In the "Car Doctor" column of the Providence paper today, some guy wrote in about his nephew pumping two gallons of diesel into his Toyota Highlander....cost of repair, etc.... The response begins, "Putting diesel fuel in a vehicle that requires gasoline is certainly not as serious as putting gasoline in a diesel engine."

I was somehow under the impression that the opposite was the case: that putting diesel in a gas engine was worse. Anyone care to comment? Thanks.

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 157k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 175k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 144k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 70k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Diesel simply doesn't burn in a g@s engine. Worst case, if you put in enough and then try to run it out it might foul the cat.
G@soline in a diesel basically explodes in the combustion chamber and strips lubrication from the injection system parts.

only 2 gallons of diesel in a gasser with a 17gallon capacity is very little. I don't think it would do much harm. a full tank, of diesel in a gasser, would require draining the tank, lines, etc. and filling with gas. purging the fuel rails, and burning off the diesel in the system... smokey. perhaps plugging the cat...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I had a gasser ford for a while. It was one of the first unleaded. Ran low on petrol one day, all I had where I was is diesel, started the car, put 2gal of diesel in it so I figure 50/50 mix, headed for town & the petrol station, ran like a dog, pinged bad if I put my foot down, blew a bit of smoke. Got to the gas station, turned it off, it kept dieseling on. Filled it with unleaded with it running. Paid for the gas & drove off. No probs all back to normal.

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

My son filled my 67 Jeepster with diesel once. He came home and said the jeep was not running right. I came out and found it would only run with the choke pulled. Smoked like a bug smogger. I figured out what he did and so we filled it with gas and it was fine. no cat though.

I wouldn't wanna try it with a newer car though.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I borrowed a friends truck to haul a trailer, an older Chevy silverado diesel. I was young, (18) at the time and knew almost nothing about cars. Anyways I got about 50 miles and had to stop to fill it up. The truck said diesel everywhere. The fuel gauge, the filler neck etc... So that's what I filler it up with. I made it about 2 miles before she puked. What he forgot to tell me was he had pulled out the diesel and had a fuel injected 350 in there instead...

Spent the next 11 hours at a truck stop while they drained the system, and got it all cleaned up and refilled with gas...

That's a great story!
I once pulled up to a pump and, not paying attention, pumped 14 gallons of kerosene into my 240D. Car never ran better!

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"Life is tough...it's even tougher if you're stupid." John Wayne


Dave
Pawleys Island, SC

'79 300CD

So what is it about kerosene that made it run better? Isn't it like jet fuel?

Kerosene is no 1 fuel oil, diesel is no 2 fuel oil. Jet fuel is basically modified kerosene. All will work in a diesel but kerosene, and jet fuel do not lubricate the IP as well, and should not be used for that reason, however one tank should not do any harm.

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1977 240D turbo

I would think it would clean out your engine etc pretty good at the same time....

Sad but true. As my Father's years advanced and with the onset of dementia and alzheimers ( we were unaware of this at the time) He took his beloved
85300SD to fill the tank at his favorite station he had used for over 20 years
and promptly started pumping gasoline into it. He drove home ( 1.5 miles ) without incidence. After getting home the phone rang and it was the owner of the station who saw Dad finish pumping and tried to stop him before he left the station but dad was gone. Anyway Dad took it to his favorite Indie and they
drained the tank, lines etc. That was about 10-15 years ago and no problems!

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92 500E Silver 66k
82 Porsche 911SC 84K
68 Cadillac ( Gone Now )
03 Suburban Z71 200K
85 300SD 217k From Original Owner ( Dad )

My wife once put gas in the 240D and drove a couple of miles to the store. It wouldn't restart when she came out, so she had it towed to our Indy. He figured out what happened and flushed out the system, the engine was fine. I think she just wasn't paying attention and/or forgot which car she was driving.

A couple of gallons of diesel in a tank of gasoline would be a little similar to using the gas-oil blend that 2-stroke engines use. It would make the engine smoke but probably would do no long-term damage. As was previously said, newer engines might be very unhappy as their smog systems would come unglued (especially if it was biodiesel, which will dissolve glue ).

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

is it even possible to put diesel in a gas tank? being that the diesel nozzles are larger diameter than the gas ones and will not fit.

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1993 e300
1995 e320
1994 e320
2006 s500 4matic
2004 Jeep wj overland
2001 Ducati 748
2004 Honda shadow aero

Some of the truck stop diesel nozzles won't even fit a diesel car filler neck.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012