I think i broke it!

[SurfBoy69]

Hello there!

Last week i ran my surf to the petrol station as it was on fumes almost and i must have only just made it there with nowt left in the tank.

Its a K-reg diesel (auto) 2.4 and i put £20 of petrol in it!!!
Got 2 miles away and ground to a halt so got my mate to tow me back (4 miles) with his suzi jimny (comical i know)!

Spent few hours wondering what the problem was and priming the fuel filter till the AA man says that im an idiot and have put petrol in it. He tows me to garage to top it up with £40 of diesel and we get it going again.

However when he was telling me what to do as he fixed on the solid tow bar he said "put your gearstick in neutral and also put your tranfer lever in neutral as well". I remarked that i hadnt done this when my friend towed me back and he said "Oh $$$$ youve probably minced your gearbox then!".

when my mate towed me I only went four miles and we never got over 30 and it was in H (or 2H) all the time with the main gearstick in Neutral. As i drove away from garage i fell like i have absolutely no power as the car slowly picks up speed. At around 40 mph i get a big shudder underneath the car as well.

Have i trashed my gearbox? it doesnt make any noises. Is it just very underpowered cos of the 35% petrol thats still in the tank?? What is the rumble? have i hurt my driveshaft??

Please help as i love my truck and i hate to think that i could have caused £1000 of damage cos i didnt move transfer lever forward by two inches!!!!

Thankyou for your time.

[Maverick]

My uninformed opinion (which means I have a high chance of bring wrong), is that you should not have done any damage. The under power is from the diesel, you may need to drive it like you stole it for a while cause you need to clear the petrol. Not to sure about the rumbling, cause my girl has always been noisey.
Hopefully Vince or Tony will be on shortly, so you can get more informed info.

[SurfBoy69]

The rumble is more of a heavy vibration which is what i had a few months ago when my universal joint had gone on my driveshaft. Have i done anything that could have damaged this again.

I hope you are right but most links i look at on the net seem to say that towing like i did can lead to major damage to the transmission.

[kitesurf_phil]

I am pretty sure that you can tow an auto for a maximum of 12 miles. I think the damage occurs because there is no transmission fluid flow or cooling. A short run of four miles should not have damaged it.

[SurfBoy69]

Thanks Phil, i am just going to run the tank through i think and get more deisel into the system to help the engine. I think that when that stops shaking like a 'bob the builder toy' it will help everything else.

Lesson learnt, thanks for your help!!!

[SurfBoy69]

Ive had to put it in the garage now because of that rumbling. It was $$$$ing fuelf from one of the injectors after the AA man had tried to bleed them before he realised i put petrol in it.

Thought it just needed tightening up but now the garage say that its 2 hours to get to it to take it out and check it and that that is why it might be rumbling cos its not firing on all cylinders.

" hours labour cos some AA man buggered up my injector.(£90)

Anyone think its worth trying to squeeze the money out the AA? Checked my AA slip and all he says he did was fill my car back up with diesel, doh. Still, it was him that did it, not me. Do we all have to watch the AA men and write our own log of what they do and check against theirs before we sign? Many people wouldnt know what they were doing, would they??!!!

[paulh]

Assuming that it will have only taken the AA man 10mins or so to slacken the injector, then I would think it would take similar time for you or someone else to tighten it.
Why does it have to come out to be checked ?
Sounds like usual garage money making.

[SurfBoy69]

They say that they need to get the injector out to have a look at the seal, rather than just tightening it. They still havent phoned me so i dont they have even looked at it yet!!! AAAAAAGGHHH

[TonyN]

I hope they tried to just tighten it first, pretty sloppy otherwise. If it fixes it great, if not then go ahead and take it out.

If the fuel pipe nut seizes its quite easy to turn the whole injector and crack the fuel return pipe where it sits around the injector.

[SurfBoy69]

Hi there, got it back from the garage within 24 hours. It was the injector that wasnt tight and so it wasnt firing on all cylinders. Cant beleive that was causing such a vibration. It was also not helping the power either!!! Diesel with petrol isnt that bad at all.!!

[WARRIOR72]

yeah its kinda like a petrol car only firing on three cylinders but with diesel its even worse...just dont put diesel in a petrol car that really makes the cat happy!! buy a big sticker that says derv for your petrol cap mate lol it might take a little drive to get it out the system but you should be fine!