Whoops!!!!!

Ok guys I'm going to come clean - last Saturday was spent cleaning out the fuel system on my Honda - yes, last Wednesday I did the cardinal sin of putting £40 of petrol in my diesel Civic. In my defence I had used the same pump 24hours earlier filling up my motorbike and I guess I was in a time-warp!

I realised immediately what I had done and didn't try to start the engine so the car was pushed away from the pumps. Jan was called to tow me home with the Disco and the car was parked in my drive.

There was no way of getting the fuel out of the tank so the only option seemed to be to suck the fuel out via the pipes entering the injector pump. I used the electric pump off the Series 1 and, as the fuel was 95% petrol it was poured into the Series tank. The system was then flushed through with seven litres of clean diesel until the taste test failed to detect any petrol.

At 4 o-clock the moment came to try to start the engine and she fired up with no dramas. One query remains however - when the tank was completely empty the fuel gauge was still showing 1/8 tank and according to the trip computer we still had 170miles of fuel in ther tank?

Jan did a similar trick with the Disco last year but then drove it home. The percentage of diesel was higher though and it would just about run. Cleaning out the tank was a lot easier with the Disco as I could get right inside the tank via a hatch. I did fear for the seals in the pump and the fuel rail but 6000 miles later she still seems to be running OK and I'm sure any problems would have shown themselves by now.