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 22 year old kid earning under 9 pounds an hour… so I just told them that the car had not been started at all.... i thought they might have been lying to me... and just wanted to rip me off… when they told me that it was going to cost 7,000 pounds to repair... just for simply turning the ignition on

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?

 

Right on all counts except one. It is his parent's car, not his. What this kid needs is a way to avoid having a foot shoved so far up his *** it'll take a brain surgeon to remove it. Unfortunately by this point, due to not letting the Mercedes technicians know what he did and the fact that it's been driven since the screwup, i'd say the entire engine needs rebuilding if not completely replaced. Expensive lessons suck guy, and i'm sorry there's no easy fix for this. I do however bet this'll be the last time you put the wrong sort of fuel in a vehicle again, though, and i hope that poor car doesn't end up in a scrapyard somewhere.

~P~

 

That's a nightmare senario, bro. Sucks that happened. I know how it is when you're holding up the line, but it would have been so much better just pushing the car away from the pump...not that that helps at all now. I had a friend put 2 stroke oil in his car once. **** happens. 15-20 years from now, this will just be a funny story.

 

I put gas in by mistake once but realized it before I started the car. I siphoned out as much as I could and filled it completely with Diesel. Started the car an had no problems with the engine.

 

if it makes you fell better (which it probably wont) i know a girl who drove a grand am. she attempts to fuel up, but was at a diesel pump. if the bright green diesel nozzle handle wasn't enough, the nozzle tip itself won't fit into the gas tank like a gasoline nozzle does. this sure as hell doesn't deter said girl; she went ahead and bought a funnel from the gas station and funneled the diesel into her car. simply amazing.