Oh dear, why did I do that.....

[Laverda Dave]

I went for a ride out this morning on the VFR before the storms arrive later on. I was supposed to be having an observed IAM ride tomorrow as well so thought I'd get some slow riding practice in, I can ride to a dead stop in traffic using the back brake and hold it but the IAM like to see you do a fiqure of eight from full lock and on a VFR with its weight being high up it does take some practice!

Anyway, after the 90 mile ride the fuel light started to flash so I thought I'd fill up ready for the early start in the morning and that's when the trouble started.........

I pulled into the Shell garage and thought I'd treat the bike to a tank of V-Max to give the injectors a clean. I don't normally use super unleaded so pulled up at the normal unleaded pump. Next to the green unleaded pump nozzle was the v-max nozzle so with my crash helmet still on I filled up having looked at the price of £1.48/litre which is about right for V-max. After filling the tank with 15 litres of fuel I paid and left. The bike died before I even got to the end of the forecourt. After checking the usual things I took my lid off and smelt the fuel in case it was off and this is when I heard a large penny drop...... I had filled up with diesel , how could I have been so stupid . If I had taken my lid off I would have smelt the diesel straight away when filling up. I ended up pushing the bike the two miles home complete with jacket, lid and wearing armoured jeans, I was in a walking sauna suit

Having never, ever done this before in 40+ years of riding and driving I felt like a complete idiot (amongst other more suitable descriptions!). I am now left with 15 litres of top-rated prime diesel in the fuel tank although my neighbour will have it if I can drain it down.
Question is, if I drain the fuel from the tank will I require a new fuel filter as well and will I have to drain the fuel from the fuel rail/injectors (its fuel injected). Having read the Haynes manual, if I need to work on the fuel rail I will need to remove the complete fuel injector system from the bike and if I disturb the fuel rail I will have to renew all the rubber seals between the rail and the injector bodies, this is starting to get expensive! I hope that by draining the tank, refilling with 5 litres of petrol this will be enough to get the engine started. Maybe I should remove the spark plugs and turn the engine over to purge the diesel from the fuel rail and injectors, its got to be easier than taking them off?

Does anyone have any ideas of the best way forward to help the Ruislip village idiot please!

[K2-K6]

Looking after different fuelled vehicles,  I've come pretty close to doing that Dave. It's very easily done especially with some sites using nozzle colours that are close.

Don't think it'll ultimately do much harm to it as any petrol will wash diesel out without much trace left.

Unsure of your system of injection as systems used to use a fuel return loop with pressure regulator to return excess fuel to tank.  This type you could drain and put in a couple litres petrol then turn on to let it mix itself, repeat a couple of times to get it most dilute and then try to start.

Later system use pressure regulator in tank and just divert excess to bleed out before exiting tank.  That type I'd do as you've suggested, drain as much as possible then clear injectors by cranking with plugs out until it smells decent then go for a start.

Let us know how you get on.

[Bryanj]

Yes to new filter, if you can undo someting on the fuel rail and let petrol flush through you might getaway with it. Whatever you do it will smoke like a steam engine for a while and you may well need new plugs

[Laverda Dave]

Thanks both for the reassurance.
New fuel filter is on order from HGB (£52 exc VAT!). I should get it on Saturday. I'll siphon the diesel out into a 20litre jerry can when it arrives. I'll see if I can get some clear fuel line to use as the siphon hose at the Kempton Park autojunble on Saturday.
I'll let you know how I get on.

[K2-K6]

At that cost I'd only change the filter after it's running again and you're all ok with it.  A final finish if you like.

The petrol will flush out the diesel ok in the existing one, it's really just getting the fuel to a point at which it'll fire really which shouldn't be that difficult.  I wouldn't sweat about dregs in there when it runs.

It should white smoke though as the diesel won't get to high enough temperature to fully burn and go clean. Doubt if it will last that many miles even.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I pulled into the Shell garage and thought I'd treat the bike to a tank of V-Max to give the injectors a clean. I don't normally use super unleaded so pulled up at the normal unleaded pump. Next to the green unleaded pump nozzle was the v-max nozzle so with my crash helmet still on I filled up having looked at the price of £1.48/litre which is about right for V-max. After filling the tank with 15 litres of fuel I paid and left. The bike died before I even got to the end of the forecourt. After checking the usual things I took my lid off and smelt the fuel in case it was off and this is when I heard a large penny drop...... I had filled up with diesel , how could I have been so stupid

You are not alone.
I put around a gallon of petrol in our old Terrano r3mR before I noticed my similar error also at a Shell Station they have different coloured nozzles to some Supermarkets so can be confusing. Luckily the old Nissans are not common rail so I brimmed it with Diesel & put a litre of 2T oil in to help the process. As I drove off the forecourt I was doing a zig zag escape to try to mix up the fuel. I could smell petrol for weeks afterwards.

Back in the 1960's a bloke I worked with ran his Standard Vanguard with a petrol plus added diesel - it didn't half stink and smoke when it drove off.

[Nurse Julie]

About 6 years ago, I put about £50 of unleaded petrol in my Diesel Freelander. After I swore most unlady like, I topped it up as far as I could with Diesel to dilute the petrol . I was 60 miles from home at the time. Whilst driving home, I stopped at every fuel station and topped up with diesel. I got home no problem, kept driving the car for a week or so and everything seemed fine, then all of a sudden, it wouldn't start. Got it towed in to the Land Rover main dealer and they wanted £4970 to sort it out. The 'standard' job for LR is to remove and bin every single item that had been touched by petrol, including the fuel tank. Sod that I told them, just drain the tank and fit new fuel filters, the bill still came to over £300 but it sorted the problem and I still have the car now and she's perfect.

[K2-K6]

Similar story here Julie. My FiL fuelled a BMW diesel with petrol, didn't even leave the forecourt and dealer collected to fix it 5K  later with even the fuel tank being swapped in the "repair" .

Traded that one for a newer 320D, always serviced by the dealer with shell recommended lubricant etc, and always run on shell premium diesel, it died on a family trip and stranded them half way along the M6 between here and Cumbria. Turbo failure and full compacted emissions equipment in exhaust another 2.5k fix  I run anything I've got on supermarket fuel and never with anything like this.

For the OP,  diesel isn't a problem in it's presence and will do nothing but also won't burn at all in a petrol engine. That's the only issue really and once replaced should run fine.

[Laverdaroo]

Not sure which version of the VFR you have but I have a VTEC (77k from new 2002) and in the instance that the bike floods there is a swerve on the electrics where if, for some unknown reason it wont fire, if you hold the throttle wide open and try to start the bike, holding the start button in for 8 seconds, the ECU recognises this and pumps all the injectors through and clears the excess fuel without introducing any more fuel into the line. I did the same with diesel in france some years ago whilst on the motorway.

Thankfully it was only a tenners worth or half a tank on Rose before I realised so drained it out into a can i bought, popped the plugs and tried the flood start method twice (to be sure), and then put a fivers worth of the good stuff (VMAX Sooper Dooper or what ever it is in france) back in it and she fired on three after a bit of encouragement and after a bit of wheezing all was good and settled on four.
I say all was well, that is apart from the Ivor the Engine impersonation that she did for ten minutes. No damage that was lasting and I got home (2300km) with no dramas.   I bought some plugs to be on the safe side  when we got to the pyrenees which was the closest bike shop I could find but never fitted them as didn't need to. The pot that wouldn't fire was treated to the lighter treatment, burnt the excess off, warmed it up and bobbed back in and like i said, away she went.

In a rather long winded way, drain it, pop the plugs, crank it a few times to clear it, poke a fivers worth in and go for the fire up. Just keep the garage door open!
I did replace the fuel filter but only when I got home and to be fair it was fine when I took it out of the tank. Yours might not be so change it but I agree with K6 on the get it running first.


I was enlightened to this throttle clearing trick by the Honda tech at the bike shop in Farnborough I used to work at. Sounds odd holding the throttle open to do it in case it fires but the ECU doesn't allow it. Im sure its 8 seconds but it might be worth having a read, its all over the forums these days, search under flooded vtec and it should pop up.

I might be talking utter pants but when explained it made sense and under practice, it certainly got me out of a pretty crap, "please make that just didn't happen" situation!
Just a good way top shift the derv, thought you might find it useful.
Cheers

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

About 6 years ago, I put about £50 of unleaded petrol in my Diesel Freelander. After I swore most unlady like, I topped it up as far as I could with Diesel to dilute the petrol . I was 60 miles from home at the time. Whilst driving home, I stopped at every fuel station and topped up with diesel. I got home no problem, kept driving the car for a week or so and everything seemed fine, then all of a sudden, it wouldn't start. Got it towed in to the Land Rover main dealer and they wanted £4970 to sort it out. The 'standard' job for LR is to remove and bin every single item that had been touched by petrol, including the fuel tank. Sod that I told them, just drain the tank and fit new fuel filters, the bill still came to over £300 but it sorted the problem and I still have the car now and she's perfect.

It's a small world we changed Wendy's oldest Jeep WJ for a Freelander 2 Auto 2.2 Diesel a few weeks ago - It's only the second 4x4 she has ever really liked alas they do not make new Nissan r3mR models our first proper 4x4.

[Laverda Dave]

The good news is the bike is running with no ill effects from it's attempt to guzzle diesel!
I only got around to it today as waiting for the 20ltr jerry can to arrive from eBay. I bought a 2mtr length of 16mm internal bore plastic hose and used it as a siphon, all the diesel was drained within two minutes. I removed and cleaned the plugs and spun the motor over as suggested by Laverdaroo to get the last of the diesel out of the fuel rails and injectors. After that l put it all back together and it fired first time with only a large puff of smoke. All running sweet now, I did buy a new filter... £60! but didn't need it so it's now spare. It's only when you take the fairings off a fully faired bike you realise how filthy it is underneath it all.
Thanks for everyone's input to help out. James suggested buying a hand held battery operated pump, I bought one but didn't need to use it but it will be used prior to winter to drain the fuel from the bikes prior to winter lay-up.

[Laverdaroo]

Wicked news, well done.

Its that awful feeling on the forecourt as your heart sinks, nice one for fettling it, they're great bikes and just about bulletproof so recover well after minor catastroph**ks that always happen just when you really don't need them.
All smiles again and great to hear she's sorted.   

[Orcade-Ian]

That's great news Dave, glad you got sorted with minimum outlay.  This one was done t'other way round - made me smile though!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0a06gsiF4

Ian