Well, the subject says most of it. My Father-in-law is in his mid 80's and I converted him to an MB Diesel fanatic in the mid 80's. When I was courting my wife, I drove my Mom's 1971 220D and then bought my own 1975 240D. At the time he thought I was some kind of twit and used to tease me about my car selections. As the cars got a little older and piled on mileage, he went through about 3 company cars and we were still driving the Diesels. When my Mom decided to get a W123 230E (I was importing them then) he asked if he could buy the 220D. Well, that led to him buying the 1980 240D in the early 90's when it had 88,000 miles on it. He now drives that car as his pride and joy from April to November. It is entirely rust free and there is not a stray drop of oil under the hood. It has 185,000 miles on it, and he uses it to tow a small trailer with wood, lawn tractors and the like up to Lake Champlain and back to Albany, NY during that time period.

Well, he called Thursday night and was very distraught. He filled the car with gas instead of Diesel and drove it about 45 miles. No indications of any problems (normal temp, and his car seems to have an invisible peg at 83 degrees C, and normal - pegged at 3 bar- oil pressure) until he tried to start it and it would not start. He then began to check things and found the fuel cap smelled like gas, not Diesel and the reciept said gas, not Diesel. He had the car towed to an independent MB shop and had the gas drained, the lines cleared, the fuel filters replaced, the oil and oil filter changed and fresh Diesel put in. It runs fine now, but my Mother-in-law observed some white smoke either when he lets off the throttle to shift (the car is a 4-speed) or when gets back on the throttle after shifting when she drove behind him on the way home. He is very worried the car is damaged or needs something else done and he might be causing more damage. Since my Mother-in-law has probably never observed the tailpipe emissions on this vehicle before, I am not sure if what she saw is new or unusual for this car. He has never had to add a quart of oil to the car between oil changes (typically 3 or 4 a year that I do with him even though I bought him a Topsider so he could do it himself rather than wait for me - he will park it after 3,000 miles and wait).

He also noted the car has more pep than it has had in a while, and that it idles a bit faster than it did before. I suggested maybe his fuel filters really needed to be cleaned and the changeout was good since he stores the car for a few months in the Winter. He routinely starts it every week, and lets it warm up for 20 or 30 minutes in the driveway (unless it is dry and salt free outside, in which case he takes it for a joy ride), but the tank full in November lasts until he really starts using it in April or May.

I told him to run some Redline Diesel Fuel Catalyst through it, and drive it until it really gets warmed up, say 100 miles or more, on one of his joy rides. If it still smokes I guess I will drive over and start looking for signs of a problem. I am suspicious of the injection pump, as it ran in some tough conditions (a 70% or so gas/Diesel mixture), but I do not see that being the cause of any white smoke. I will look at the vacuum pump diaphragm line to the intake manifold and see if that is black. But the independent MB shop owner told him only that an injector or two might have been damaged (wrote it on his receipt, too), so I am not sure if the smoke is an artifact of what was left in his fuel lines or exhaust system from the gas being in there. The car is also due for a valve adjustment that I routinely perform once a year for him, so we scheduled that maintenance next time I go to see my daughter at school in Troy.

Well, I am wondering if anyone else has gone through this kind of scenario (the gas in the Diesel part, not the wife courting and converting a future Father-in-law to become an MB Diesel person) and if they can offer any advice or shed light on what kind of damage may have occured. Thanks in advance, Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)