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I fear receiving your answer but anyway, here's the question.

I borrowed a friend's van yesterday, a Toyota Estima (maybe 4-5 years' old).

It's petrol but as I usually drive diesel vehicles I mistakenly topped up the tank with 13 litres of diesel.

With the tank filled with petrol except for the 13 litres of diesel, will I have serious engine problems?

Bill

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 23 April 2010

Diesel into petrol isn't such a problem. If you've started the vehicle it may run OK temporarily but will eventually run rough and may smoke considerably.

You will need to drain the tank (possibly via a drain in the base of tank) replace the fuel filter (possibly the spark plugs in extreme cases), purge the fuel lines, refill with petrol and the vehicle should be fine.

Fuel suction services like Suckie Moto (0800 782 566) are professionals at draining fuel tanks in these circumstances.

Petrol into diesel is another story, the high compression in a diesel causes the volatile petrol to combust violently and can damage the engine if run at load etc.