Take it to the Acura dealer and tell them you are having a drivability problem. You may be suprised! I work at a local Acura dealership and we had a 99 TL come in with a "drivability problem". The customer said he had just filled the tank prior to the problem. The technician drained the tank and sure enough, there was diesel fuel! My service manager covered it under warranty. You have to realize, just because you think Acura won't warranty a problem doesn't mean a dealership won't cover it. A dealership gets money for labor when doing warranty repairs. Its all about business.

Not to mention that our dealership is #1 in Parts and Service in the country!!!

 

I was amazed he got the pump nozzel to 'fit' also. My other cars all have a small spring loaded flap at the opening of the fuel filler line - so you would know if you had the wrong nozzel - it wouldnt go in far, and there would be splashback if you tried to pump.
The Acura doesnt have this flap, so I guess he just lined up the nozzel with the hole and pumped away...

Anyway - thanks for all advice (and I understand the humor in some replies) - these things happen... I think one of you made a good point about having not just the tank, but the fuel system purged. I may just take my chances and flat-bed it to Acura to let them flush it out.

 

good luck with it man. Tell us how it goes. Should be interesting to see how Acura handles it.

 

Flat-bedding it to the dealer to have the fuel system purged is your best bet.

 

the reason that it won't run is probably because most newer cars that sense anything other than gasoline in the system won't run. all you should have to do is flush the gas tank, fill it back up with gasoline and you should be fine. the reason it ran before is because the system used up the last amount of gas before the diesel went into the lines. you can call acura to make sure but this is my experience (my friends aunt brought him a can of diesel that she thought was gas when he ran out)

 

I went to Acura and explained what had happened. They had seen it before. By the way, there is no drain plug on the RSX tank and the fuel filler line is 'siphon proof'. Since my mix was about 50/50 gas/diesel, it was a question of getting the engine temp up to the point where the diesel would combust. 15-20 starts (with caughing and a lot of smoke) I got it to stay running. Wedged a piece of wood from the seat the the gas pedal. 13 hours later (at 3000 rpm) the tank was empty and I followed it up with a full tank of high octane. Runs like new.

Looking back, I supposed I could have disconnected the fuel line and put 12 volts to the fuel pump- which understand puts out 60 psi. But then I would have bad fuel to get rid of (I dont mow my lawn that often...).

Anyway, thanks for your comments/help. You would not make this mistake - but according to Acura, they see it often - so you can help if it comes up on the forum again. p.s. the rsx has no splash flap in the filler neck like 99pct of cars do - that would have prevented the problem in the first place

 

Glad everything turned out well.

Just out of curiousity which dealership did you go to?

 

devan acura in norwalk. very nice guys there