Misfueling

jamesgl

New member
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
TDI
Jetta wagon, 2004, Blue
Hello,

Question for anyone who has experience with misfueling. Two days ago my wife unfortunately pumped one liter (we are Canucks) of regular gas into our 2004 Jetta TDI wagon. As soon as she realized what she was doing she stopped and we called VW and had the car towed to the nearest dealer. There we had the tank drained and we picked the car up - the next day she noticed that the car was running rough in third gear and yesterday it stalled as I was turning a corner and would not start again. The engine emissions light and the battery light are both on and the car will turn over but not catch. We have had the car towed to our VW dealer and they are going to look at it on Monday. Two questions - 1. what do you think is going on the engine? and 2. how will this incident affect the warranty? I am wondering if anyone else has done this (I am sure we are not the first to do this) and if they have any advice.

thanks
 

greenskeeper

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Location
USA
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI
I would think that the symptoms are un-related to the gas put in the tank...mainly because you said the car wasn't driven at all after the 1 liter was added, and that the tank was drained. If it was driven with the gas in it, that could have caused the problems you are describing.
 

jamesgl

New member
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
TDI
Jetta wagon, 2004, Blue
Thanks for the reply - that is my thought as well but my fear is that the shop started the engine and ran it thereby running gas into the fuel system. I guess we will find out on monday when our mechanic looks at it.
 

greenskeeper

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Location
USA
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI
hopefully that didn't occur. I'll assume the tank was nearly empty when it was filled with the 1 liter of gas. Best bet in the future if it is a minimal amount of gasoline is to fill the tank with diesel as full as possible. Effectively minimizing the ratio of gasoline in the tank and making the 1 liter of gasoline more of an anti-gel additive! (note I do not recommend adding gasoline as an anti-gel to a modern diesel engine)
 

AndyBees

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 27, 2003
Location
Southeast Kentucky
TDI
Silver 2003 Jetta TDI, Silver 2000 Jetta TDI (sold), '84 Vanagon with '02 ALH engine
One liter of gasoline wouldn't have hurt a darn thing, especially if the tank had been topped off with diesel fuel.

Also, I seriously doubt if the engine was run by the dealer that the gasoline hurt anything.

Its doubtful that your wife waited until the tank was "bone" dry before she decided she need fuel. Thus one liter of gasoline in say a couple gallons of diesel fuel plus all that was in the fuel lines, filter and injector pump would have been enough for considerable dilution.

Although the older VW engines are similar, including the injector pumps, the tolerances in the TDI injector pump are closer. I have used a 10% gasoline mixture in the older engines with no problems.

Good luck!
 
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