Clayton-le-Woods: Petrol in a Diesel Car? How Worried to Be
Not started? Then less worried than you likely are. Until the ignition primes your pump, the starter cranks, or your car is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just sits there and does no harm. Which makes the truthful reply to that first Clayton-le-Woods query — "have I wrecked it?" — normally no. Keep it that way: leave the motor off then call Petrol in Diesel. The remainder of this page sets out what petrol actually does to a diesel, how to judge how far it has got, and how to make sure it does not happen to you again.
Inside the engine: what petrol in a diesel really does
Passing through an engine, diesel does two things at once. It protects to begin with, and only then does it burn. Very fine tolerances are built into the fuel injectors and the high-pressure pump, and just your diesel running through stops their surfaces grinding together.
The second job petrol doesn't do at all, and the first it does poorly. A pump working on a petrol mix is wearing itself out, since petrol is thinner than diesel and strips out the protection the fuel system relies on. Petrol is also made to resist igniting under compression — the opposite of what a diesel needs from its fuel — and that's where any clattering starts.
Combined, those make the shape of the issue clear. It is circulation that does the damage, not contact. Any tank with petrol in it is a fuel fault. After the pump has been running on that petrol, a mechanical issue has begun: anything shed by a pump that is wearing travels onward to your injectors with your fuel.
Four scenarios our technicians see around Clayton-le-Woods: how bad is petrol in a diesel?
Filled up, not once started. The best case there is. The petrol is in that tank and only that tank, and the task is a drain and a flush where your car stands. This is the one scenario that can only really take place at a forecourt, as anywhere else the car has been driven to get there.
Ignition on, or started for a second. Petrol has left the tank and reached the fuel filter and your lines, since the system has been primed. Drain, flush, deal with the fuel filter: still usually straightforward.
Those few miles driven meant your pump running on fuel thinned by petrol the whole way. How hard your car was driven matters as much as how far, and the work covers your tank, the lines, your filter and fresh fuel through the whole system. Short trips, like the school run to Lancaster Lane Primary and Pre-School, are one matter. Any distance on the M6, under a mile from Clayton-le-Woods, means your engine has worked hard throughout, and a run to Preston, under 5 miles away, is a very different job too.
It protested, and only then stopped: smoke, knocking, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone uneven. The fuel isn't acting like diesel any more, and the engine is telling you. Whether it's the verge on Lancaster Avenue, a lay-by or a side road, stop there then leave it. The fuel drain and flush-through still go first, and they deal with it: when a vehicle is pulled over early, lasting damage is very rare.
Stories Clayton-le-Woods people hear about petrol in a diesel
It will not be fine. The myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it will be." Nothing is removed when you top up — the tank just carries more of the same mixture. The idea behind the advice — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
Myth: "A current diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." If anything, the reverse. Smaller parts and higher pressure are the way a modern diesel runs its fuel, and that makes the lubrication matter more, not less.
This is the one that fools motorists. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no damage done." A petrol motor fed diesel usually will not run, so the driver stops and the damage stops with them. Feed petrol to a diesel and it normally starts, idles and pulls away as if nothing has happened — all the while its pump wears. A running engine doesn't mean fine.
An outdated fix for a distinct problem lies behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the vehicle home." It doesn't put back what petrol has weakened, and that petrol is still in the tank later on.
The next start sends petrol back round the pump out of the fuel lines and your filter, where some of it sits once your engine has run. That is why a DIY tank drain doesn't leave you sorted — a myth. And, a can of petrol filled by the kerbside is genuinely hazardous.
Why petrol in a diesel occurs so easily
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Seldom, if ever. The forecourt makes it simple: the petrol nozzle is the narrower of the two, and it slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance, whilst a diesel nozzle mostly won't go into a petrol vehicle at all. So the slip runs one way.
Routine and the vehicle getting out of step is when it happens. A motor that's new to you — hired, on loan as a courtesy car, or just bought. One petrol and one diesel on the driveway of the same household. A well-known forecourt with the pumps in a different order. Filling up in a rush en route to Leyland, with a train to catch. Exactly the moment it occurs: after years of driving petrol, a driver fills a diesel Skoda Octavia for the first time. Throw in rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children, and your hand repeats what it has always done.
How to avoid petrol in a diesel on your next fill-up in Clayton-le-Woods
- Not every forecourt in the UK keeps to green for unleaded and black for diesel, though most generally do. Read the pump's label; the colour is only a clue.
- The first fill in an unfamiliar vehicle is the time to check your filler flap — on it, or on the cap, plenty of motors state the fuel they take.
- Good intentions count for less than a sticker or a fob in a bright colour on your diesel's key when a home has one of each. So label it.
- It sounds daft and it does the trick: on the first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" out loud before you lift the nozzle off the pump.
- Thinking about something else is when this becomes an easy mistake to make, and so put the phone away and keep your mind on the pump.
- Some diesels come with a filler designed to refuse a petrol nozzle, and devices you can add exist for vehicles without one. Such an inhibitor helps up to a point — as a safety net, not a reason to stop reading the petrol pump.
- Noticing it halfway? Stop at once. A thinner mix results from less petrol inside the tank, yet your next stage remains the same: do not crank it.
Clayton-le-Woods: already put petrol in a diesel?
Then, there is only a short order of things. Starting it is out, and so is switching on your ignition. The attendants on the forecourt — whether at Shell itself or wherever you filled up — will usually help roll it clear of the pump if you ask. Next, 0333 366 0103. We will ask what went in, about how much, and if it has been run.
Corrosion and deposits are the problem with AdBlue, whereas petrol means lost lubrication. So if it was AdBlue, say so — and read its own Clayton-le-Woods page.
What makes one Clayton-le-Woods petrol in a diesel job cost more than the next
The four scenarios above are four different tasks, so no single price for this would be honest. What shifts your cost is chiefly which of them you are in. The proportion matters next, meaning how much of the tank is petrol, followed by the position of your car and whether reaching it is safe for a technician.
That is why we ask three questions before pricing instead of after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Given the replies, there is a straight figure instead of a range.
About Clayton-le-Woods, briefly
Clayton-le-Woods is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated approximately 4.6 miles south of Preston and 185 miles northwest of London. Clayton-le-Woods sits at an elevation of around 63 metres, in a gently sloping landscape near the villages of Cuerden and Farington. Clayton-le-Woods is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Clayton-le-Woods remains a commuter base for nearby Preston, with its population of around 5410 residents.
Fuel drain cover around Clayton-le-Woods and across Lancashire
The vans answering petrol in diesel calls around Clayton-le-Woods, in the PR postcode area, equally work the locations around it, Cuerden, Turpin Green and Farington included. The car doesn't need to come to us: we drain at a forecourt, in a supermarket car park, in a lay-by or on your own drive.
In Clayton-le-Woods and still at the pump?
In that case, you couldn't be in a better position. Switched off it stays; then call.