Disaster in Pamplona, petrol in diesel tank

[Trelou]

24 hrs and waiting for pick up truck to take us to the Fiat Professional in Pamplona !!! Silly momentary mistake of 4 litres of petrol went into the 3/4 ful tank !!! Many phone calls later a truck came but was too small for our 7.5 mtr motorhome. That was yesterday!! Every phone call promised a truck, none came. Resigned to to fact we had to not move the van again, spent the night at the rear of the service station after the promise of a 8am pick up, still here!!! More phone calls!! Just had a call from RAC to asked if we've been seen, assessed, or had a call from anyone, nothing, we said. He was very surprised to hear that and said he'd sort it. I so hope he does, we're getting so stressed about it. We wouldn't believe it if it wasn't happening to us now. We live in hope

 

[Trelou]

Ooops didn't quite work. Once RAC realised nothing had been sorted he sent these guys who took us to Fiat Professional who got us on the road to this amazing 12th to 18th century Royal city of Olite on the Pamplona to Zaragoza Road, magical. Apologies text should have been with pics

 

[Trelou]

I'll get the hang of this one day.

 

[bladerunner]

I did manage to put £35 worth of diesel in to my new 1600GT BMW bike.
I was looking for the "Ultimate" tag and didn't notice the very small "diesel".
Only as the tank brimmed did I notice the darker colour.
Garage said I was the third that day at that garage.
Arranged for sucking out and replace. All told around £150 but as I hadn't started bike no harm done.
Seems companies have no incentive to make it less easy to make a mistake.

 

[Julie P]

4 ltrs of petrol in a tank of diesel will do nothing, just tip off with diesel and get going

Yes my hubby says he used to put some petrol in his lorry tank with the diesel to stop it freezing, crack on! As said by Happy Jim top up with diesel and head out!

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[Midnightflyer]

24 hrs and waiting for pick up truck to take us to the Fiat Professional in Pamplona !!! Silly momentary mistake of 4 litres of petrol went into the 3/4 ful tank !!! Many phone calls later a truck came but was too small for our 7.5 mtr motorhome. That was yesterday!! Every phone call promised a truck, none came. Resigned to to fact we had to not move the van again, spent the night at the rear of the service station after the promise of a 8am pick up, still here!!! More phone calls!! Just had a call from RAC to asked if we've been seen, assessed, or had a call from anyone, nothing, we said. He was very surprised to hear that and said he'd sort it. I so hope he does, we're getting so stressed about it. We wouldn't believe it if it wasn't happening to us now. We live in hope

Only put 4 litres in won't hurt your engine, go ahead and drive it adding diesel as you can. I put over 40 litres of petrol into a 85 litre tank which was almost empty before realising filled up with diesel and then over the next week kept topping up. Absolutely no problem, that was back in 2019 in Spain and vehicle is fine. Important thing if you hear any preignition a pinging sound reduce the pressure on the accelerator pedal, just don't push it and it will be fine. My experience I'm a fully qualified motor engineer, experienced on diesel and petrol power units.

 

[knockersmith]

Back in the 70s we would put 3 or 4 galls petrol in a 500ltr truck tank to stop the deisel freezing never had a problem.

 

[maison]

Hi,

From Mr Armytwowheels-
As long as the petrol is not more than 5% to diesel you will be fine. Sound like you are borderline at 5%, top the tank right up with diesel, drive on and top up again after approx 100k.

Misfuelling explained: What to do if you put diesel in a petrol car or vice versa | Auto Express

Misfuelling your car can be a costly mistake but here’s what to do if you put the wrong fuel in your car

www.autoexpress.co.uk

My word. You must get brilliant MPG from your motorhome.

 

[tabbert ffb]

Yes my hubby says he used to put some petrol in his lorry tank with the diesel to stop it freezing, crack on! As said by Happy Jim top up with diesel and head out!

Your right 4 ltrs of petrol no problem , just keep topping diesel up , but remember to change fuel filter next service, its not a problem

 

[Robinpompey]

I once put about 15 litres of petrol in my cars tank that was over half full. Drove it with no adverse problems. Did stop at each motorway services and topped up the tank to dilute the petrol. Four litres in a tank the size on a motorhome would have little effect.

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[daveclare]

Ooops didn't quite work. Once RAC realised nothing had been sorted he sent these guys who took us to Fiat Professional who got us on the road to this amazing 12th to 18th century Royal city of Olite on the Pamplona to Zaragoza Road, magical. Apologies text should have been with pics

Enjoy a relaxing drink in Olite. Stunning castle. Stopped there on the way back from Eurolambretta Spain, on a 60 year old Lambretta.

 

[Lenny HB]

I did manage to put £35 worth of diesel in to my new 1600GT BMW bike.
I was looking for the "Ultimate" tag and didn't notice the very small "diesel".
Only as the tank brimmed did I notice the darker colour.
Garage said I was the third that day at that garage.
Arranged for sucking out and replace. All told around £150 but as I hadn't started bike no harm done.
Seems companies have no incentive to make it less easy to make a mistake.

I take a bike doesn't have a small filler like cars?
Impossible to do it on a modern car, you could on pre unleaded ones.

 

[Spriddler]

I use a local garage selling zero ethanol for my old Brit m/bikes, diesel for the m/h and the car is petrol.
I must look a bit odd as with each vehicle I always stand talking to myself at the pump.......

"Now, this is the car and it uses petrol........car, petrol...........car, petrol, ........check".

 

[airwave]

4 litres of petrol went into the 3/4 ful tank !!!

I sympathize , with your predicament , i've did exactly the same , years ago . The difference was i brimmed the tank , from almost empty . I even started the engine and moved the car , only for it to stall . Very strange as despite the car being old , it was normally ridiculously reliable . Realising what i had done , and after i stopped calling myself a few choice words , i called a local garage in Launceston . Who recovered the car , emptied the tank , and then put enough diesel in the tank for me to reach the garage . Took about 2 hours , including recovery , but cost me the thick end of 200 quid , however that was in Devon .
I don't think it caused any issues , in fact the garage told me , i would have an ultra clean fuel system (petrol is a good diesel cleaner) , and indeed the car did run fine afterwards . However a problem showed up about a year later , where i ended up overhauling the fuel system . The car took to stalling a lot , and like i said it was normally very reliable . An injector specialist found what he called , "gloop" in the injector pump . Now i never actually saw it so i can't comment further , cleaned out , the car still runs today .

Now i would agree in the main with many of the others . 4 litres in a 60 litre tank shouldn't cause any issues , in fact i would do exactly that with mine , just keep the tank topped up , probably add redex to the fuel system a bit more than normal . When i started trucking we used to deliberately put petrol in a diesel tank to prevent it from freezing . Of course you now know there's a but coming don't ya , and i'm afraid there is . Diesels have moved on , my van is old generation , and the trucks i'm talking of certainly were . This modern breed of diesel , are a different animal , they are designed for a low sulphur fuel , so my advice would be very careful .

I can't really add any more to that , normally i wouldn't post on this thread because to be brutally honest , i don't know . I just wanted to caution you on those facts , if the motor is post 2000 , be very careful .

 

[Wyvern]

The RACs own website used to say that 5% petrol in a diesel tank won’t cause any problems and you can bet there is a margin for error built into that as well. I would not have bothered with a recovery and just pushed on and refilled after a quarter empty twice to be on the safe side.

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[Stuart Bloom]

I take a bike doesn't have a small filler like cars?
Impossible to do it on a modern car, you could on pre unleaded ones.

We haven't made the fuelling error but had a similar experience regarding breakdown services sending unsuitable vehicles despite being told exactly how big our vehicle was. And that was the AA, in England. We had a clutch slave cylinder fail at Tamworth and it took them nearly 24 hours to get us back to Sheffield, via a succession of recovery vehicles, some way too small and useless and others only able to take us a short way and then passing us on to another service, as their contractors seem to have tightly defined territories and won't take you the full distance.

 

[FatNav]

Ooops didn't quite work. Once RAC realised nothing had been sorted he sent these guys who took us to Fiat Professional who got us on the road to this amazing 12th to 18th century Royal city of Olite on the Pamplona to Zaragoza Road, magical. Apologies text should have been with pics

Put a pint of engine oil in the tank that will compensate for the petrol

 

[airwave]

Can i add another caution here ,

i filled a heavy at a shell garage a few weeks ago , and i noticed the add blue pump looked exactly the same as the diesel pumps . Now this was on the truck bunkering side , but i think this should be noted , because quite simply i worked for a company where the driver did actually fill the main tank with add blue .

The truck did run for a short period , but needed a wrecker to finish the trip . The repair costs ran into several thousand pounds , as significant damage had been caused to the fuel system , and the driver nearly lost his job over the incident .

 

[monzer]

I don't think I've read a thread before with so many paople repeating exactly what all the others have said

 

[Trelou]

Enjoy a relaxing drink in Olite. Stunning castle. Stopped there on the way back from Eurolambretta Spain, on a 60 year old Lambretta.

Yes Olite was stunning, particularly in the evening

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[Trelou]

Thank all, lots of similar advice so we know what to do if happens again.

 

[Nothern Soul]

24 hrs and waiting for pick up truck to take us to the Fiat Professional in Pamplona !!! Silly momentary mistake of 4 litres of petrol went into the 3/4 ful tank !!! Many phone calls later a truck came but was too small for our 7.5 mtr motorhome. That was yesterday!! Every phone call promised a truck, none came. Resigned to to fact we had to not move the van again, spent the night at the rear of the service station after the promise of a 8am pick up, still here!!! More phone calls!! Just had a call from RAC to asked if we've been seen, assessed, or had a call from anyone, nothing, we said. He was very surprised to hear that and said he'd sort it. I so hope he does, we're getting so stressed about it. We wouldn't believe it if it wasn't happening to us now. We live in hope

A cup of engine oil then top up with Diesel you could just carry on did myself on a hire car guy at the garage said here gave us engine oil then we topped up did another 7 days running that car no problem. We all live n learn eh.

 

[Nothern Soul]

A cup of engine oil then top up with Diesel you could just carry on did myself on a hire car guy at the garage said here gave us engine oil then we topped up did another 7 days running that car no problem. We all live n learn eh.

 

[Armytwowheels]

My word. You must get brilliant MPG from your motorhome.

My word. You must get brilliant MPG from your motorhome.

100 kilometers, I.e 60 miles.

 

[maison]

100 kilometers, I.e 60 miles.

OK.

it can be read as 100,000. ie 100k

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[Wildbill]

It will clean you injectors top up drive on.
Bill

 

[Richard J]

OK, so posting for a friend… 100litres petrol into 20 litres diesel in a DucatoX290 at home but didn’t realise It was running a bit rough for the first 100 miles (urgent airport drop off) but the Fiat Pro shop in Bristol said they could look at it in 2 weeks… drove on another 200 miles to destination and the lovely people at the Watford Fiat pro looked at it, sniffed the tank and asked if was sure it was diesel not petrol - oops. Needed a washout and new injectors. The irony was that got 5 mpg more on petrol, but not much of an offset…

 

[Tio64]

I don't think I've read a thread before with so many paople repeating exactly what all the others have said

Agreed, but I am concerned that most of the advice is completely out of date imo, and the consequences of being wrong are very expensive.

Forget all the stuff about what people did in the past - as someone has already said, modern common rail diesel fuel systems operate at very high pressures indeed and rely on the diesel fuel for lubrication. A gob of petrol going through can cause serious damage.

I do agree that 4 litres in an otherwise tank full of diesel should be OK... but it won't be any of us paying the bull if we're wrong.

Sounds like the OP is sorted out now anyway, but I thought it only fair to comment on what people did in the past.

 

[Wildbill]

OK, so posting for a friend… 100litres petrol into 20 litres diesel in a DucatoX290 at home but didn’t realise It was running a bit rough for the first 100 miles (urgent airport drop off) but the Fiat Pro shop in Bristol said they could look at it in 2 weeks… drove on another 200 miles to destination and the lovely people at the Watford Fiat pro looked at it, sniffed the tank and asked if was sure it was diesel not petrol - oops. Needed a washout and new injectors. The irony was that got 5 mpg more on petrol, but not much of an offset…

I would have just put disel in it and seen how the injectors performed not like patrol would dissolve them
Bill

 

[Trelou]

Agreed, but I am concerned that most of the advice is completely out of date imo, and the consequences of being wrong are very expensive.

Forget all the stuff about what people did in the past - as someone has already said, modern common rail diesel fuel systems operate at very high pressures indeed and rely on the diesel fuel for lubrication. A gob of petrol going through can cause serious damage.

I do agree that 4 litres in an otherwise tank full of diesel should be OK... but it won't be any of us paying the bull if we're wrong.

Sounds like the OP is sorted out now anyway, but I thought it only fair to comment on what people did in the past.

Thanks, yes we are sorted, dealt with Fiat Professional, we are just getting on with our travels with no worries of problems viz fuel. Happy travels everyone.

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[dayo]

Only put 4 litres in won't hurt your engine, go ahead and drive it adding diesel as you can. I put over 40 litres of petrol into a 85 litre tank which was almost empty before realising filled up with diesel and then over the next week kept topping up. Absolutely no problem, that was back in 2019 in Spain and vehicle is fine. Important thing if you hear any preignition a pinging sound reduce the pressure on the accelerator pedal, just don't push it and it will be fine. My experience I'm a fully qualified motor engineer, experienced on diesel and petrol power units.

4 litres no problem. I did exactly the same, 38 litres of petrol in a 80 litre tank of diesel, I was assured by the French garage that it would be absolutely no problem,and it wasn’t. That was at 10,000 miles and I sold it at 52,000 miles and it was still ruining perfectly. NOW the other way round and you have got problems!!!