Mixing unleaded with Diesel in 2012 Jetta TDI

VWBeamer said:

The driver dumps the fuel, but unless the truck is sitting perfectly level, there is always 15 -20 gallons left at least. Also consider these drivers get paid by the load, so they are not going to wait for the last drop to trickle out either.

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Most every fuel truck I've seen have been belly unloaders. The valve is in the middle of the bottom of a sloped tank. Unless the driver shuts the valve before the tank is empty, at most, there will be a gallon of residual fuel. I would imagine that the driver has to account for the weight of the fuel delivered, so it's in his best interest to deliver every drop.

VWMax said:

My wife filled up my 2002 Jetta TDI with diesel drove 200 miles and stopped at Amoco and topped off the tank with Gas. Cranked the car and drove 350 miles home. When she arrived she told me the car was running funny...go figure..Not knowing the story about Amoco I went out and started the car it ran…. but not very good??? drove it in the garage lifted the hood and it was hot!!. Shut it down removed the hose from the fuel filter and guess what I smelled GAS!! Not a pleasant talk with the wife. Anyway changed the oil and filter, drained the fuel tank flushed all the lines and replaced the fuel filter. Filled her up with Diesel and it cranked. That was 150k miles ago and the car is still running well with excellent fuel mileage. The only thing I think that saved the engine was the mix….. I guessing 8 gals of Diesel and 4 gals of Gas kept it from exploding. I do expect the life of the fuel pump and engine to be shortened.

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Tha was the ALH HPFP, which could take up to 30% of gasoline per tankful.

I think you grilled your wife in vain...

Hope you didn't shorten your marriage life.

TDI2000Zim said:

Tha was the ALH HPFP, which could take up to 30% of gasoline per tankful.

I think you grilled your wife in vain...

Hope you didn't shorten your marriage life.

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the fuel pump on the ALH isn't a HPFP . It's simply a FP.

Sweetmeat--the same thing happed to me at the BP station in Lakeland Florida. (gas deliverted from a green handle labeled DIESEL) I didn't notice at all until it started missing ---Yikes!!! 2004 MB Sprinter turbo diesel. So the only way to empty the 30 gals of regular out of the DIESEL tank was to use the intank fuel pump which kept overheating and shutting off. double Yikes!! Hope I never have to find out what a Mercedes intank pump costs. No long term issues except a $500 repair bill and a get lost message from
an unknown BP flunkie. So now I SMELL it and TASTE it if I have to to be DAMN sure what I'm pumping. No way to be TOO carefullthese days. I'm hearing this kind of thing happens very frequently. This is a VERY unpleasant experience and the only way to
avoid it is extreme vigilance. Better luck to you in future. 2004 Nick.

VWBeamer said:

But let's say that did not happen, you some how got 100% diesel at the distribution point, where it is loaded on a fuel truck. That truck is not dedicated to one type of fuel. It might carry diesel one load, Rug the next load, premium the next load. The driver dumps the fuel, but unless the truck is sitting perfectly level, there is always 15 -20 gallons left at least. Also consider these drivers get paid by the load, so they are not going to wait for the last drop to trickle out either.

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Here's a comment from an actual driver:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3632773&postcount=43

Quote from above link: "After a delivery is completed, it does not take a great period of time for the residue coating the walls of the barrel of the tanker to settle into the bottom...usually 10 minutes or less. If, once returned to the loading terminal, there is a switch load to occur, we pail off any residue that remains in the compartment and drop pipe of the trailer and return that to slop."

If they're using a pail, that is a five gallon bucket. No one is going to be happy about having to offload more then one bucket per compartment. More than likely, they use the same bucket to catch residual from all compartments and only make one trip to dump it.

Even the Meister has made this mistake before. We're all human, it sucks when it happens, try not to do it again.

E85 pump handles are commonly yellow or green. Also, I have seen diesel pump handle colors vary from black to yellow or green. Read. You dodged a bullet big time! I cringed when you said you started the car Glad everything turned out okay.

Also some advice when it comes to older guys who THINK they know about diesel stuff. Diesel engines have changed drastically. They are so different then even 10 years ago. As little as 7-10 years ago some diesels could still run straight up waste oils. Try that in a common rail / modern diesel? you may blow the entire fuel system up. Also, a bunch of old school diesel guys use starting fluid on a hard to start diesel. Big no no. Make sure whoever you are getting your advice from is someone informed on the issue. My 7.3 ford diesel is A LOT different then your CR diesels.

Good luck with everything!

Randomhero1172 said:

E85 pump handles are commonly yellow or green. Also, I have seen diesel pump handle colors vary from black to yellow or green. Read. You dodged a bullet big time! I cringed when you said you started the car Glad everything turned out okay.
Also some advice when it comes to older guys who THINK they know about diesel stuff. Diesel engines have changed drastically. They are so different then even 10 years ago. As little as 7-10 years ago some diesels could still run straight up waste oils. Try that in a common rail / modern diesel? you may blow the entire fuel system up. Also, a bunch of old school diesel guys use starting fluid on a hard to start diesel. Big no no. Make sure whoever you are getting your advice from is someone informed on the issue. My 7.3 ford diesel is A LOT different then your CR diesels.
Good luck with everything!

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...correction...you WILL blow the entire fuel system.

Very wise post...lots of advice at TDIClub, but engine specific...

I put 3 gallons of rug in my mk6 tdi last night before realizing my mistake. I filled up with diesel and 14 ounces of diesel cleen. Drove home no problem. Today I pumped out 5 gallons of the mixture and filled up with diesel. No problem so far, i hope it stays that way....

It's good you pumped out the five gallons, but if you had just filled up in an effort to dilute, you should have pumped out the entire tank. At a bare minimum. The filter should also be changed/ canister emptied. The future of your hpfp is looking pretty grim.

What are the signs of a failing hpfp or aren't there any? I'm going to keep refueling with diesel daily and also keep adding additives for a while.

No signs really. Good chance the damage has already been done. You essentially have about 1.5 to 2 gallons gas in tank , or about 10-15% gas contamination. It's probably still worthwhile to do a complete drain/refill. Sounds like trade in material. This is exactly why I chose to buy new.

I'm still curious if there are any documented cases of diluted diesel fuel causing damage on a CR TDI. So far all I'm getting is oh you're screwed without any proof of that.

How many miles have you driven so far with contamination? That will determine how screwed you are. Dilution is a sh!tty solution.

And yes, there are countless documented cases. It can happen to anyone(misfueling), it's what is done about it after that seperates the men from the boys.

mw1113 said:

I'm still curious if there are any documented cases of diluted diesel fuel causing damage on a CR TDI. So far all I'm getting is oh you're screwed without any proof of that.

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Well...let's see...
We know the old motors from the 80's did OK with a bit of gas...
Bet when the CR motors came out with hpfp folks said, who cars...
And a bunch failed...they become the horror stories of what NOT to do...
So why recreate the past?!

mw1113: Whether it was the owner pumping the gas into the car's tank, or the fuel seller selling contaminated fuel, both NHTSA and VAG lean heavily on gas contamination as the primary cause of HPFP failure.

So, to answer your question, NHTSA and VWoA both are claiming that ALL of the HPFP failures were caused by (gas) contaminated fuel.

Not "all" the failures were reported or blamed on misfueling. IIRC, the initial data reported to NHTSA showed about 60% of the failures as reported misfuelings. Some were reported by dealers topping off the tank prior to initial delivery. MW1113, take the time and read through the posts on the NHTSA investigation and hpfp failures. There are posts where people reported engines quitting within 100s of feet from the station. Sounds like you got lucky, so far, but you also need to listen to the advice given and stop posting in multiple threads until you find an answer you like.

kjclow: Thanks for the correction. I should have stated that NHTSA and VWoA CLAIMED that all HPFP failures were miss-fueling issues.

turbobrick240 said:

And yes, there are countless documented cases. It can happen to anyone(misfueling), it's what is done about it after that seperates the men from the boys.

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I'm sorry but no, it can't happen to anyone. If you are paying attention to what you are doing and what is going on around you it will never happen. Unless of course the diesel tanks at the station have gas in them...

Conrad -JSW said:

I'm sorry but no, it can't happen to anyone. If you are paying attention to what you are doing and what is going on around you it will never happen. Unless of course the diesel tanks at the station have gas in them...

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My point was really that we all make mistakes. Many long time diesel enthusiasts have misfueled at one point or another. It doesn't mean they are idiots. Distractions, and lapses of attention happen.

Wow... y'all need to calm down on the "sky is falling" stuff, seriously. A half gallon of RUG in a 15 gallon diesel tank will drop the lubricity of the fuel tank about 3-5 points, so very little real effect.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=428402&highlight=gas+diesel+test

Not worried about the additive results; just look at the change from 5% gasoline in the diesel. 5% for a 15 gallon tank is .75 gallons, so this misfuel was even less than that.

tdiatlast said:

Dimitri16V: Buy a CR. Add 1/2 gallon of RUG to your tank of diesel. See how far down the road you get.
Post your results here.

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Really? I am not going to pump a half gallon of gas into my tank on purpose; but if I did do it on accident I'd double dose a lubricity additive and keep driving... all the way to the end of the tank.

Dubfamily, if you don't know what you are talking about(which you obviously don't) , please don't give advice!

Also the OP added over 3 gallons to a 14 gallon tank, not half a gallon.

I have a little time on my hands today so I scanned this thread and kept seeing the topic of pump handle color in discussions. I've never given a thought about pump handle colors when I used gas - I just looked for Regular or Premium, depending on what I owned at the time so I never gave it a thought about what color the diesel pump handle "should' be. I just look for the word 'DIESEL' on the pump I'm using (reading is such novel concept, I decided to keep doing it), and always get a receipt that state's I pumped diesel fuel into my car. If it turns out that gas was coming out of the diesel pump, than it's the station's fault - not mine and you can bet they'll hear about it. I'm just as guilty as the next person in making dumb mistakes, like putting milk in the cabinet or olive oil in the fridge. But when it comes to driving, it's amazing how often I see people trying to multi-task; listen to music, texting, talking on the phone, sometimes all at once, and then they wonder why when something bad happens, they ask "why me?". Uhh, duh....

Aren't most fuel injector cleaners just Naphta(refined gasoline) mixed with pale oil (diesel) and alcohol (Ethanol) so .42 gallons is like running A LOT OF INJECTOR CLEANER Not saying it's good but just a little probably ok.

Seafoam is one example look at it's MSDS, it's pale oil, Heavy Naphta, Alchool,

It's pretty much 4 parts Diesel, one part Ethanol blended Gasoline.

No, kerosene is not refined gasoline. Really?? C'mon people, do some research before saying stupid things. Kerosene is heating oil #1. Heating oil #2 is very similar to diesel #2(summer fuel). K1 is lighter with less btu's. It is blended with D2 to make D1(winter fuel). You just made me chuckle!

I meant Naphta sorry. Editing

I hope you don't add 3.4 gallons of injector cleaner to your tank either.