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polinsteve
11th July 2014, 21:12
My sister filled her 2003 diesel 75 with petrol and managed to drive about 5 miles. The AA sorted her out and she was able to drive home but it was apparent that the car was overheating and blew out the water.

The mechanic she uses has told her that the head gasket has gone. Is this likely and if so, what would be a reasonable price to replace it? I have no other details regarding oil in water or water in oil.

I am just dubious about the diagnosis.

Thanks
klarzy
11th July 2014, 21:15
My sister filled her 2003 diesel 75 with petrol and managed to drive about 5 miles. The AA sorted her out and she was able to drive home but it was apparent that the car was overheating and blew out the water.

The mechanic she uses has told her that the head gasket has gone. Is this likely and if so, what would be a reasonable price to replace it? I have no other details regarding oil in water or water in oil.

I am just dubious about the diagnosis.

Thanks

More than likely as the petrol will burn hotter and with more pressure....
most of the HGF's I have read about for petrols come in at circa 4-600 quid I am afraid... not sure if that correlated to a diesel but I would no be surprised...
lovema75
11th July 2014, 21:23
Its unlikely to have done the injector system much good either.
Dragrad
11th July 2014, 23:50
Not good reading...

http://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/wrong-fuel-advice.html

And the RAC concur ;)
polinsteve
12th July 2014, 06:19
Oh dear! Any idea how much time is required to swap out the engine? there is one on fleabay for £350 but it depends on fitting costs as to whether it is a viable option. Healthwise now I can't do it unfortunately.

A very expensive error. They bought the car on my advise about 4 years ago as a stopgap at a very good price and liked it so much they decided to keep it. Time to look for another I think.
OddSox
12th July 2014, 06:51
Back in 2000 i was a delivery driver driving a diesel mercedes sprinter van when i accidentally filled up with a full tank of unleaded. The van drove for about a mile then packed up.
Called recovery out who took the van to the depot and drained the tank and re-fueled with diesel. No problems at all and the van went on to cover over 250K. The depot mechanic told me that the unleaded will actually do the engine some good.

Not sure if different engines have different tollerences or i was just lucky.?
mystabe
13th July 2014, 02:19
How much diesel was in the tank and how much unleaded was put in? It's probably not good tbh - I put £7 of unleaded in a PD VW diesel once, realised and filled it up with another £40 of diesel and got away with it despite what the internet said..... £50 of unleaded in a diesel with a few litres of diesel in it driven 5 miles isn't really going to end well on the other hand :(
OddSox
13th July 2014, 12:49
As i said in my post it was a FULL tank of unleaded, the tank was virtually empty.
How can it not be good when the van went on to do over 250K with no issues what so ever?
James.uk
13th July 2014, 14:07
Most diesel engines will be fine after having the wrong fuel put in. Draining and refilling with the right fuel should sort them.

Petrol is too volatile a fuel for the high compression diesel engines, that's why they can't run on it. It goes BANG before top dead center innit... :o
...
polinsteve
13th July 2014, 15:28
About 3/4 tank of petrol! She's had a quote of £750- £1000 with no guarantee that other items connected with fuel system haven't been compromised. As the car has done 215,000 miles she has decided to scrap. A shame as it was a nice drive.

Thanks for all the answers
klarzy
13th July 2014, 15:41
About 3/4 tank of petrol! She's had a quote of £750- £1000 with no guarantee that other items connected with fuel system haven't been compromised. As the car has done 215,000 miles she has decided to scrap. A shame as it was a nice drive.

Thanks for all the answers

It may be worth emptying the tank, refilling with fresh diesel, adding a new fuel filter and filling it initially with injector cleaner and turning over for 30 seconds.
Leave for an hour (charge the battery to max)and then try to run the car..

You never know it may run and it has cost you 20 quid...:shrug:

worse case you can break the car for parts and sell them to members which is keeping parts of the car in use and will put much more money in your pocket than just scrapping it..
You may be surprised and get back enough to buy a cheaper replacement..
polinsteve
13th July 2014, 22:49
That has been done. It starts ok but blows the water out and is very sluggish. She and her husband are not mechanically minded and it is too far off for me to help.
mystabe
14th July 2014, 15:32
As i said in my post it was a FULL tank of unleaded, the tank was virtually empty.
How can it not be good when the van went on to do over 250K with no issues what so ever?

Calm down - the engine will be fine, whether the fuel system will be is another matter, older diesels can cope with more than is usually advised on the internet, (although not on a regular basis) newer ones can't. A mile should be ok but you'll need a FULL service, scrapping the car is a bit ott tbh :shrug: