Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Aberdeen
Less than you probably are, provided it hasn't been started. Everyone in Aberdeen starts with "have I ruined it?", and the fair answer is normally no: petrol resting inside your tank of any diesel stays harmless until priming, cranking or driving draws it into the system. To keep the car that way, phone Petrol in Diesel and leave the motor alone. Keep reading for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel motor, the signs of how far it has spread, and the way to make sure you don't do it again.
Inside the engine: what petrol in a diesel really does
On its way through an engine, diesel does two tasks. Oiling comes before burning; it does both. Designed to extremely fine tolerances, your injectors and your pump rely on the diesel moving through them to keep their surfaces from wearing against one another.
The second job petrol does not do at all, and the first it does poorly. The clattering comes from petrol being designed not to ignite when compressed, which is exactly the reverse of what a diesel needs. On top of that it is thinner than diesel, it strips away the protection your system depends on, and any pump working on that blend is wearing itself.
The shape of the issue is plain when you put those together. The harm is done by circulation, not by contact. Where that petrol is only in your tank, it is a problem of fuel, nothing more. The start of a mechanical one is a pump that has been working on that petrol — and whatever a worn pump sheds travels on with the fuel to the fuel injectors beyond it.
How bad is petrol in a diesel? Four situations our technicians see in Aberdeen
Filled up, never started. The best case there can be. That petrol is in that tank and only that tank, and the job is a drain and a flush where the car stands. This is the one scenario that can only truly take place at a forecourt, because anywhere else the vehicle has been driven to get there.
The ignition turned on, or a short start. Once primed, your system has pulled petrol from your tank up to your filter and the lines. Usually nothing more than clearing, rinsing and sorting the filter, and so still easy.
Driven a few miles. Now your pump has spent these miles labouring on thinned fuel. Tank, lines, filter, then fresh fuel run through the whole system: that's this work, and the way the car was driven counts as much as the distance. Driving the kids to the local primary school is one sort of trip. Any miles on the M90, over 50 miles from Aberdeen, means the engine has worked hard throughout, and a run to Dundee, over 50 miles away, makes a very different job too.
Rattling, a ragged idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven till it complained. The motor is telling you your fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Pull up on the spot — on the verge on King Street, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it. The fuel drain and flush-through still go first, and they deal with it: when a car is pulled over quickly, long-term damage is very rare.
What Aberdeen motorists get told about petrol in a diesel — and the myths in it
It will not be fine. The myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be." Topping up takes out nothing; it gives you a fuller tank of the same mix. That guidance assumes a diesel fuel system handles petrol by percentage. It doesn't.
Not so: a current diesel copes with a bit of petrol. Rather, the reverse. At higher pressure, through smaller components: that is how a current diesel handles its fuel, and so the protection counts for more, not less.
Myth: "If it starts and drives, there is no harm done." This is the one that fools people. Diesel in a petrol motor generally means a motor that won't run: the motorist stops, and so does the harm. Feed petrol to a diesel and it usually fires up, idles and drives away as if nothing has happened — all the while its pump is wearing. Being able to run isn't proof of being fine.
Not so: a two-stroke additive lets you to drive home. It was an old fix, supposed for another problem. It doesn't put back what petrol has thinned, and the petrol is still in the tank afterwards.
Myth: "Drain the tank yourself and you're sorted." Once your engine has run, some of the petrol is no longer inside the tank: it's in your filter and the fuel lines, and it goes straight back through the pump at the next start. And, a can of petrol filled by the kerbside is genuinely hazardous.
How does petrol in a diesel occur?
Nobody does it on purpose, and it is seldom carelessness. One way only, because of the nozzles: the smaller petrol one slips inside a diesel filler with almost no resistance, while the diesel one mostly won't fit a petrol car. That is how the forecourt makes it simple.
It occurs when habit and your car stop matching. Courtesy car, hire car, or a car that's brand new. Two motors on one driveway, one petrol, one diesel. A forecourt you know, only with its pumps arranged differently. Racing for a train outside the nearest station and filling up en route. A new-to-you diesel Volkswagen Golf, its first fuelling, and a driver used to petrol: precisely when it happens. Add rain, a phone call or a back seat full of kids, and your hand repeats what it has always done.
Next time you fill up in Aberdeen: avoiding petrol in a diesel
- A green handle for unleaded and black for diesel is normal in the UK — yet not on each forecourt. Go by the label on the pump, not the colour.
- Many vehicles state the fuel inside the filler flap or on the cap, so check it on the first fill in a car you do not know.
- Good intentions count for less than a sticker or a fob in a vivid colour on the diesel's key when a household has one of each. So label it.
- Say it before you lift it. On your first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" aloud before you lift the nozzle off the petrol pump. It sounds daft and it works.
- Mistakes like this are simple to make whilst your mind is on something else, and so your phone goes away.
- Up to a point, a misfuel inhibitor helps: some diesels come with a filler built to refuse a petrol nozzle, and aftermarket devices exist for the remainder. Treat it as a safety net, then keep reading the pump.
- The moment you notice, stop: less petrol inside the tank means a weaker blend. What to do next doesn't change, though — still do not fire it up.
Already put petrol in a diesel in Aberdeen?
The order of things is brief, then. Do not start the vehicle, and don't switch the ignition on. Yet on the forecourt, at Morrisons or anywhere else? Ask the attendants to help you push it clear of the pump. Next, 0333 366 0103. We will ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's been run.
Say so if it was AdBlue rather than petrol: it's a separate fault, with its own page for Aberdeen, since AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits instead of lost lubrication.
Aberdeen petrol in a diesel tasks: why one costs more than another
Four separate jobs sit behind the four scenarios above — which is why there's no fair single price. The scenario itself does most of the work of moving the cost. The share matters next, meaning how much of your tank is petrol, and then the location of the car and whether getting to it is safe for a technician.
That's why we ask three questions before pricing rather than after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. A range turns into a straight figure once those answers are in.
About Aberdeen and its setting
Aberdeen is a significant urban centre situated on Scotland's north-east coast, boasting a rich history and a distinct maritime character. The city is nestled within its own council area, separate from the surrounding Aberdeenshire. Aberdeen's landscape is marked by an expansive coastline with sandy beaches, and its climate is characterised by mild winters and cool summers. Aberdeen is known for its port and its role as a major city in Scotland.
Across Aberdeen City and in Aberdeen: fuel drain cover
The vans answering petrol in diesel call-outs around Aberdeen, in the AB postcode area, equally work the locations near it, Gilcomston, Rosemount and Footdee among them. No need to move your car to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own driveway are all places we drain.
At the petrol pump around Aberdeen, right now?
The best position there is, then — that is where you are. Keep it switched off, then ring.