Burslem: Petrol in a Diesel Car? How Worried to Be
Likely less than you already are — provided nobody has started it. "Have I ruined it?" is the first question everyone around Burslem asks, and the honest answer is generally no, because petrol left in a diesel tank harms nothing until it is drawn through the system — by ignition priming, by the starter, or by driving. Petrol in Diesel is who to ring, with the motor left off, so it remains that way. The rest of this page covers what petrol actually does to a diesel, how to tell how far it has got, and how to make sure it doesn't happen to you a second time.
Petrol in a diesel: what does it do to your engine?
Two jobs fall to diesel on its journey through a motor. Before it ignites, it lubricates — and then it ignites. Built to very fine tolerances, your injectors and the pump rely on the diesel moving through them to stop their surfaces wearing against one another.
The second task petrol does not do at all, and the first it does badly. It is runnier than diesel and removes the protection the system hinges on, and so a pump running on a petrol blend is a pump wearing itself. And petrol is made to resist igniting under compression, which is the opposite of what a diesel needs from its fuel. That's where the knocking comes from.
Combined, those leave the shape of the issue plain. Not contact but movement is what causes the damage. Any tank with petrol in it is a fuel fault. 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 the fuel injectors further on.
Petrol in a diesel in Burslem: how serious is it? Four cases
The best case there can be: filled up, not once started. At a forecourt, and genuinely only there, the petrol is still limited to that tank — because anywhere else the car was driven to reach it. The task is draining and cleaning on the spot.
A moment's running, or just your ignition on. With the system primed, your lines and filter already hold petrol that came from your tank. Drain, flush, deal with your filter: still normally simple.
A couple of miles driven, and your pump has spent every one of them working on diluted fuel. The work is that tank, the lines, the fuel filter and fresh fuel through the entire circuit, and how hard your car was driven counts as much as how far. On the school run to Moorpark Junior School, the miles is short. Driving as far as Stoke-on-Trent, under 3 miles away, makes a very different task — as does any miles on the M6, under 5 miles from Burslem, with the engine labouring hard the whole time.
Driven on till it protested — rattling, smoke, a ragged idle, a soft throttle. The motor is telling you the fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Stop on the spot — on the verge on Reginald Street, at the kerb, down a side road — and don't move it again. What goes first is still the drain and flush, and that sorts it out, with long-term damage very uncommon when a car is pulled over early.
Burslem people and the petrol in a diesel stories they hear
"Top it up the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine" — a myth. It won't. Nothing comes out when you top up — that tank simply carries more of the same blend. Percentage is not how a diesel fuel system copes with petrol, however much that advice supposes.
Myth: "A modern diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." If anything, the reverse. A newer diesel sends its fuel through more precise components at higher pressure, which makes the protection count more, not less.
"It starts, it drives, so there is no harm" — the myth that catches more motorists than any other. Any petrol engine fed diesel normally will not run, so the driver stops and the harm stops with them. A diesel fed petrol generally starts, idles and drives away as though nothing has happened, while your pump wears. Fine and running aren't the same at all.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, taken from a fix from years ago, for a different issue. What petrol has thinned remains thinned, and the petrol stays in your tank regardless.
If your engine has been run, part of the petrol sits in the fuel filter and the lines, not your tank — and your next start sends it right back through the pump. So the myth "drain your tank yourself and you're sorted" does not stand up. Also, a can of petrol drained by the kerbside is truly dangerous.
How petrol ends up: petrol in a diesel
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Seldom, if ever. The petrol nozzle is the smaller of the two and slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance; a diesel nozzle mostly will not go into a petrol vehicle at all. The forecourt makes it easy, and the mistake runs one way.
Routine and the car getting out of step is when it happens. Hire cars, courtesy cars, and motors that are new to you. Two cars on one drive, one petrol, one diesel. Your normal forecourt, its pumps now in a different order. A hurried fill en route to Longport with a train to catch. Years of petrol cars behind you, a diesel Volkswagen Passat in front of you on the forecourt for its first tank — that's when. Add a back seat full of children, a phone call or rain, and habit wins.
Preventing petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Burslem
- Green for unleaded and black for diesel is usual in the UK — but not on every forecourt. Go by the label on the petrol pump, not the colour.
- The first fill in an unfamiliar car is the time to check the filler flap — on it, or on the cap, many motors state which fuel to use.
- Good intentions do less than a sticker or a fob in a vivid colour on the diesel's key if a house has one of each. So mark it.
- Say it before you lift it. On the first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" out loud before you take the nozzle off the petrol pump. It seems silly and it does the trick.
- Mistakes like this are simple to make whilst your mind is on something else, and so the phone goes away.
- Some diesels come with a filler designed to block a petrol nozzle, and devices you can add are available 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.
- The moment you realise, stop: less petrol in that tank makes a weaker blend. What to do next does not change, though — still do not fire it up.
Petrol already in a diesel around Burslem? Begin here
The order of things is short, then. Never fire it up, and don't switch your ignition on. If you are still on the forecourt — the nearest petrol station or anywhere else — ask the attendants to help you roll it clear of the pump. Next, 0333 366 0103. We'll ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has been run.
AdBlue, not petrol? Then say so. Corrosion and deposits, not lost lubrication, make it a different issue — Burslem has a page all for it.
Why one petrol in a diesel task in Burslem costs more than another
Four separate tasks lie behind the four scenarios above — which is why there's no fair single quote. The situation itself does most of the work of moving your cost. Two things come after that: the petrol that got in as a share of what that tank takes, then the spot the car is in and whether a van can get to it safely.
Three queries come first, before any quote, rather than after — what was put in, how much, has it run — and this is the reason. Given those answers, there is a straight figure instead of a range.
About Burslem
Burslem is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated near the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and is characterised by its terraced housing. Burslem sits at an elevation of 153 metres, inland in the West Midlands region, and is close to nearby places such as Middleport, Longport, and Cobridge. Burslem has a population of approximately 4866 residents and is located about 1.9 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Burslem is also about 137.6 miles from London, making it a relatively distant suburb from the capital city.
Fuel drain cover in Burslem and across Staffordshire
Middleport, Longport and Cobridge are among the locations near Burslem that the same teams work, answering petrol in diesel calls across Burslem's ST postcode area. Our engineers drain wherever your vehicle is — your own driveway, a lay-by, a supermarket car park, a forecourt — so it does not have to come to us.
In Burslem and still at the pump?
Then you are in the best spot there can be. Keep it off. Call.