petrol in diesel tank

[Roger Mills]

I must have been ripped off then. It cost me over £600 to replace the catalytic converter on my 1999 Volvo V70 2.5D when it failed!

[js.b1]

At little more than 2%, not likely to be an issue.

Much more of an issue is which diesel. Some common rail turbo diesels have issue of injector sealing; exhaust gases get past the injectors, oil carbon loading increases (already at stratospheric levels), oil pickup can clog, starving turbo & big end bearings. First you know is either rod knock, runaway turbo or very rough running with a replacement engine required. Others are limited to "the turbo can go out".

CR turbo diesel can give =A3700-1200 bill unexpectedly, and in the (admittedly) rare instance =A36000+. The recession may well push many people to own for longer not knowing that instead of saving money they might be running into the "guinea pig" end of ownership as manufacturers are still "market testing" engineering with you carrying the risk unwittingly.

Go to

technical section, then go through to your particular marque & model.

Well worth knowing how thick (re bill) the tail end of the distribution is with *any* car re age/design faults and bills. Just remember "They All Do That" :-)

[dennis]

I bet you see several a day but don't know. All Astra common rail ones have a cat to start with.

[dennis]

story?

[christopher]

Thanks gents.

Im going to live with it and top up before im half empty.

parts

[The Natural Philosopher]

I bet they are actually particulate filters.

[Clive George]

up.

[Lobster]

Wow - just goes to show how serious the effects can be of putting in the wrong fuel, eh?

Wish I'd known about these gadgets a few weeks ago actually. When we replaced one of our cars very recently I made the conscious decision

*not* to go for a diesel, as I figured that with SWMBO (no offence, love...) and teenagers both driving it alongside our existing petrol-engined job, it would only be a matter of time before I had an expensive c*ck-up on my hands.

David

[The Medway Handyman]

Yonks ago when I worked for Karcher, they launched a new engine driven hot water & steam pressure washer. Honda petrol engine, fuel tank was right next to the diesel fuel tank for the heater. You can guess what happened to

8 of the first 12 we sold...

[The Natural Philosopher]

One all. Its both ;-)

[ARWadsworth]

What on earth made you think the wife or kids would be putting fuel in the car?

Adam

[Adrian]

"Roger Mills" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

No, you were replaced over £600 to replace the particulate filter.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They are very cheap compared to petrol ones.

[dennis]

How do particulate filter burn off the particles? Hint, they use a catalyst and oxidise them. So even by your definition you have seen many diesels with cats. Mine is a two stage cat IIRC so its more than a particulate filter as it removes un-burnt fuel and CO as well.

[Adrian]

"dennis@home" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Not really - they store, then later inject either extra fuel or additive to "post-combust" the captured particulates.

Anyway, even then, they're not the same chemistry as a petrol three-way cat, so aren't susceptible to lead poisoning. If you could still easily find leaded petrol.

[Phil L]

You don't need to do anything. We used to put 5L of petrol in every time we filled up with diesel during winter - apparently it helped stop the diesel freezing - whether it did or not is unknown, but it didn't do any harm to the engine even for 4 months out of the year.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember [e-mail] saying something like:

No advice needed. Just drive it.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Just had a call from a friend, who's just filled his new (to him) diesel car with petrol. It got about 100 yards down the road before conking out. He's waiting for the AA to tow him home at the moment.

[Lobster]

While we're on the subject of fuel... is there an easy way of distinguishing leaded from unleaded petrol? Just that I've got a gallon can in the garage and can't remember which it is... I no longer have any engines which run on leaded, which I know would be fine if fed witha bit of unleaded (but not vice versa as I understand.)

Actually the petrol must be fairly old anyway... so even if it's unleaded, would it be stupid to stick it my car, even gradually, diluted over several full tanks? (It's a convenient way to get rid of it apart from anything - don't want to pour it down the drain)

David

[Adrian]

Lobster gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

By taste.

What kind of "old"? A couple of years? A decade?

To be "leaded", it's going to be at least a decade old. If you suspect it might be that kind of age, then I wouldn't go near using it. Keep it for cleaning things, or get shot of it into the waste oil tank at your local tip.

If it's only a year or three, then it's certain to be undeaded. Lob it in a near-full tank, and you'll be fine.