to cause you any problems, use at least half the tank, preferably at least 2/3 before refilling. This will ensure you remove most of the petrol quickly then go to almost
100% diesel.i.e. [Assume that the tank hold 100 'units' of fuel] Full tank of 90 units diesel 10 units petrol Use 90% of the tank Tank has 9 units diesel and one unit petrol Fill up with 90 units diesel Full tank with 99 units diesel and one unit petrol (effetively pure diesel).
This after using 90 units of fuel and only one visit to the fuel station.
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Gridingly boring worked example:
Full tank of 90 units diesel 10 units petrol
Use 10% of the tank Tank has 81 units of diesel and 9 units of petrol Fill up with 10 units of diesel Tank has 91 units of diesel and 9 units of petrol
Use 10% of the tank Tank has 81.9 units of diesel 8.1 units of petrol. Fill up with 10 units of diesel Tank has 91.9 units of diesel and 8.1 units of petrol after using 20 units of fuel.
Compared to
Full tank of 90 units diesel 10 units petrol
Use 20% of the tank Tank has 72 units of diesel and 8 units of petrol. Fill up with 20 units of diesel Tank has 92 units of diesel and 8 units of petrol after using 20 units of fuel.
So already a small difference is showing in favour of using bigger amounts of fuel before filling up.
So long since I did any maths I can't face working out a formula but suffice it to say that it is more effective to use as much of the 10% mix as possible before refilling your tank.
Someone out there must know the formula!
Damn I must find some motivation to work!
Cheers Dave R
Probably not. Diesel's will usually burn any old filth. They're second only to gas turbines (jet engines) in their tolerance. Your typical jet will burn anything from propane, through petrol to the remains of your chip pan without skipping a beat, or even noticing the difference. Diesels aren't far behind.
The reason diesels are so tolerant is because the fuel is directly injected into the compressed air and spontaneously combusts with precise timing. In a petrol engine, the fuel is premixed and must be kept from burning until the spark comes along. It needs high octane fuel for the fuel air mixture to not be too impatient and blow before the spark.
Christian.
Do not be tempted to add mustard...
Exactly...it can't possibly clog it up...
In normal use they definitely do mix. An old truck drivers' trick to prevent diesel freezing (from the days before 'anti-freeze' in diesel was standard) was to put a few gallons of petrol in the diesel during cold snaps. This does work, and - I think - proves they mix.
That's not to say that if you mixed the two and left them untouched for a few days they wouldn't start to separate out.
I read on some 'reputable' site (AA or RAC I think) that up to 20% of petrol in diesel was quite safe. Or vice-versa, if your petrol engine would run with however much diesel you'd put in it, that was safe also. I shudder to think of the smoke it would knock out though!
Davey
They wouldn't, any more than the individual fractions in diesel or petrol self separate while it sits in you tank.
I used to have a Montego Countryman estate with that noisy but incredibly frugal Perkins 2L engine. The handbook advised up to 25% petrol in cold weather - and using leaded fuel sure quietened it down as well. Must mean something.............
Doesn't diesel compress to ignite??? Petrol on the other hand needs to be lit ... usually with a spark plug unless you live in Sauwf Landon mate ;o)
a
I guess it depends on how much petrol you put into your diesel tank. A few litres in an empty tank then filled with diesel isn't going to be a problem but a tank diesel tank filled with petrol is another story.
Probably quite hard these days to fill a petrol tank with diesel as the diesel nozzle is bigger than the unleaded petrol hole.
Made worse now that some cars have a black label / logo inside the filler cap signifying unleaded. Well that was my excuse to our pool car lady when I screwed up.....
Yes, and as long as it still continues to do this the resultant explosion will burn off the petrol in the mix. The compression ratio used must be 'over' by some tolerance as otherwise you never get it to start (even with the pre-heaters). I am however suprised that a 10% petrol mix will still work but if others think it will then OK.
Which it will be by the exploding diesel.
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