diesel in petrol car????

[toyotagirl]

Hello Guys, I was on empty on my toyota corolla 05, got abt 5 dollars worth of gas, and then my car started sputtering after abt 15 mins, after which i went to a mechanic who suggested i put "HEET" in my tank because i must have gotten water in my tank. my tank was abt 1/3 full. car still sputtered, but i made it to my destination. i tried to restart my car after abt 4-5 hrs of it being parked and it sputtered, died, and the "engine," "oil," and "battery" lights came on. it was abt 1/4 tank full. i then had it towed to my dealer who said the possibilites are bad gas or diesel in a petrol car. he is saying that there is a possible 800-2000 dollar repair charge. does anyone have any insights into my situation? i would greatly appreciate any help!!!!!!

[TheSilentChamber]

What currency is that in? (Petrol isnt a common term in the US.. ). Also its "About".

[toyotagirl]

Currency = dollars. Sorry, I guess I mean gasoline, or regular unleaded, you know the regular stuff you're sposed to get, this mechanic dude I was talking to kept saying "petrol" so now I'm confused.

[$upraman]

I'm not sure what exactly would happen if you ran an SI engine on diesel. Abnormal combustion or knocking for sure...

Burned valves possibly?

[beef_bourito]

not knocking, anything but that, if you put diesel in a gasoline car it would have little to no power if it started at all. diesel is alot harder to light than gasoline so diesel engines are completely different from gasoline engines. if it is diesel and you manage to get it started, put some gasoline in your tank and drive it around for a while, when you're driving it, floor it and rev it up higher than you normally would to get rid of the diesel in your tank. if it's water, drain you tank, if you have a drain plug it's easy, if not you'd have to try to syphon it out or suck it out somehow. hope this helps.

[$upraman]

hmm..

I always though the higher the octane of the fuel, the harder it is to burn, and doesn't diesel have a very low octane rating?

[RandomTask]

Originally Posted by $upraman

hmm..

I always though the higher the octane of the fuel, the harder it is to burn, and doesn't diesel have a very low octane rating?

Diesel is on an entirely different rating than octane, research 'cetane' . Diesel requires much higher compression ratios to ignite (most diesels run around a 25:1 compression ratio) Diesel also burns a lot longer than gasoline. On top of the usaually longer stroke motors, this is why diesels have higher torque numbers. If you did put diesel in your tank, I would imagine filling it a full tank of premium should clear it out. ($5 equates to about two gallons, 10 gallons of regular fuel should dilute the diesel enoug) It will run rough, but it should still run. If theres water in the tank, then they would have to drop the gas tank, drain it, then re-install it. I don't know how they can compute that to an $800 job when it should only take about two or three hours and require no parts.