Update

[chello]

About five months ago I posted that I had mistakenly put 42 litres of petrol into the 80 litre tank of my 2,8 year 2000 bessacarr, I said at that time that had continued driving and topping up the diesel every time it would take a gallon or two,it was obviously a bit worrying at the time,i said I would update when I had done a few thousand miles.I am pleased to say I had no problems and if its possible the engine seems to run better than ever,is it possible it could have had a bit of a cleaning effect, but I think I really think I am trouble free

[Derek Uzzell]

This is the earlier forum thread

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Fuel/50719/

 

Advice from a USA website is as floows:

 

PUTTING GASOLINE IN DIESEL FUEL

 

Let’s say you accidentally drop a small amount of gasoline into your diesel fuel. The first thing it’s going to do is depress the flash point of the diesel, which can be dangerous given that pockets of higher concentrations of gasoline can develop in a tank. So the flash point wouldn’t be consistent throughout the entire tank.

 

Given the large difference in flash point temperature between gas and diesel, it doesn’t take very much gasoline to depress the flash temperature significantly. As little as 1% gasoline contamination will lower the diesel flash point by 18 degrees C. This means the diesel fuel will prematurely ignite in the diesel engine, which can lead to engine damage.

 

Gasoline contamination can also damage the fuel pump and mess up diesel injectors. This happens because of a drop in lubrication. Simply speaking, gasoline is a solvent while diesel is an oil. Diesel has enough lubricity to lubricate the fuel pumps and the injectors. Swapping in some gasoline takes away this lubrication, leading to damage.

 

Beyond these, you’ll get incomplete combustion, initially characterized by large amounts of black smoke. Beyond being an aesthetic problem, the vehicle’s computer will try to compensate for this combustion lack by adjusting the fuel-air mixture. This is going to cut your power and performance considerably. And if you continue to use the fuel, you can cause real damage to the vehicle’s computer sensors by either overheating them or covering them in soot such that they can’t detect anything.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE - DON’T DRIVE IT

 

Because it's impossible to know exactly how much of the wrong kind of fuel is in your tank and fuel system, the bottom line advice is that if you have good reason to believe you (or someone else) put the wrong kind of fuel in your gasoline or diesel engine, you need to have it towed to a mechanic's garage where they can remedy the problem.

 

Once at the gareage, they will remove all of the fuel from the filter and flush the system to remove the problem fuel.

 

Some might respond with well, my ________ (fill in with friend, coworker, relative, general practitioner) accidently got some in his tank, and he drove it and it was just fine.

 

In those situations, there's no way to know how your situation compares to theirs (and human nature is such that we always want to minimize our description of potential problems if it stems from a mistake that we're responsible for). If you drive the vehicle after you think the wrong fuel has been dispensed, you've been warned. We recommend that you don't take that chance in any case.

 

I note that (in the earlier forum thread) you said

 

“...I mistakenly put 22 litres of petrol in my diesel tank,a moment of panic, then I filled the tank with diesel, this meant I had a quarter of petrol in my tank”

 

In that thread Deneb opined that "You should be OK with a diesel of that age” and you seem to have got away with it.

 

HOWEVER, if you had put 42 litres of petrol in an 80-litre diesel tank and then driven your motorhome, I’m pretty sure you’d have rapidly regretted it.

[chello]

Sorry, it was 22 litres, not 44.