havent tried it yet GGEBHARDT - will do tonight once i get back from work.
the car is parked since last night - when this happened - and hasnt and will not be - turned on.

 

I had to add to this post as I had a similar issue with my father in law. He swears he did not put diesel into our RX330 (this was a few years ago) as it would not fit.

The dealer said they could smell diesel and it definitely was there, service manager is my best friend and he has no reason to lie!!

We were driving and all the sudden the car made a weird sound and it just died, I think the timing chain was messed up as well. He borrowed the car and didn't say anything. It was really expensive to get fixed I remember but can't remember all that went wrong but it was nasty.

I would do everything to get every last drop out. I was wondering if this was possible as I drove to the store he mentioned and it would not fit but I knew he had to have done it somehow.

 

Diesel fuel has very low octane rating between 8-15 so siphon as much as you can, fill with premium gas. If you end up with about one gallon of diesel it should dilute premium to about 86. If you are still worried buy octane booster from auto store that should do it.

 

Octane boosters don't work very well. Would be better if he uses UNLEADED 100 octane or higher race fuel. DO NOT USE LEADED RACE FUEL!

 

How much did he fill it up with diesel? If it's just a little bit of diesel you can fill the rest up with normal gas and you are good to go, BUT if filled completely with diesel you will need to siphon it out ASAP (have it towed to your home if you need to). Don't let it sit or else the Diesel gas can cause damage to the fuel system, engine and injectors.

You can buy siphon pumps from most hardware stores (particularly SEARS, search online and call to make sure they have it in stock before you waste your time going there and they don't have it in stock):

http://www.sears.com/search=siphon%20pump

FYI most new cars are designed to disallow diesel pump nozzles in there. I'll check to see if our 4RX has this feature and will follow up soon...

 

If you already siphoned as much as you can go ahead and fill and top it off with regular gas as this is an adequate remedy per Sears, but filling an entire tank with diesel is a completely different story. Good luck!

I would try to rock the car side-to-side to help mix both gases together to dilute the diesel.

 

I do not think there is a need to rock the car side-to-side as fuel is constantly circulating in the system. I'd just siphon as much as I could and fill up with higher grade.

 

OP said about 8 gallons and then drove home.

 

I highly recommended not driving the car at all. They tried high octane fuel to clean it out after they siphoned all they could and that was at the dealership. It didn't work and they had to replace many parts.

I bet we drove less than 10 miles and all went to hell as we didn't know he put diesel in the car until something went wrong and then the car had to be towed, there was no other indicator as all was fine until it was not.

I just know this is a very bad situation so please don't drive it at all until it's all removed and the highest octane gas you can find is added.

 

Stupid question.... are you sure he added diesel ?

I was at a gas station today beside the diesel pump, so I thought I would try to put it in the tank. Does not fit, not even close. Maybe your Dad didn't actually add diesel, perhaps he was beside a diesel handle and thought he added diesel. Does he have a receipt that might show what he bought?

Hopefully he just thought he added it.

Fingers crossed for you!

 

Same thing for me... I went to the station and tried and you are correct, it does not fit!

In my case it was definitely there (techs could smell it badly they said and it was everywhere in the engine) but I have no idea how that could happen either as he denied it and when it didn't fit I didn't know what to think.

 

I, also, have to question for sure that he put diesel in the vehicle. I just filled up at BP where they have diesel and your Dad would have had to push the pump handle hard against the stop that is built into the tank receiver. Even if you pushed hard, the diesel would still have been squirting out the sides. I do not think it would have worked as the auto shutoff would have triggered like the tank was full. To get 8 gallons in the tank would have created a huge mess.

 

Looks like there were a few curious people that tried this. lol

 

It would be nice to hear the end of this saga

 

I'm curious...what ever happened?