Blidworth: Petrol in a Diesel Car? How Worried to Be
Less than you probably are, if it hasn't been started. Everyone around Blidworth begins with "have I wrecked it?", and the fair answer is usually no: petrol left inside the tank of any diesel stays harmless till priming, cranking or driving draws it into the system. Petrol in Diesel is who to phone, with the motor kept off, so it stays that way. Below, you will find what petrol really does inside a diesel, how far it may have gone, and how to stop it happening to you a second time.
Your engine and petrol in a diesel: what goes on
Diesel has two tasks on its way through a motor. Lubricating comes before burning; it does both. The high-pressure pump and your injectors are built to very fine tolerances, and your diesel passing through them is what keeps those surfaces from wearing down against one another.
Poorly at the first, not at all at the second: that is petrol. A pump working on a petrol mix is wearing itself out, since petrol is thinner than diesel and takes away the lubrication your fuel system relies on. Petrol is also designed to resist igniting under compression — the opposite of what a diesel wants from its fuel — and that is where the clattering starts.
The shape of the problem is clear once you put those together. Not contact but movement is what does the damage. Petrol in the tank is a fuel issue. A pump that has been working on that petrol is the start of a mechanical one, and whatever a worn pump sheds moves on with your fuel to your injectors downstream.
Blidworth, petrol in a diesel: four situations, from mild to major
Filled up, and not started: no case is better. At a forecourt, and really only there, the petrol is still confined to the tank — because anywhere else the car was driven to get to it. The job is emptying and cleaning on the spot.
Started for a moment, or only the ignition on. Once primed, your system has drawn petrol out of the tank up to the fuel filter and the fuel lines. That is generally still an easy task — a drain, a flush, and the filter dealt with.
Some miles driven, and your pump has spent each of them working on diluted fuel. Tank, lines, filter, then fresh fuel run through the whole circuit: that is this work, and the way your car was driven counts as much as the distance. The school run to Blidworth Oaks Primary School is one thing. Any mileage on the M1, under 10 miles from Blidworth, means the motor working hard throughout, and a run to Nottingham, under 15 miles away, makes a very different job as well.
Driven on until it complained — knocking, smoke, a lumpy idle, a dead throttle. What you are hearing is the motor reporting fuel that no longer acts like diesel. Pull up wherever you are — the verge on Mansfield Road, a lay-by, a side street — then leave it where it is. Permanent damage is very unusual if a vehicle is stopped quickly, and the fuel drain and flush that still come first sort it out.
Blidworth drivers and that petrol in a diesel myths they hear
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be fine." It will not. A bigger tank of the same mix is all you get, because topping up takes out nothing. Percentage is not how a diesel fuel system tolerates petrol, whatever that advice supposes.
Myth: a current diesel copes with a bit of petrol. Rather, the opposite. More precise components and higher pressure are how a newer diesel runs its fuel, and that makes the protection count more, not less.
Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no harm done." This is the one that catches drivers. The motorist of a petrol engine fed diesel normally stops, since it will not run, and the damage stops with them. Nothing looks to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, which it usually does; meanwhile the pump grinds. A running engine doesn't mean fine.
An outdated workaround for a distinct problem lies behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive it home." It doesn't put back what petrol has weakened, and that petrol is still in your tank afterwards.
Myth: "Drain your tank yourself and you're sorted." After your engine has run, some of the petrol is no longer in your tank: it is in the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and it goes straight back through the pump at the next start. On top of that, petrol drained into a can by the road is genuinely risky.
Petrol in a diesel: how does it occur?
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Rarely, if ever. A diesel nozzle generally won't fit a petrol car, but the smaller petrol nozzle goes into the filler of a diesel nearly without resistance — so forecourts make this one mistake easy, and just in one direction.
Habit and the vehicle falling out of step is how it happens. Hire cars, courtesy cars, and vehicles that are new to you. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the drive. A forecourt you know, but with its pumps arranged differently. A hurried fill en route to Mansfield with a train to catch. The first fill-up in a diesel Volkswagen Golf after years of driving petrol is precisely the moment it happens. With rain, a call arriving, or children to deal with, the hand just does what it has always done.
Blidworth drivers: how to prevent petrol in a diesel next time
- Green for unleaded and black for diesel is normal in the UK — yet not on each forecourt. Go by the label on the petrol pump, not the colour.
- In a car you don't know, look inside the flap over the filler or at the cap before your first fill: plenty of cars state the fuel type there.
- Label your key. In a household with one of each, a coloured fob or a sticker on your diesel's key does more than any amount of intending to remember.
- "Diesel", out loud, before you lift the nozzle — each time a new or hired car needs its first tank. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Tuck your phone away. This is an easy mistake to make whilst you are thinking about something else.
- Some diesels have a filler designed to reject a petrol nozzle, and devices you can add exist for motors without one. Such an inhibitor helps up to a point — as a safety net, not a reason to stop reading the petrol pump.
- Less petrol means a thinner mixture, so stop as soon as you realise — while remembering that your next step is unchanged. It is still not to crank it.
Blidworth: already put petrol in a diesel?
In that case, there is only a short order of things. Never crank it, and do not turn your ignition on. If you're still at the forecourt — BP or anywhere else — ask the attendants to help you push the car clear of the petrol pump. Next, 0333 366 0103. We'll ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has been run.
AdBlue, not petrol? Then tell us. Corrosion and deposits, not lost lubrication, make it a separate problem — Blidworth has a page just for it.
One petrol in a diesel job in Blidworth costs more than another. Why?
The four situations above are four separate jobs, so no single quote for this would be honest. What moves the cost is mostly which of them you are in. The share matters next, meaning how much of the tank is petrol, and then the position of your car and whether reaching it is safe for a technician.
That is why we ask three questions before costing rather than after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. Those answers turn a range into a straight figure.
About Blidworth and its setting
Blidworth is a village in Nottinghamshire, situated approximately 10 miles north of Nottingham, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Blidworth sits inland, at an elevation of around 116 metres, and is near to areas such as Blidworth Bottoms and Haywood Oaks. Blidworth is a relatively small community, with a population of around 2257 people, and is located near to the village of Rainworth. Blidworth is also within commuting distance of Nottingham, making it a popular choice for those working in the city.
Blidworth and Nottinghamshire: where our fuel drain cover reaches
Blidworth waits in the NG postcode area, and the teams that answer petrol in diesel calls there work the places around it as well — Blidworth Bottoms, Haywood Oaks and Rainworth among them. You need not bring your car to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own driveway are all places where we work.
Blidworth: still at the pump?
Then you're in the best place there is. Phone, and keep it switched off.