V50 General : I am an idiot, wrong fuel and aftermath

[Bigchewie]

So long story short i stuck a tank of ultimate unleaded in my D3, I am a tool, had the wee one (9months ) and was trying to get her/keep her sleeping, anyhow only realised when car started coughing and spluttering and I pulled over to a stop (2.4miles from the forecourt) got the AA out to recover me and drain take etc. htis was yesterday, took it too fill up stuck a fresh tank of Diesel in, after restarting, had two issues, one got a managment light on, (Catalyst Temp Sensor Circuit High Bank 1 Sensor 1) Now I took that to be petrol passing through and it burns hotter does that make sense?

Forgot to add ran TOrque on way home from getting filter well last 100yds as i minded and it showed, cat sensor temps Bank1Sensor1 - 211degC Bank1Sensor2-1002degC ( I trust the fault read outs for which sensor is high.)

Any how cleared that but the other thing when coming back from fuel station, I took it out of the town onto an a class road and found it to be v sluggish. I have since when and bought a fuel filter this afternoon from Euro,as even it is not that causing the sluggishness, (hope to hell it is) it will be sensible to change as the petrol will have cleaned the tank a bit I think. I had been going to drive to dundee tonight in it (150ish mile roundtrip ) as i thought it would do it good but after seeing how poor the performance is(struggled to get to 70mph going to get Fule filter) I will take the M3 instead. The other reason i was going to take the V50 was to burn off some fuel as Haynes reckons you should be below 3/4 of a tank for changing the fuel fliter. Anyone confirm or disprove this?

Any advice/insight or pointing and laughing welcome

[tt82]

My dad did similar in his C30 D5. No issues running afterwards but when changing the filter, only the fuel in the fiter drained out. The rest is pumped in via the pump in the tank. We had to keep switching the ignition on and off to pump it all out. So not sure whether how full the tank is has any effect!

[canis]

I did this once, in a Mercedes lorry. Because it wasn't mine (belonged to the boss) I never really knew too much about it, but it was a five cylinder diesel engine, had an unmistakable whine when driving.

I could explain the point of confusion, but it was all to do with filler cap being on the wrong side and having to move pumps and the nozzles being a different order, and it'd be easy to see why the mistake occured, but despite all the excuse making, I idiotically put in petrol instead and only noticed the error on the next roundabout about half a mile down the road. It gradually got slower and slower until it failed to run at all.

The boss sent out the other driver, in the other van, the one I'd been expecting to be using and whose filler cap was on the other side, and we towed it back to my house.

To rectify the situation, I didn't really do very much. I drained out as much petrol as I could, into cans and buckets and anything else I had available, then added just a small amount of diesel, maybe half a pint or so. Started the engine on that and ran it for a few minutes.

Smoke billowed out, but gradually as the diesel burned it took some of the petrol with it. After allowing that to run out, I repeated the small quantitiy of diesel technique to further dilute the remaining petrol until there was practically nothing left, and the exhaust stopped smoking.

I didn't notice any difference afterwards. It was just as underpowered as it had been before. I don't know if this story helps or reassures you in any way, but my expectation was then (and is now) that the petrol doesn't really burn in a diesel engine unless there's enough diesel to ignite it. Because diesel engines are built to withstand compression ignition (which obviously has to occur much earlier before TDC) they have to be stronger.

Whether the partially burned petrol will have poluted the catalitytic converter I cannot say, it was a long time ago and the lorry didn't have one. But I'd guess the engine will be okay.

[Bigchewie]

Originally Posted by tt82

My dad did similar in his C30 D5. No issues running afterwards but when changing the filter, only the fuel in the fiter drained out. The rest is pumped in via the pump in the tank. We had to keep switching the ignition on and off to pump it all out. So not sure whether how full the tank is has any effect!

Cheers for the replies guys. With regard to the filter I meant if I pull the filter with a full tank of diesel am I going to lose a quarter of a tank or however much. Sorry if I wasn't clear there

[tt82]

Based on my experience, it doesn't seem to matter how full the tank is but I can't be certain!

[Bigchewie]

Originally Posted by canis

I didn't notice any difference afterwards. It was just as underpowered as it had been before. I don't know if this story helps or reassures you in any way, but my expectation was then (and is now) that the petrol doesn't really burn in a diesel engine unless there's enough diesel to ignite it. Because diesel engines are built to withstand compression ignition (which obviously has to occur much earlier before TDC) they have to be stronger.

Whether the partially burned petrol will have poluted the catalitytic converter I cannot say, it was a long time ago and the lorry didn't have one. But I'd guess the engine will be okay.

I agree on the strength of diesel engine being stronger. Cheers for the story. I think the partially burned petrol could be contaminating the catalytic convertor and acting like a pollutant. Hopefully once car regens and solves this. I never cleared the code this afternoon and am interested to see if it shows in the morning. I think it will but will see

[Bigchewie]

Update, checked the temps of the cat sensors this morning, stone cold and one reading 76, and the other 1000deg C so faulty sensor I think/hope will get to that later though, as first task was fuel filter, got it off no issues new one on, fitted new one and i had forgot everything i had read on here / haynes etc and stuck the seal in the groove on removable cap not the housing, but seriously I cannot get the seal in the right position to run cap back on, tips? sat down at PC with a coffee to keep me sane and to re read some of the threads on this subject.

[Bigchewie]

So quick update, fuel filter fitted, seal had to go in the cap as not an o ring as on other models, had to line up a tab ont eh seal so it fitted a notch on the housing body, the notch is on fwd side of the housing and lined it up off starter thread on the cap (hope this helps someone)

Also done some troubleshooting on the Cat temp sensors, rear one (handily most visible in Engine bay) is shot so going to head to scrappy to see if i can pick one up I think similar age 5cyl diesels have the same sensors.

http://www.skandix.de/en/spare-parts...ature/1038530/

that is the sensor I need

[bokabil]

Can happen to anyone... lots of grief for a moment of inattention.

As for me, I read the nozzle label not once but twice, double check which box the hose leads to before putting it in. I even keep the receipt til the next fill 'just in case' the mistake is on the underground tanks.

[Bigchewie]

Originally Posted by bokabil

Can happen to anyone... lots of grief for a moment of inattention.

As for me, I read the nozzle label not once but twice, double check which box the hose leads to before putting it in. I even keep the receipt til the next fill 'just in case' the mistake is on the underground tanks.

to be honest I usually double check what i am taking but still kicking myself now