Wife put petrol in her diesel, scrap it?

Iamzod · 30 Oct 2017 at 23:08

Wife just called me saying her car wouldn't start so I drove over to the car park she was stuck in, battery was dead.

Got the jump leads out & thought, hang on, it smells funny.

Turns out it has been filled with petrol & ran for about 4 miles, then parked up and cranked until battery is flat. Under the bonnet stinks of petrol so it is well and truly pumped through the fuel system.

It is a 2002 2.7 Common Rail Diesel (Same Inline 5 engine as the Mercedes ML270), is there a good chance it is totally shafted & not worth spending any money on?

Bearing in mind £1500 to £2k will get me another one in better condition, even the V8 with an LPG conversion.

Edit - forgot to say it's Jeep Grand Cherokee 2.7 CRD

hornetstinger · 30 Oct 2017 at 23:10

Empty the tank refill with diesel and see how it goes?

TallPaul1878 · 30 Oct 2017 at 23:12

Fix the car, scrap the wife

MissChief · 30 Oct 2017 at 23:56

For a 15 year old car, any repairs required, and it could need fuel pump(s), fuel pipes, injectors and quite a few other things, I'd just scrap it TBH. Then have a nice chat with your wife about the black handle and the green handle at the petrol station. I wouldn't be surprised if there's something under the fuel filler that also says 'Diesel only' or something as well.

xs2man · 31 Oct 2017 at 00:35

Surely old diesel engines will run on just about anything though? So a bit of petrol shouldn't really kill it.

Dr Who · 31 Oct 2017 at 01:15

Drain it, refill it, and see how it goes, likely in 4 miles it wont have trashed the pump yet in which case the injectors will be ok.

Akagi · 31 Oct 2017 at 01:53

As above. Known diesels to have been driven a good 25 miles or so and then drained and re-filled with diesel and they have been fine. Probably damaged something, but not enough to kill it. Just see how it goes.

theone8181 · 31 Oct 2017 at 07:40

I though one of the pumps was the wrong size and wouldnt go in the other (that may be diesel nozzle is bigger than petrol thinking about it).

Iamzod · 31 Oct 2017 at 07:40

xs2man said:
Surely old diesel engines will run on just about anything though? So a bit of petrol shouldn't really kill it.

Don't think it works like that for common rail engines. It was on empty and she filled it so it's more petrol with a bit of diesel in it.

Nasher · 31 Oct 2017 at 08:23

They should have made diesel nozzles/holes square. That would prevent it, because as we know the round object won't go in the square hole

Django x2 · 31 Oct 2017 at 08:31

I once, fell from grace and stuck £20 worth of petrol into my Discovery 4 which was completely empty bar maybe a litre of diesel. Realising my mistake, I brimmed the rest of the tank with Diesel. She was flawless for the remainder of my ownership with her but for the first 1k miles I never let it drop below half and kept it topped off with diesel.

Glanza · 31 Oct 2017 at 09:13

Drain and refill, at work one of the lads occasionally puts petrol in the van, top tank up with diesel and it's been fine since.

TacticalFish · 31 Oct 2017 at 09:30

hornetstinger said:
Empty the tank refill with diesel and see how it goes?

+1

TallPaul1878 said:
Fix the car, scrap the wife

+2

Dis86 · 31 Oct 2017 at 09:59

I believe this is why the words daft and bint were invented.

Junglist · 31 Oct 2017 at 10:23

theone8181 said:
I though one of the pumps was the wrong size and wouldnt go in the other (that may be diesel nozzle is bigger than petrol thinking about it).

Ha yes. I remember being with a friend a long time ago filling up at night. He had a Ford Ka and was accusing the petrol station of having a dodgy sized nozzle... so he then just squirted the 'petrol' in and wasn't until he tried to start the car he realised what he had done. Was quite funny. siphoned out the diesel, filled it up with petrol and it was OK.

Akagi · 31 Oct 2017 at 11:53

JunglistE said:
Ha yes. I remember being with a friend a long time ago filling up at night. He had a Ford Ka and was accusing the petrol station of having a dodgy sized nozzle... so he then just squirted the 'petrol' in and wasn't until he tried to start the car he realised what he had done. Was quite funny. siphoned out the diesel, filled it up with petrol and it was OK.

Its not so bad that way round.

wesley · 31 Oct 2017 at 13:17

TallPaul1878 said:
Fix the car, scrap the wife

Best option

Django x2 · 31 Oct 2017 at 13:26

Acme said:
Its not so bad that way round.

Which is ironic, given it's the diesel nozzle that are too large to fit in the petrol filler

Dr Who · 1 Nov 2017 at 10:44

Django x2 said:
Which is ironic, given it's the diesel nozzle that are too large to fit in the petrol filler

Not really, it stems from the days before dervs were everywhere and it stopped you putting leaded fuel in an unleaded car and destroying the cat. As it is impractical to go back and retrofit larger inlets for all the petrol tanks they have to rely on people not being idiots.

theone8181 · 1 Nov 2017 at 13:08

Dr Who said:
Not really, it stems from the days before dervs were everywhere and it stopped you putting leaded fuel in an unleaded car and destroying the cat. As it is impractical to go back and retrofit larger inlets for all the petrol tanks they have to rely on people not being idiots.

I see the problem

.