Aspull: Petrol in a Diesel Car? How Worried to Be
Unstarted? Then less worried than you likely are. Till your ignition primes your pump, the starter cranks, or the vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank simply rests there and does nothing. Which makes the honest reply to that first Aspull question — "have I wrecked it?" — normally no. Keep it like that: leave the engine off then call Petrol in Diesel. Below, you will find what petrol actually does inside a diesel, how far it might have got, and how to stop it happening to you a second time.
The engine and petrol in a diesel: what goes on
Diesel has two jobs on its way through an engine. It lubricates first, and only then does it burn. What stops the surfaces inside your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors from wearing against each other is the diesel passing through them — they are designed to extremely fine gaps.
Of these two tasks, petrol handles the first poorly and the second never. It is thinner than diesel and takes away the lubrication the system depends on, so a pump running on a petrol mix is a pump wearing itself. And petrol is designed to resist igniting under compression, which is the opposite of what a diesel needs from its fuel. That's where the rattling comes from.
The shape of the issue is plain once you put those together. It is circulation that does the harm, not contact. A tank with petrol in it is a fuel fault. Whatever a worn pump sheds travels on, borne by your fuel, into the injectors downstream, which is why a pump that has been working on the petrol is where a mechanical problem begins.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four situations we see around Aspull
Fuelled up, not once started. The best case there is. Just the tank has petrol in it, and so the task is draining that tank and cleaning the system where the vehicle sits. This situation can only truly happen at a forecourt: anywhere else, the vehicle got there by being driven.
Ignition on, or started for a moment. Petrol has left your tank and got to the fuel filter and the lines, since the system has been primed. Normally little more than draining, purging and sorting your filter, and so still simple.
A couple of miles driven, and the pump has spent every one of them working on diluted fuel. How hard the car was driven counts as much as how far, and the work covers that tank, your lines, the fuel filter and fresh fuel through the whole circuit. Driving the children to Aspull Church Primary School is one sort of trip. A run as far as Salford, under 15 miles away, is a very different job. So is any distance on the M61, under 3 miles from Aspull, where the engine has been running hard the whole time.
Driven on till it complained — clattering, smoke, an uneven idle, a soft throttle. What you are hearing is your engine signalling fuel that no longer acts like diesel. Leave it wherever it has stopped: a lay-by, a quiet street, the verge on Bolton Road. Lasting damage is very rare if a car is pulled over quickly, and the drain and flush-through that still go first sort it out.
Petrol in a diesel stories Aspull motorists hear
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be fine." It will not. Nothing is removed when you top up — that tank just holds more of the same mixture. Percentage is not how a diesel fuel system tolerates petrol, however much that advice assumes.
"Current diesels can handle a little petrol" — a myth, and nearer the opposite. Smaller parts and higher pressure are how a newer diesel runs its fuel, and that makes the protection matter more, not less.
"It starts, it drives, and so no harm done" — the myth that catches more drivers than any other. A petrol motor fed diesel generally will not run, and so the motorist stops and the damage stops with them. Nothing seems to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, as it usually does; meanwhile the pump grinds. Being able to run isn't proof of being fine.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, borrowed from a fix from years ago, for a different problem. The petrol is still in that tank afterwards, and whatever it has diluted isn't put back.
"Drain it yourself and you're sorted" — a myth, because after it's been running some petrol lies in the fuel filter and lines, waiting to go straight back through your pump on your next start. On top of that, petrol cleared into a can by the road is truly dangerous.
Petrol in a diesel: how does it happen?
Nobody does it on purpose, and it is rarely carelessness. The petrol nozzle is the slimmer of the two and slips into a diesel filler with almost no resistance; a diesel nozzle generally will not go into a petrol car at all. The forecourt makes it simple, and the mistake runs one way.
When habit and the vehicle stop matching, it happens. A new motor, a hire car or a courtesy car. Households running one of each, petrol and diesel. A well-known forecourt with the pumps in a different order. A hurried fill en route to Blackrod with a train to catch. Exactly the moment it takes place: after years of driving petrol, someone fills a diesel Volkswagen Golf for the first time. Throw in a back seat full of kids, a phone call or rain, and the hand wins.
Aspull drivers: how to prevent petrol in a diesel next time
- The label is what counts, and so check the pump instead of the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are normally green and diesel black, yet not on each forecourt.
- The first fill in a strange motor is the time to check your filler flap — inside it, or on the cap, many vehicles state which fuel they take.
- A coloured fob or a sticker on your diesel's key achieves more than any amount of intending to remember, for a household with one of each.
- Before the nozzle comes off the petrol pump the first time you fill a hired or new car, say "diesel" aloud. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Mistakes like this are simple to make whilst your mind is on something else, so the phone goes away.
- A misfuel inhibitor helps, up to a point. Some diesels have a filler built to reject a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices are available for cars without one. They are a safety net, not a reason to stop reading the pump.
- Less petrol makes a thinner mix, and so stop the moment you notice — while remembering that your next step is unchanged. It is still not to crank it.
Already put petrol in a diesel around Aspull?
In that case, there's only a short order of things. Don't turn the ignition on, and don't crank it. If you are still on the forecourt — BP or anywhere else — ask the staff to help you roll it away from the petrol pump. Then phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us what was put in, about how much, and if it has run.
Say so if it was AdBlue rather than petrol: it is a separate problem, with its own page for Aspull, since AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits rather than lost lubrication.
What makes one Aspull petrol in a diesel task cost more than the next
The four scenarios above are four separate jobs, so no single quote for this would be honest. The situation itself does most of the work of moving the cost. Where the vehicle is counts too, and whether a van can safely reach it, after the share of petrol to what that tank holds.
That's why we ask three questions before pricing instead of after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. A range turns into a straight figure when those answers are in.
About Aspull itself
Aspull is a village in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 129 metres. Aspull lies near the towns of Haigh, New Springs, and Scot Lane End, and is approximately 13.4 miles from Salford. Aspull has a population of around 3367 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Aspull is located in the North West region of England, about 175.9 miles from London.
Across Greater Manchester and in Aspull: fuel drain cover
Haigh, New Springs and Scot Lane End are among the places around Aspull that the same teams work, answering petrol in diesel call-outs across Aspull's WN postcode area. A forecourt, a supermarket car park, a lay-by or your own drive are all spots we work, and the vehicle does not need to come to us.
Still at the petrol pump around Aspull?
Then, you could not be in a better spot. Turned off it stays; then call.