First of all I would like to say thanks in advance to anyone on this forum who writes back and provides me with any help or advice at all….. Please help me I have been getting 2-3 hours sleep max. for the last few days!!! This is worrying the crap out of me!!

Okay here is what happened.. I was driving my parents Mercedes Benz (2008 Model C220 CDI – Diesel Engine)… the tank was on reserve fuel… I accidently filled it up with just under 10 litres of petrol. Immediately I realised what I had done… so I asked the guy that works at the petrol station what I need to do… and he said it shouldn’t be a problem… just move your car to the side and take it to a mechanic so it can all get flushed out. There was a guy beeping his horn to use the diesel pump behind me… so I started the car for under a minute and just moved the car 5 metres forward so that the guy behind me could use the pump. (AFTER THIS HAD HAPPENED I DID NOT START THE CAR AGAIN.. I GOT IT TOWED DIRECTLY TO MERCEDES)

I then got it towed to Mercedes… when I went to Mercedes the service guy told me straight up front if the ignition has been turned on or the car has been started in any way… they would need to do a completely different type of service which was going to cost approx. £7,000 pound. Otherwise if the car hadn’t been started they would just flush the fuel tank & the lines and it would just cost me under a £650 pounds. I panicked at that point because I don’t have anywhere near £7,000 pounds… im just a student… so I just told them that the car had not been started at all.

Anyway they did the service… and this is what the invoice says they did;
FUEL TANK & LINES
2 X SEAL RINGS
REFILLED ENTIRE TANK WITH GAS

They have told me specifically that they did NOT do any of the following;
*Change the fuel filter
*Flushed the injector lines
*Checked the injectors & checked for any back leakage

This was all done 4 days ago… yesterday I was driving the car and I noticed that when taking off at the traffic lights…. If I pushed the accelerator slowly the car would just lag and eventually take off just fine.. however if I pushed the accelerator down a little faster the car would start to shake almost like a manual and the engine would stall/cut-off completley

The car has never had the problem before… so I can almost guarantee that it has something to do with the petrol incident and is linked to it. Anyway I have taken it back to Mercedes who have hooked it up to their computers and tested it all… and taken it for a test drive… They are telling me that they cannot find any faults with the car at all!!! (THEY HAVE NO IDEA YET THAT THE CAR WAS INITIALLY STARTED)

I don’t understand much about cars… but I am really afraid that petrol has gotten into the engine/injectors/fuel-pump/fuel-filter or whatever the case may be (like I said I don’t know much about cars)…. And can cause major damage if I continue to drive it!!! I just cant understand how much petrol could get into the engine if the car was just started and literally moved like a couple of metres…. Surely there is existing diesel fuel in the lines… (But I have been reading up … and apparently the new Mercedes have an extremely high pressure pump)…

The car has been driven approximately 200kms since it has been flushed and the incident occurred..

PLEASE can anyone give me any further advice on what I should do??? Or what you would do if you were in my same position… please… I have spoken to a few mechanics and they have told me that if petrol has got into the fuel pump etc… it would slowly begin to wreck other components and the long-term damage would be over £16,000 - £17,000 pounds!!!! I do not want to keep driving it if this is the case…. Is there anyone that I can take the car to that can check to see if petrol has got inside or is still inside the certain components of the car????

What do you think needs to be done to the car now?? Change the fuel filter & do a “back leakage check” on the injectors??? Somebody was saying that I can get a fuel sample report of some sort??? I have no idea what that means?


thanks guys

 

Your a fool you lied to the dealer about what happened to the car, and you put the wrong gas in.

Go back to the dealer, tell your parents you broke the car and tell the dealer you started the car, its not going to be fixed right because you LIED to them and told them you didn't start the car, petrol made it to the engine and all in the lines, injectors and everything. lt would have mixed and made it mostly non diesel.

YOU need to tell the dealer what ACTUALLY happened, I have 0 sympathy for you, it most likely screwed up some sensors or poss the injectors, plugs and all sorts of things.

Be prepared because if you want it fixed right your going to have to admit to the dealer you started the car, and tell your parents so they can pay to have it fixed, your stupidity is going to cost you way more then 7k now most likely

 

well i panicked... im just a 22 year old kid... earning 9 pounds an hour...
i messed up big time... i know!!!
when they told me that it was going to cost 7,000 pounds to repair... just for turning the ignition on... i thought they might have been lying to me... and just wanted to rip me off!!

I never knew that so much damage could have occured by just starting the car and moving it 5 metres...

 

Some guy was beeping behind you so you turned your car on knowing there was a problem.
In that situation I would have gotten out and pushed, and had the beeping guy help you push it. But you turned it on anyway.

I'm not going to lecture you on how to grow some *****. Don't worry too much about it, any damage done has already been done. You might need to replace the fuel pump, the pump is lubricated by diesel so basically you ran it with no lube for a few seconds. But odds are any petrol has already been pushed through the system, further degradation will not occur. Any problems from this point forward will more then likely trigger a check engine light. Everything on these cars is monitored, if anything your within spec.

 

Tell me you haven't done anything that stupid as a kid... Give him a break. Just a few months ago I put regular in the Benz.. was getting CELs for a week..

To the op, just tell your parent what happened.. perhaps get a third party shop ( a reputable one that is) to check your lines, plugs etc.

 

Right - you need some help. I'll bet that there is zero damage at all. If petrol had got through to the engine you would have known. It would have run like crap if at all. Petrol is designed not to auto ignite (High Octane), Diesel is designed to auto ignite under pressure (High Cetane value)

The only potential problem is due to the lack of lubricity of petrol so it will not lubricate the pump & injectors adequately. I don't believe it ran far enough to cause undue wear or the injector pump would have seized.

The garage you took it to are idiots. They should have done what they did. AND bleed the fuel lines until diesel was right through to the pump & change the oil in case uncombusted fuel got into the sump. Anyway at least if petrol got into the sump it will evapourate quickly unlike diesel in a petrol vehicle sump.

Just drive the car. If it runs OK & shows no faults on the Star you are likely in the clear.

Benz allows up to 15% low octane petrol in diesel in very cold weather to aid starting & reduce wax drop-out in the fuel, so relax.

 

Please calm down Adidas - rants help no one. BTW - Diesels don't have plugs. They operate by compression ignition & not spark ignition.

They do have glow plugs to aid starting from cold only.

 

In that case, filling the tank full of diesel (while the the other person beeped their brains out) would make the diesel-petrol mixture in the 15% range and nothing needed to be done? It is November.

Wayne

 

It would give you the lubrication you needed.

 

1985 .

Sorry to hear of your problem.

How could the dealer not know that you would have had to turn the ignition on to take the car out of 'PARK ' therefore run the fuel pump in the tank ?.I believe that you can take it out of Park mechanically( manually) by removing the boot around the gear stick.

In my opinion it would have been sufficient for the dealer to drain the tank , & flush the lines to filter, change filter, & bleed injectors in that order.There is no way you could have used the diesel contained in the lines & fuel filter in that short period.

That would not have cost a great deal more.

The problem as I see it is that when your tank reserve alarm is first indicated you have 8 litres of diesel remaining.Filling it with nearly 10 litres of petrol gives you more than a 50% ratio in the tank.

Did the dealer experience the problems you have now? What did they say about the "lag'? You mentioned they could find no fault. No doubt the dealer would have taken the car for a test drive so should have found the fault evident then. Maybe they are covering their #rse too ?

I would have thought that after 200 km ie say 14 to 18 litres would have passed through the fuel system that all should be clear of petrol.

I hope that it is one of the fuel system sensors that is causing the problem & not the pump or injectors.

Mechanics may find it hard to diagnose the problem if they do not know the circumstances.

If it were me I would run the car a few more km to see whether the problem clears but I may be wrong.

I have conveyed your experience to my wife & children who all drive diesels. A good lesson for all.

Good luck & let us know how you go.

 

Confirmation! I did some 'rithmatic in my head. I guessed right on the reserve quantity.

Worst case: 18 liters of diesel and petrol. Probably less if the car were driven any distance after the light came on.
EDIT-Assuming: 66 (not 70) liters tank capacity.
Adding: 48 liters of diesel to fill the tank.
10 liters of petrol divided by 56 liters of diesel = 18% petrol. Hmmmmmmmmm...Close to M-B's 15% allowance. Probably not enough over to cause difficulty. Adding aditional diesel as soon as possible would make everything ok.

Wayne
"Smarter than the average bear."

 

JC - I took it as read that when the car got back to the dealer that they could not replicate the hesitation etc. I was hoping that this meant it had cleared it's throat. Hopefully the OP will clarify.

 

Ive never caused 7 grand in damage to a car, no. And something as important as my car I would take due car in its repair if I did screw up, the OP openly admits he messed up to us, but still doesnt want to ask his parents for help?

Also to go back and compain again to the dealer they didnt fix it right when he didnt tell them what actually happend is not right, why should they eat any money for not only 1 mistake but 2? Its not a rant he needs to tell his parents and the dealer so they can fix his mistake, us on this forum cant pull the car apart over the web and give him an exact answer.

Not making enough money to fix it doesnt mean you can lie or cut corners and pray it works, then be worried when your plan fails?

Also you dont have to turn on a car to put it in gear.

I think you knew better op, call your parents people screw up let them help you fix it


Pride covers a multitude of sins

 

Give us a break, Nick. You're the same guy that tried to pull one over on us about having a C350 manual. The kid panicked.

His first mistake was towing it to a Mercedes dealer. I see they are the same all over the world - as in truly idiotic-levels of absolute ridiculousness. I know you must have recently went to work for one and have a sudden need to defend all things dealer.. but the truth of the matter is that dealers take advantage of people. Someone knowledgeable is their worst enemy.

You're just trying to scare the kid, and that's uncalled for.

 

Indeed. https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...0-6-speed.html



greatkid1985,

Did I ever tell you about the time I put a flowing garden hose into my mom’s gas tank and pretended to be the man at the filling station? :smash:
Have since learned how to fix my cars because I’ve still an uncanny tendency to break them.

As Mr. Ruck mentioned, it'll likely be okay. Good luck.

 

haha first of all u went to the dealership

 

Have you replaced the fuel filter yet? If you ran that low there's a good chance some crud buildup from over the years might have gotten sucked up and is partialy clogging the filter. Might be just that simple (hoping it is something easy like that).

If you did any real damage, you'd probably know it. My dad had a deisel Rabbit back in the day and a gas station attendant filled it up with gas after ~6 months of ownership. Dad had no idea, just payed, left and drove it the ~40 miles home. Ran like ***** by the time he got home and it wouldn't start again. Cracked head and cracked block. He just took a massive hit and sold it (I'd have put a new engine in it and then sold it).

 

Frankly, I cannot believe some of the responses and moralizing in this thread.

My suggestion is to go back to the dealer (or a certified tech at another place ) and ask for suggestions (fuel filter replacement perhaps). Good news is that car runs and apparently well enough that you drove it for a while after.

Better yet, take the "Stern" out for a ride and give it a good workout. Drive the beast. "Drive it like you stole it" (get the song from Glitch Mob as a soundtrack). It costs only 99 cents at the itunz place.

 

Yes Greg. This car did not run sufficiently for that kind of damage. The filter is a possibility from a dirt aspect. From a filter build respect this car likely has OE filters so should be in the clear. Good filters today use epoxy on the media end caps which is impervious to petrol & diesel. The only problem I have seen where a filter could be compatible with diesel but not with petrol is that some have hot melt beads around the media to hold the pleats at the required spacing. This hot melt can sometimes react badly to petrol especially if alcohols are present and goo things up. I doubt that this is the case & to my knowledge there are no alcohol laced petrols sold in the UK.

 

Best advice in this thread as usual. I agree. I doubt there was any damage done for the few seconds ran, and the little amount of petrol that went through the fuel system.

Adidas, can you be anymore of a hypocrite? How soon we forget. Splinter helped remind us

 

Hi Guys,

So far you’s have all been an extremely great help… and I really appreciate all the time you’s are all putting in to help me…

This is in relation to my previous post that I made… which can be read at the links below;
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/engin...ml#post1325362
https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ml#post4913292


Okay since then I have taken everyone’s advice and replaced the fuel filter with a new one… and this is exactly what the problem is with the car at the moment;

The car starts fine and runs absolutely fine for the first 5min of driving or so.. (basically until the engine warms up I presume)… After this period… when you are at the traffic lights for example… as you begin to take off… if you take your foot off the brake slowly and don’t touch the accelerator at all the car seems to take off fine, no problems at all (keep in mind the car is an automatic)…. However, if you take your foot off the brake and hit the accelerator… the car almost comes to a complete stop for a few seconds (as if it was a manual and it was about to stall)… and then takes off again…. Also I have noticed the car is making a strange noise when idling at the lights (but this could be just me..) But the other issue is a definite… because it happened at every set of lights I was at…

Most likely the reason why the dealer couldn’t find any faults with the car when they took it for a test drive… was because they didn’t take it for a drive long enough… to the period where the engine warmed up and the issues occurred…. (Also keep in mind that the computers have not picked up any faults with the car at all)

I have called a number of different mechanics… and none of them seem to have any clue as to what could be causing this type of issue… I also spoke to a one mechanic who thinks it may be an issue with the injectors… as the injectors provide/spray fuel into the system…. Another said to check to make sure that the cable/connector to the air hose is connected properly…

Would anybody be able to provide me with any assistance…as to what they may think this issue may be… I am taking the car to a specialist diesel mechanic tomorrow to see what he thinks the issue may be (he will undoubtedly charge me an arm and a leg)… I cant believe how much such a small mistake has ended up costing me… £140 pounds for the air filter replacement… towing on multiple occasions… I have already spent approx. £1,300 pounds in total and the car is still not fixed!!! It is a little depressing because it will take me another 3 months worth of working to save up that amount of cash….

So if anybody could please help me… it would be much appreciated…
Thanks heaps guys

(PS. The car has been driven for over 125 miles (200kms) now… so I would have presumed that all of the diesel had been flushed out of the system by now… and the issue would have been resolved… but it doesn’t seem to be the case)

 

Hi Guys,

So far you’s have all been an extremely great help… and I really appreciate all the time you’s are all putting in to help me…

This is in relation to my previous post that I made…


Okay since then I have taken everyone’s advice and replaced the fuel filter with a new one… and this is exactly what the problem is with the car at the moment;

The car starts fine and runs absolutely fine for the first 5min of driving or so.. (basically until the engine warms up I presume)… After this period… when you are at the traffic lights for example… as you begin to take off… if you take your foot off the brake slowly and don’t touch the accelerator at all the car seems to take off fine, no problems at all (keep in mind the car is an automatic)…. However, if you take your foot off the brake and hit the accelerator… the car almost comes to a complete stop for a few seconds (as if it was a manual and it was about to stall)… and then takes off again…. Also I have noticed the car is making a strange noise when idling at the lights (but this could be just me..) But the other issue is a definite… because it happened at every set of lights I was at…

Most likely the reason why the dealer couldn’t find any faults with the car when they took it for a test drive… was because they didn’t take it for a drive long enough… to the period where the engine warmed up and the issues occurred…. (Also keep in mind that the computers have not picked up any faults with the car at all)

I have called a number of different mechanics… and none of them seem to have any clue as to what could be causing this type of issue… I also spoke to a one mechanic who thinks it may be an issue with the injectors… as the injectors provide/spray fuel into the system…. Another said to check to make sure that the cable/connector to the air hose is connected properly…

Would anybody be able to provide me with any assistance…as to what they may think this issue may be… I am taking the car to a specialist diesel mechanic tomorrow to see what he thinks the issue may be (he will undoubtedly charge me an arm and a leg)… I cant believe how much such a small mistake has ended up costing me… £140 pounds for the air filter replacement… towing on multiple occasions… I have already spent approx. £1,300 pounds in total and the car is still not fixed!!! It is a little depressing because it will take me another 3 months worth of working to save up that amount of cash….

So if anybody could please help me… it would be much appreciated…
Thanks heaps guys

(PS. The car has been driven for over 125 miles (200kms) now… so I would have presumed that all of the diesel had been flushed out of the system by now… and the issue would have been resolved… but it doesn’t seem to be the case)

 

Merged threads. Please don't create new threads for the same subject.

As to your problem, I would take it back to the place that did the fuel filter. I suspect something may have not gotten back together right, or something else was disturbed. Your current problem does not sound like it is related to the mis-fueling.

 

Does the vehicle emit smoke from the exhaust? These cars achieve the main pressure rise in the pump & then amplifier injectors are used to achieve the final extremely high injection pressure & multipulse spray. Diesel flat spots are not common apart from on Blue Efficiency models where it has hounded them as a result of feeding the engines less and less fuel to achieve economy figures. Does the vehicle start easily from cold?

Another thing I want to ask. Are you absolutely sure that this car did not have this flat spot before you put petrol in the tank? Mercedes knows full well that it has had trouble with Delphi injectors on this model & Blue Efficiency models that followed. Please get a good diesel mechanic to listen to the engine & exhaust & confirm that she if firing on all cylinders properly.

 

GC 1985,

My 220CDI does not respond quickly when moving off from the lights.Being an old fart I just idle off & it very smoothly accelerates.

If however the throttle is pushed down quickly there is a very noticeable lag time before the inevitable 400 Nm surge.I think this is because of the electronic throttle ,auto gearbox & turbo lag.

If the car is driven smoothly with anticipation all is well .

So my question is , were you driving the car long enough before the refueling incident to notice how it drove normally?

Good luck tomorrow.