[Sorry for the long tale but it's a good read]
My 2007 JK has about 120,000 miles on it. Just before Christmas I ran out of gas at night (my daughters, both home from college, had been joyriding it around town getting LOTS of attention earlier in the day) and AAA came with my two free gallons of gas. Unfortunately, the moron did not realize that the two gallons he put into my tank were diesel, not regular unleaded. Neither did I.
Now the story gets interesting.
The vehicle started, but 1/4 mile away it died. The same AAA contractor towed me to my mechanic. The next day I heard that my fuel pump had failed. The following day I heard that the pump had been replaced, and that the fuel system was basically pure diesel, which had caused the fuel pump to fail. My mechanic had tried to start and drive the vehicle a number of times after replacing the fuel pump, and it didn't start, and that's when he decided to check the fuel itself and detected the diesel. Meaning, diesel ran through the new fuel pump as well. Then he flushed the fuel system, put in regular unleaded, and the car seemed to work OK.
Fine. I paid the mechanic and filed a claim with AAA for about $1,000.
I took the jeep on a run for about 120 miles with no performance issues a couple days later.
A couple days after that, I left on another day trip but my engine began making a very metallic knocking going up a grade. I called AAA again and got towed 75 miles to my special jeep mechanic because I wondered if this was still an aftershock from the diesel thing. A couple days later this second mechanic told me three of my rods were destroyed and that he smelled diesel fuel in the oil that he drained into the pan. How did diesel get in the lubrication system, I asked. He said that diesel won't burn in the carburetor but runs down the walls and seeps through some seal into the lube system.
Why did it take a week and over 200 miles of driving to finally damage my engine, I asked him. He said diesel has no lubrication properties, so it takes a little time (e.g., a few days and 200 miles) for the degradation in the engine to finally take hold. That's why the engine didn't fail immediately after I picked it up from the first mechanic.
But then, this specialized mechanic says that it is possible that my engine was ready to fail already, and the diesel just put it over the edge. I want to update my claim to AAA for both the fuel pump and a rebuilt engine (now a total of $8500), but the mechanic is unwilling to openly state that "diesel caused the engine failure."
So here are my questions:
1) Do 2007 JK engines (V-8, 6 cylinder) fail as early as 120,000 miles or can they be counted on to last a lot longer?
2) Was my first mechanic responsible for the engine failure, because he ran diesel through the new fuel pump and did not know about that other situation, where diesel can seep into the lube system?
3) The second mechanic said that diesel seeps into the lube system from the carburetor. Is this a high probability occurrence? How could this have happened if the fuel system had been cleaned of diesel by the first mechanic? Does it take a lot of diesel to ruin lube in the engine, or just a little?
4) How long does it take for an engine to fail after it gets some contaminant (like diesel) into the lube system? A day and a few miles? Or a week and 200 miles?
5) I do not believe in coincidences. So if the engine failed a couple hundred miles after flushing the fuel system, and the oil smelled like diesel, then the damn engine failed because of the diesel, and not because it was already on the point of failure. Is that the right conclusion?
6) Has anyone on WF lived through this experience? How did it come out?
Thanks for any and all replies.
My 2007 JK has about 120,000 miles on it. Just before Christmas I ran out of gas at night (my daughters, both home from college, had been joyriding it around town getting LOTS of attention earlier in the day) and AAA came with my two free gallons of gas. Unfortunately, the moron did not realize that the two gallons he put into my tank were diesel, not regular unleaded. Neither did I.
Now the story gets interesting.
The vehicle started, but 1/4 mile away it died. The same AAA contractor towed me to my mechanic. The next day I heard that my fuel pump had failed. The following day I heard that the pump had been replaced, and that the fuel system was basically pure diesel, which had caused the fuel pump to fail. My mechanic had tried to start and drive the vehicle a number of times after replacing the fuel pump, and it didn't start, and that's when he decided to check the fuel itself and detected the diesel. Meaning, diesel ran through the new fuel pump as well. Then he flushed the fuel system, put in regular unleaded, and the car seemed to work OK.
Fine. I paid the mechanic and filed a claim with AAA for about $1,000.
I took the jeep on a run for about 120 miles with no performance issues a couple days later.
A couple days after that, I left on another day trip but my engine began making a very metallic knocking going up a grade. I called AAA again and got towed 75 miles to my special jeep mechanic because I wondered if this was still an aftershock from the diesel thing. A couple days later this second mechanic told me three of my rods were destroyed and that he smelled diesel fuel in the oil that he drained into the pan. How did diesel get in the lubrication system, I asked. He said that diesel won't burn in the carburetor but runs down the walls and seeps through some seal into the lube system.
Why did it take a week and over 200 miles of driving to finally damage my engine, I asked him. He said diesel has no lubrication properties, so it takes a little time (e.g., a few days and 200 miles) for the degradation in the engine to finally take hold. That's why the engine didn't fail immediately after I picked it up from the first mechanic.
But then, this specialized mechanic says that it is possible that my engine was ready to fail already, and the diesel just put it over the edge. I want to update my claim to AAA for both the fuel pump and a rebuilt engine (now a total of $8500), but the mechanic is unwilling to openly state that "diesel caused the engine failure."
So here are my questions:
1) Do 2007 JK engines (V-8, 6 cylinder) fail as early as 120,000 miles or can they be counted on to last a lot longer?
2) Was my first mechanic responsible for the engine failure, because he ran diesel through the new fuel pump and did not know about that other situation, where diesel can seep into the lube system?
3) The second mechanic said that diesel seeps into the lube system from the carburetor. Is this a high probability occurrence? How could this have happened if the fuel system had been cleaned of diesel by the first mechanic? Does it take a lot of diesel to ruin lube in the engine, or just a little?
4) How long does it take for an engine to fail after it gets some contaminant (like diesel) into the lube system? A day and a few miles? Or a week and 200 miles?
5) I do not believe in coincidences. So if the engine failed a couple hundred miles after flushing the fuel system, and the oil smelled like diesel, then the damn engine failed because of the diesel, and not because it was already on the point of failure. Is that the right conclusion?
6) Has anyone on WF lived through this experience? How did it come out?
Thanks for any and all replies.