I put a small amount of diesel in my Prius and now it won't start

Accidentally putting diesel in a gas car | Autobytel.com

 

So does it start or not? The battery lasts less than a mile so it couldn't have made 10 miles without the ICE coming on. If it does start, I'd just keep driving and filling up to dilute the rest of the tank.

 

if it was biodiesel, the pistons and cylinders are all covered in deposits and engine needs to be rebuilt. there is a video on youtube about it. not sure about regular diesel, maybe purging/cleaning the whole fuel system (including injectors) and spark plugs will help. IMHO, the car should not be driven with diesel contamination.

here is the video, the guy claims he put a gallon of biodiesel in his prius:

 

You're not being consistent. Your OP said you got 10 miles without the ICE coming on and the fuel gauge showed empty. Now you're saying you got 20 miles yesterday without incident. Which is it?

The way I see it. You already have diesel contamination in it. Your engine is already damaged or it isn't. Thats why I recommend to just keep driving it. Be more specific when you say, "it's dead." Any lights come on? Can you shift to D?

 

Nobody bothered to ask whether the gas tank was half full or near empty, nor did the OP mention it - IOW it makes a big difference if that amount of diesel is just a couple liters mixed with 6 or 7 gallons -versus basically being nothing but diesel in the gas tank.
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Post # 7 asks a valid question...ratio of diesel to gasoline.
I also agree with post # 5 ...don't try to drive the car until you do some inspections/ repairs.

Might be best for a shop to do.....can be messy and you may need specific tools for the fuel lines.
Drain fuel tank, refill with gasoline, disconnect fuel line at injectors, turn on car and operate the fuel pump to purge the fuel lines, reconnect and go for a start.
You might even consider (mentioned above) inspecting or replacing the spark plugs.
Not sure if removing the injectors is necessary to clean them of any potential "gunk" which maybe affecting their spray pattern.
This is just a procedure not specific to a Prius.

Of course it could be Murphy's Law and something else failed at the same time.
Hook up a OBD reader and inspect for codes before doing anything.
The basics are test for spark then test for fuel.

Good luck.
S**t happens....don't feel to foolish.

 

I too would have thought a small amount of diesel could be handled. Like the video above, I believe it's also true that's its hard to siphon out the fuel from the filler tube side.

 

I worked at a trucking company and saw a gas vehicle stop running after a diesel fill up.
About one hour before it stopped. Not sure what the gas to diesel ratio was.

The mechanics were able to drain the diesel out and get it running again in about 30 minutes.
It did take a couple minutes cranking to get it started.

Good luck.

So, your Prius doesn't have the "bladder" gas tank, right ?

I'm optomistic that your mechanic can get it running without too much work.
Surely they've seen this before.

 

It's probably 5% biodiesel right? and I do not know if you have 5% ethanol in the gasoline? Any water probably gets kicked out not sure what happens.

That's sounds like a fun test tube test. Maybe something drops out not sure. Earlier in the week one EU member was saying they are trying to give water with ethanol in EU if so there could be water dropping out.

 

Did not know the UK doesn't have different size nozzles on diesel and regular gas pumps like we do so you can't do that over here.

 

what part of a gallon does 2.5 pounds buy? how many miles on her? could this be a coincidence?

 

This article sounds good
Accidentally mixing gasoline and diesel fuel - What happens then?

it is saying the issue is too much octane loss...so 5% diesel is like -5 octane and the engine starts balking.
So you should have used the highest possible octane to compensate.

 

Agree with others, if you take it to a shop and fully drain the gas tank, refill with maximum octane fuel available, then run the fuel pump until clean fuel comes through in the engine bay, there's a good chance the car will start and run. After that I'd run engine/ fuel injector cleaner in the gas for several tanks to clean as much gunk out of the engine as possible from improper running. Also probably worth changing the oil after a few tanks. Inspection of the spark plugs will reveal if anything too bad has occurred in the engine. Putting octane booster in immediately after discovering adding a small amount of diesel might have been sufficient, but is unlikely to work now.

 

£2.5 = a tad over ½gal U.S.
heck I probably swallowed that much siphoning when I was a kid ... which explains a lot

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OP is fortunate in not having the bladder tank. Hopefully the UK version is easily drained.
.
Recall this teardown thread with photos: the gas bladder: exposed! | PriusChat

 

it's a shame some of the most interesting threads lack a follow up.