wrong oil

I have been asked to drain engine oil out of a diesel car and fill it
with diesel engine oil.as the husband got petrol oil and not diesel
oil.because it was cheaper than diesel oil.(what a pratt) does anybody
know would it of done any harm to the engine? he has only driven it
about 2 miles to me .

 

no damaged what so ever, especially over such a short distance.
Years ago there was no such thing as a diesel engine oil or a petrol
engine oil, it was just a choice of castrol or duckhams.

GGJ

 

I'd be surprised if it's made much difference at all. Most engines these
days will go in a petrol or a diesel engine - you rarely see any with less
than A3/B3 and SM written on the packaging. If it's a direct injection
engine (ie. HDI) he should be using oil that's graded as B4 at least.

On the other hand, some engines can be very fussy about what oil is used -
VW extended service engines will complain if you use the wrong oil and
demand a service early. The correct grades for the oil will be listed in the
car handbook, including manufacturer specs (VW specs tend to be
500.something or other, and oils will have what manufacturer specs it meets
printed on the packaging). If I were him, I'd run the car for a week or two
(500-1000 miles) and then swap the oil and filter for a diesel specific one
*if* the oil he's bought doesn't meet spec, and treat it as an engine flush.
If it does meet spec, there's no reason for it to not stay in there. Even in
a turbo diesel I'd expect the oil to work fairly well - turbo petrol engines
reach much higher temperatures than turbo diesels. The main difference with
the diesel oil is that it's capable of holding more crap for longer, as
diesels black their oil much quicker.

One thing you haven't mentioned is whether he's put a sump full of oil in
there or just a pint or two. If it's a pint or two, I'd be even less
inclined to worry, providing it's not a brand spanking new super high tech
extended service engine. I suspect it's not, as you shouldn't really need to
top up oil in a new engine. If it's something older like a non-turbo XUD,
I'd be inclined to not worry and leave it in there. Oil is oil is oil as
long as far as I'm concerned for engines like that - they're not high tech,
and if they're leaking, it's going to be pretty dilute after a couple more
top ups.

 

Thanks for the reply,
He gave it a full oil service which was filter. and 5lts of oil,and air
filter also diesel filter.so i have done the drain off and left it over
night with the drain plug out to get most of it out,and today we are
going to put Diesel oil into it and replace the filter aswell today when
he gets out of bed and comes round.Thanks again for the replys.i will
show him the replys.

 

Did he have to be drugged to stop him buying petrol engine oil again?

 

No i think his wife will be doing the shopping for the oil and parts
from now on ahahahaha

 

Or nice cheap Comma re-refined if the engine was old and knackered (which in
the case of a 1954 Ford Popular was around 30,000 miles).

 

Oh yeah , forgot all about the trusted comma oil, i must admit i did use
that quite a bit, never had any problems with that stuff either
GGJ

 

i think engines were much more forgiving in those days. I had a 1954
Bedford CA minibus that drank oil. Every month or two the oil light would
start to flicker and I would pour in another gallon of Comma. If it
hadn't been so cheap the vehicle would have had to be scrapped. In those
days of course nobody knew anything about pollution or being green.

 

A friend of mine used to leave a drip tray under his Marina and pour the
contents back into the engine. I think it was laso his marina that had an
oil leak onto the exhaust manifold. Rather than fix the leak he diverted one
of the washer jet pipes so it squirted onto the manifold and extinguished
the smoking oil.

 

I think someone is getting confused here with fuel. Yes, put petrol in
a diesel and the sh1t hits the fanblades, but putting a petrol spec
oil in will make no difference over 4 or 5000 miles. Certainly no need
to do a panic oil change.