Petrol in diesel tank

[RichardF]

Hi All,
My son has just 'phoned me from Denmark. He filled his van's almost empty diesel tank with petrol this morning, but didn't realise until he couldn't start it this evening.
He's supposed to catch a ferry fom Copenhagen tomorrow morning and is preparing to work all night if necessary.
He has syphoned out most of the petrol and is now removing the tank to empty it. He has also drained what he thinks is the fuel filter.
The van is 2003 T4, the engine is a 2.5 litre TDI, 75KW, and from what I can gather from him has a mechanical HP fuel system.
My questions are, if anyone can help,
1) does it have a mechanical or electric low pressure pump, and where is this?
2) where are the bleed points on the HP pump?
3) any helpful suggestions please?

Dick

[Oldiebut goodie]

Just put the diesel in now - it will run with petrol in the diesel, it's diesel in petrol cars that is a no go. Petrol is used in diesel in cold weather.I wouldn't bother with trying to get every drop out of the tank, turn it over till it starts, it will be lumpy for a bit, give it a while and Bob's your aunty's brother.

E D I T
Try the T4 forum on the Brickyard - someone on there will have done it to be sure!

[RichardF]

Thanks, I passed that on to him.
He reckons he has syphoned off 68 litres from the tank, having filled 65 this morning, so there shouldn't be much petrol left in there.
He's now filling up with as much diesel as possible, carting it from the service station down the road.
I'm waiting with bated breath to hear the outcome.

[Oldiebut goodie]

There are mixed reports on common rail diesels - some say that the slightest whiff of petrol messes them up yet others that have done it say that there are absolutely no ill effects. Get him to fill up the fuel filter with diesel also if he can. I presume he is stuck with the barest minimum of tools also!

[RichardF]

It started! He says it sounds unusually quiet. I suggested he changes the oil in case of dilution from unburnt petrol, but even that is not straightforward as he has to remove a plate under the sump first. I said change the oil anyway and leave the plates off when on roads.

I also persuaded him to take out some travel insurance or join equivalent of the AA - without mentioning today's problems, of course

[Oldiebut goodie]

There shouldn't be any petrol in the oil - it would be highly unlikely. It would have been chucked out of the exhaust and presumably the engine was hot so it evaporated quickly rather than pooling anywhere.(might get a bang in the exhaust though!!!) If you think about it, the diesel doesn't contaminate it normally.

[RichardF]

There shouldn't be any petrol in the oil - it would be highly unlikely.

I agree, BUT. Was driving through Yugoslavia in the '60's when a "service station" - actually a pile of drums in a field - filled up our Perkins P3 - engined Trojan van and topped up some cans with petrol, in spite of our asking clearly for "naft".

The engine stopped a couple of miles down the road, we diagnosed the problem, dumped 20 gallons or so of cocktail from the main tank onto the road, refilled it with known clean diesel, and drove back to the field.

We exchanged all the cocktail in the other fuel tank and in various cans for pure diesel and drove off again. I'll skip the argument over that .

About ten miles further down the road the engine stopped again, this time with very expensive sounding noises, and the starter motor wouldn't even turn it over. I eventually dropped the sump, which contained a nice collection of broken pistons, rods, and various other bits.

It was a pretty old engine, but I always put its failure down to the petrol.

The Trojan ? As far as I know it's still somewhere near Nis. We had quite a job getting out of the country without it, but that's another story.