Petrol in a Diesel Car

[SIMON H]

Can anyone help, I have a Audi A 4 2.0 170 BHP which for the last
250 miles has been running around with about 8 litres of Petrol in a
full tank of Diesel. ( Don't ask,) whilst the Car seams to be running
okay at the moment will it cause any long term harm to the Car. The
tank is now 65% full should I fill the Car with more Diesel or run it as
low as possible and then refill. Can anyone tell me if I need to get the
Diesel/Petrol mix out of the Tank and if so what is the easiest way to
get it out?

Awaiting your help.

Simon H

[MalcQV]

Not an expert, but I believe that adding some petrol to diesel can help prevent it gelling in very cold weather.

I think the best thing to do is fill it up. That way you are diluting the petrol content.

[stuart]

I think if it was going to cause a problem, it would have started showing signs by now, but 8 lts in a full tank is a small percentage.

I agree with the above, keep filling it up, the more you do the more it will dilute the remaining petrol, I imagine.

Stuart

[JR001]

Put 5L in by accident last month, into 1.9TDI. Phones AA for advice - they said 5L is their recommended limit before resorting to a full tank siphoning.
Yes, you would have noticed problems by now.
I was recommended to drive 50 miles or so and continue to top up with diesel. Get a quiet road and do some braking and accelerating to help mix the two.
Should be okay.

Did you drive into petrol station and look for black-hosed pump by any chance? That's what I did, except the cheap-skate garage had black hoses on most of their petrol and diesel pumps.

Cheers,

[devonutopia]

I heard it was good for short term power to stick 2 litres of petrol in with a full tank of diesel. In my case this is 45 litres and around 5%. I should imagine if any long term damage were to be done, it would be to injectors and fuel pumps. My advice would be to buy some Millers Diesel Sport 4 diesel additive and use it in strong doses (x2 normal) for the next few fill-ups and this will help lubricate/cleanse the fuel pumps and injectors. Might be worth swapping the fuel filter while your at it. :)

[Gogsy]

I've also done this trick and blame senility. I put about six litres in. Apart from a slightly raised idle, there were no ill effects. I ran it gently until the tank was empty, having considered the regular top up option. As it happened I was going to Cornwall on that tankful so it was no effort to go a bit steadier on the M way.