I pumped about 15 gallons of gas into my diesel pickup. A State Trooper there at the station told of someone to call. They showed up in about 45 minutes. Pumped about 20 gallons of fuel out into a barrel in the back of his pickup. Filled up with 35 gallons of diesel and was on my way!And he charged my only $250---best $250 I ever spent!

You better believe it!If you have a recent model, therefore common rail, diesel, running any amount of gasoline through it is potentially a major repair. I've a BMW X5 diesel, and have seen instances of folks making that mistake, and being given estimates of around $15,000. Your truck may be cheaper, maybe only $10,000. But don't count on it.Here's the deal. If you (or somebody else, for that matter) pumps gasoline into your diesel ride, DON'T START THE ENGINE. It is going to cost you a few hundred bucks because the contaminated fuel has to be disposed of as hazardous waste. But all they have to do is drain your tank and refill with good diesel. If you so much as start the engine, they will have to do that plus replace the fuel filter and flush the entire fuel system, thereby doubling the cost. If you run the vehicle at all, you may have to replace the fuel tank, fuel lines, fuel pump, high pressure fuel pump, and all the injectors. The reason is that gasoline does not lubricate the HPFP, so it will grind itself to death in an increasing death spiral, in the process distributing microscopic metal chips everywhere, chips that cannot be reliably flushed out, and that will cause a new HPFP to distruct in short order.Be careful out there, folks. NEVER let anybody with the smell of gasoline on their breath anyplace near your fuel filler.

My good friend and his hunting partners were making their way back out of the Canadian bush in their diesel pickup truck when they realized they didn't have enough fuel to make it out. They concocted a mixture of gasoline and different oils to make the extra miles out. I know there was some seat puckering that night but all turned out well. They filled up at the first pump to be found and drove the rest of the way home.This was in a pre-DEF engine, a Ford. I don't know if you'd get away with that on a newer truck.

Been there...Done that! Noticed the nozzle was GAS after about 15g into an empty 37g tank! Went across the street to a hardware store, got three 6g fuel cans and a piece of hose. Siphoned out about 15g, filled truck with diesel and drove on. That was about 150,000 miles ago. No issues.I used the 15g of "mix" in my car in a 5g of mix to 10g of high test. Ran beautifully! Didn't even smoke...Won't ever do that again!

Westend.. That reminds me of one of my own puckering rides home in a 1993 Chevy 6.5 diesel...it was probably the winter of 95/96, and I found myself terribly low on fuel in an unfamiliar area a bit after midnite. I couldn't even find an open gas station let alone diesel. I did find a small convenience store and walked out of there with all 10 quarts of ATF off the shelf and both jugs of corn oil. Combined with the aproximately 5 gallons of diesel that was in the tank, this additional 5 gallons got me back into familiar area where I promptly filled up with diesel.

Was just watching a rerun of the old show EMERGENCY.... The one where they they fly out and visit another Fire Department and called "Most Dangerous Passage" as I recall.A Ferry gets a delivery of Gasoline instead of Diesel.. Well.... You can watch.. NOTE: I am not sure it is quite as bad as they show on the Show, but... well.. One should know two things.First: At a BP (British Petroleum, they bought American Oil) station ALL THE NOZZLES ARE GREEN. Second: don't put Gas in a Diesel.

Pumped Gas into my Diesel | Good Sam Community

53 Replies

down_home
Explorer II
Dec 24, 2016
If you don't get too much gas mixed in the diesel, it'll run just not great.
Like others have done, when it was brutal cold and diesel was thick a gallon, of gas got things going. Lord help if we had biodiesel then, it would have been jello.
We've almost put diesel in our car and gas in our mh and saved couple of motorists from making that mistake, when BP took over.
gwalter
Explorer III
Dec 22, 2016
My sister accidentally put about 7 gal of gas in BILs 2011 Duramax. When she realized it she called their dealer and he said to fill it the rest of the way up with diesel and drive it. Until they had run about 3 tankfuls of fuel through it the check engine light would come on. They have never had any problems with it in the last year since then.
gregirish1954
Explorer
Dec 22, 2016
Not exactly a gas in the take issue, but a big part of the high Sprint repair costs is the Mercedes policy of replace everything rather than do any actual repairs.

I had mud-daubers build a nest around the turbo inlet valve motor actuator linkage, which on my 2010 2500 6 cyl 3.0 is tucked way back there against the firewall and hard to see without a mirror. Mercedes wanted to replace the entire actuator motor assembly to the tune of nearly $2000 parts/labor. Now that I knew why the turbo was not boosting and where the actuator was, I paid the diagnosis charge, drove home, a little slow on acceleration since I was without turbo boost, got the hose out and washed the dauber nest away.

Been working just fine since.

A little education and an application of common sense saved me over $1500!

Sigh, one day my Sprinter will be old enough that Mercedes will license the codes and expand 'authorized repair' beyond the dealerships so the good old fashioned work-a-day shops will be able to take care of stuff like this at a reasonable price.
dave17352
Explorer
Dec 22, 2016
I always wonder how many of these HPFP failures are due to those def and gasoline. Anybody could make the mistake. Especially DEF fluid and especially when it is right next to the gasoline filler. JMHO
mlts22
Explorer II
Dec 22, 2016
time2roll wrote:
Lots of "saved the truck" stories... any stories of actual damage or failure?

Yep, saw two Sprinter based class "C"s killed when RV-ing earlier this year:

The first one was due to the owner dumping DEF into the fuel tank.

The second one was someone topping off with gasoline, which created a mixture good enough to hit the engine and kill it.

Both Sprinters had to go to the Mercedes dealer, get new fuel injectors, a new high pressure fuel pump, and every single thing in between those and the fuel tank (as in all hoses) replaced. Five digits of cash for the repairs for one single derp moment.

Seeing this has made me to decide to just stick with gasoline for my next rig. A diesel nozzle won't go in, and if diesel winds up in the tank, the vehicle just won't move. A cost to fix is a drain and new gas, perhaps a MAF (costing a C-note) if it got fouled. Even with proper thinking and smelling of nozzles, not to mention proper fueling procedures, just going with a gasser vehicle seems easier.
free_radical
Explorer
Dec 19, 2016
Fwiw
In Canada in every Petrocan station,all diesel pumps are located separately from gasoline ones,,gasoline have 3 grades,not sure what color handles but all have labels for octane content regular 78 etc.gas also has some kind of Tactrol cleaner aditive,,works good as my engine runs perfect in any weather..

Diesel pumps are yellow and far away from gas pumps,,not sure what color are these in other gas stations as Ive been using Petro Canada exclusively..
time2roll
Nomad
Dec 19, 2016
Lots of "saved the truck" stories... any stories of actual damage or failure?
wnjj
Explorer II
Dec 19, 2016
JaxDad wrote:
But I for one hardly think 30+ years back qualifies as "a few years ago".

To be fair, he didn't say he bought one made a few years ago.
Grit_dog
Navigator II
Dec 18, 2016
JaxDad wrote:
Hammerboy wrote:
frankdamp wrote:
Bottom line - don't buy a diesel vehicle! They're noisy, vibrate like hell, smell bad, make a lot of smoke until they warm up and are often so gutless, someone on a bicycle can out-accelerate you!

I bought a Nissan diesel pick-up a few years ago, sold it within 6 months and vowed "Never again".
.

He must be messin with us. I tell my friends who are kicking the idea of a diesel around to be careful because once you go diesel you won't go back lol

I wouldn't exactly say he's 'messing' with us, but he's certainly being more than a little frugal in 'full disclosure' area.

If memory serves, prior to the current version, the last time Nissan made a diesel pickup was between 1980 and 1986.

In the early models, prior to 1983?, the engine produced ~63hp, the later models got the bigger engine which produced a whopping 75hp.

But I for one hardly think 30+ years back qualifies as "a few years ago".

Around here it probably does! This forum could be renamed "Grumpyoldmen.net" and not skip a beat!
Campinfan
Explorer III
Dec 18, 2016
JaxDad wrote:
Hammerboy wrote:
frankdamp wrote:
Bottom line - don't buy a diesel vehicle! They're noisy, vibrate like hell, smell bad, make a lot of smoke until they warm up and are often so gutless, someone on a bicycle can out-accelerate you!

I bought a Nissan diesel pick-up a few years ago, sold it within 6 months and vowed "Never again".
.

He must be messin with us. I tell my friends who are kicking the idea of a diesel around to be careful because once you go diesel you won't go back lol

I wouldn't exactly say he's 'messing' with us, but he's certainly being more than a little frugal in 'full disclosure' area.

If memory serves, prior to the current version, the last time Nissan made a diesel pickup was between 1980 and 1986.

In the early models, prior to 1983?, the engine produced ~63hp, the later models got the bigger engine which produced a whopping 75hp.

But I for one hardly think 30+ years back qualifies as "a few years ago".

Is that a garden tractor engine? :B