E30 Zone

Just stuck £15 of diesel in car.Know ive got to drain tank but do i need to flush complete fuel system and if so how?.Will change plugs and filter.Trouble is tank was near on empty and i started engine ,is this going to cause bigger probs.Oh and just to top it all off noise from rear wheel is back.

Recently on 5th Gear, they did a test with a couple of old astras. Both ran pretty well on the wrong fuel.

to drain the tank and flush the lines out (at the same time) you can disconnect the fuel filter and run a hose into a suitable container, and run 12volts directly to the fuel pump. then put petrol in the tank and run it for a while.

new filter should be fitted. not sure about plugs.

im sure all they did was drain the tank and refill it with the correct fuel and it ran fine once the diesel in the pipes had cleared. didnt it run fine even when they didnt drain the tank and just mixed in the correct fuel when they filled it up?

Putting diesel in a petrol car is no biggie really. Just get the worst of it out and fill up with a tank of petrol. Should be fine.

It;s doing it the other way around that's a problem. If you run petrol through a modern diesel engine is a very expensive business as they reckon you have to replace most of the fuel system

Ian.

if you drain everything you should be fine i actually put 30 pounds worth of diesel in a 325i i had a cpl of yrs ago i didnt start it but went mental when i see the wrong pump in my hand i was a little Stoned i suppose but hey i drained it all out as it was a run round didnt even really flush it but would if i was u i emptied it then filled it with fuel right to the top and injector cleaner was added.
It continued to smoke for a bit but still run sweet as a nut once uve gone thru a few tanks of fuel you should have no problems just run it all out the system!!

good luck and dont worry to much dude its so easy to cock up sometimes and worry like mad especially with older cars like we have lol.
hope that helps a bit ian.

i think Kos recently did this

he told me that he disconnected the fuel line before the filter removed the sprarks and cranked the fucker over for 3 minutes. job jobbed

Thanks all,took a big weight off my mind,had visions of having to replace engine.Was going to change all filters anyway so already got them.
Anyone want £15 of diesel, only £10 lol.

gooner1 wrote: Anyone want £15 of diesel, only £10 lol.

How much to post it ??

ED

Forgot to ask what with do iflush tank with or is it just a case of putting
injector cleaner in it?.

Don't worry about it! Won't do any harm whatsoever.
Whenever I go to my brother-in-laws place I often come away with a petrol tank with a couple of gallons of this mix in!
What do you think happens to the mix that a garage/AA/RAC drain out of a tank. I assure you it doesn't get wasted!
Car will be fine if you just fill the rest of the tank with petrol, but ideally, get the diesel out first.
Still no need to waste the mix. Just add it a little at a time when the tank has a decent amount of petrol in it.

I once filled up a Ford Excective (showing my age now ) to the brim, drove home from Tidworth to Swansea with a lot of back firing and smoke but no damage done just huge embarassment, kept topping up with petrol to try to dilute the diesel

Cant undo fuel drain plug for love nor money and cant get hose down into tank to syphon tank.There is a rubber pipe connected to the filler cap pipe(metal).If i was to dissconec this pipe could i then pass tube into rubber pipe and into tank and syphon it that way?.

Save the hassle, just fill it up with petrol, job done. Like the others have said, don't bother draining it.....

Fill the remainder of the tank with petrol and get going

I once had a Polo that never ran on anything else but mix and it loved it



If you want to get the diesel out you could lift the rear seat, remove the fuel pump cover plate, dissconnect the outlet from the pump and atatch a length of hose leading into a can/pop bottle or whatever and turn the ignition on

DanThe wrote:, remove the fuel pump cover plate, dissconnect the outlet from the pump and atatch a length of hose leading into a can/pop bottle or whatever and turn the ignition on

Turning the ignition on won't work. Fuel pump only runs when the ECU sees data from the crank position sensor. I.E. Crank must be turning.
Far easier (but still unnecessary) to disconnect the fuel feed pipe at the fuel rail, feed this into a can, and jump pins 30 and 87 of the pump relay.

keith52 wrote:I once filled up a Ford Excective (showing my age now ) to the brim, drove home from Tidworth to Swansea with a lot of back firing and smoke but no damage done just huge embarassment, kept topping up with petrol to try to dilute the diesel

thats hilarious Keith! lol

I had a small fuel leak and when turning on the ignition (but not cranking) the pump would spin up briefly and cut out when the system was pressurised.
This is the only E30 ive had which does it, but it is also the latest one ive had.
Never looked into how it does this

Brianmoooore wrote: disconnect the fuel feed pipe at the fuel rail, feed this into a can, and jump pins 30 and 87 of the pump relay.

Yep - there was a bunch of us after Gaydon a couple of years back that was helping out a fello E30 owner that had filled the tank to the brim with diesel - we jumped these numberd pins to run the fuel pump and with the fuel line dissconnected and run into a storm drain (sorry to eviro tree huggers) the tank was drained in about 15mins - no harm came to the engine either.
Would fully recomend a cleaner additive at some stage though.

Neil.

Well thanks to all the help given here ,she,s up and running.Bit smokey for first few miles but soon cleared.Talk about bad luck coming in threes though,while car was up on axlestands overnight a neighbour ran into the passenger front wheel arch and crumpled it,Worst part about it was they was,nt going to say fcuk all but admittedit after i ponted out the tyre lettering imprinted neatly on their back bumper complete with big splash of red paint.Hadnt even got the brains to clean it off.Pity it was a woman though,just felt in the mood to slap someone.Nice n calm now after a good drive,Thanks again all.

Brianmoooore wrote:

DanThe wrote:, remove the fuel pump cover plate, dissconnect the outlet from the pump and atatch a length of hose leading into a can/pop bottle or whatever and turn the ignition on

Turning the ignition on won't work. Fuel pump only runs when the ECU sees data from the crank position sensor. I.E. Crank must be turning.
Far easier (but still unnecessary) to disconnect the fuel feed pipe at the fuel rail, feed this into a can, and jump pins 30 and 87 of the pump relay.

Just to update, I noticed the fuel pump cut in until pressurised on my M50 conversion yesterday, so this doesnt need signal from the crank sensor.

Im near enough certain it was the same with the M40 engine in

DanThe wrote:

Brianmoooore wrote:

DanThe wrote:, remove the fuel pump cover plate, dissconnect the outlet from the pump and atatch a length of hose leading into a can/pop bottle or whatever and turn the ignition on

Turning the ignition on won't work. Fuel pump only runs when the ECU sees data from the crank position sensor. I.E. Crank must be turning.
Far easier (but still unnecessary) to disconnect the fuel feed pipe at the fuel rail, feed this into a can, and jump pins 30 and 87 of the pump relay.

Just to update, I noticed the fuel pump cut in until pressurised on my M50 conversion yesterday, so this doesnt need signal from the crank sensor.

Im near enough certain it was the same with the M40 engine in

It just runs for a short burst. Nothing to do wilth fuel pressure. (Can't be.There's no fuel pressure sensor).