Close House: Petrol in a Diesel Car? How Worried to Be
If it hasn't been started, you can worry less than you likely are. Till your ignition primes your pump, your starter turns, or the car is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just rests there and does no harm. Which means the honest reply to the first Close House question — "have I ruined it?" — usually no. Leave the motor off then ring Petrol in Diesel — that keeps it like that. What petrol really does to a diesel, how to judge how far it has travelled, and how to stop it from happening a second time: that's the rest of this page.
Petrol in a diesel: what does it do to the motor?
Diesel has two tasks on its way through a motor. Oiling comes before burning; it does both. Extremely fine tolerances go into your injectors and the high-pressure pump, and only your diesel flowing through keeps those surfaces from grinding together.
Poorly at the first, not at all at the second: that is petrol. It's runnier than diesel and strips away the lubrication your fuel system depends on, so a pump running on a petrol mixture 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 is where the rattling comes from.
Combined, those leave the shape of the trouble plain. Not contact but circulation is what causes the damage. Petrol in a tank is a fuel issue. Once the pump has been working on that petrol, a mechanical issue has begun: anything shed by a pump that's grinding travels downstream to your injectors with your fuel.
Close House, petrol in a diesel: four cases, from mild to serious
Filled up, and not started: nothing beats it. Being on a forecourt is what makes this the case: elsewhere, the vehicle has been driven there to begin with. With that petrol kept in your tank alone, it is cleared and cleaned on the spot, and nothing more is needed.
A brief spell of running, or merely your ignition on. Petrol has left your tank and reached the filter and the fuel lines, because your system has been bled. Normally nothing more than emptying, purging and sorting the fuel filter, so still easy.
Driven a few miles. Now your pump has spent those miles working 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 miles. Driving the kids to Prince Bishops Community Primary School is one sort of trip. Very different once more: a trip to Durham, under 10 miles away, or some distance on the A1(M), under 5 miles from Close House, where the motor never stopped running hard.
It complained, and only then stopped: smoke, clattering, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone lumpy. The fuel is not behaving like diesel any more, and your motor is telling you. Pull up on the spot — on the verge on Gibson Street, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it. What comes first is still the fuel drain and flush, and that deals with it, with lasting damage very rare when a car is stopped soon.
Petrol in a diesel stories Close House people hear
"Top it up the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be fine" — a myth. It won't. Nothing comes out when you top up — the tank simply holds more of the same blend. The idea behind that guidance — that diesel fuel systems accept petrol by percentage — is wrong.
If anything, the opposite is true. Myth: "A current diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." Protection counts more on current diesels, not less, since their fuel runs through smaller components at higher pressure.
The myth that catches people off guard: if it starts and drives, it must be unharmed. Any petrol engine fed diesel usually won't run, so the driver stops and the damage stops with them. Nothing seems to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, which it usually will; meanwhile your pump wears. Being able to run isn't proof of being fine.
Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the car home." It's an outdated workaround for a different problem. None of what petrol weakened gets put back by it — and later, that tank still holds the petrol.
The next start sends petrol back round the pump from your lines and your filter, where some of it ends up after the motor has been run. That is why draining the tank yourself does not leave you sorted — a myth. It's also genuinely risky to drain petrol into a can by the kerbside.
Why petrol in a diesel occurs at all
It is seldom carelessness, and no one does it on purpose. A diesel nozzle mostly will not go into a petrol motor, but the slimmer petrol nozzle goes into the filler of a diesel almost without resistance — so forecourts make this one mistake easy, and only in one direction.
It takes place when routine and your car stop matching. Hire cars, courtesy cars, and vehicles that are new to you. One petrol and one diesel on the driveway of the same household. A forecourt you know, but with its pumps laid out differently. Fuelling up in a rush en route to Shildon, with a train to catch. Years of petrol vehicles behind you, a diesel Volkswagen Golf in front of you at the forecourt for its first tank — that is when. With rain, a call coming in, or children to deal with, your hand just does what it has always done.
Close House people: how to avoid petrol in a diesel next time
- The label is what counts, so read the pump instead of the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are usually green and diesel black, yet not on every forecourt.
- Inspect your filler flap. Many motors state the fuel inside the flap or on the cap. Look at it on the first fill in any vehicle you do not know.
- One of each in the household? Label your key to your diesel — a bright fob, a sticker — since intending to remember is not enough.
- "Diesel", aloud, before you pick up the nozzle — every time a new or hired car gets its first tank. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Whilst you are thinking about something else, this is an easy mistake to make — so put the phone away.
- Up to a point, a misfuel inhibitor helps: some diesels come with a filler designed to reject a petrol nozzle, and aftermarket devices exist for the remainder. Count it as a backstop, then keep checking the petrol pump.
- Less petrol makes a weaker mix, so stop the moment you realise — though remembering that your next stage is unchanged. It is still not to start the car.
Already put petrol in a diesel in Close House?
Then the order of things is short. Starting it is out, and so is turning on your ignition. If you're still on the forecourt — Gulf or anywhere else — ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. What went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run: tell us those when you call 0333 366 0103.
If it was AdBlue and not petrol, say so. That's a different issue — corrosion and deposits and not lost lubrication — and it has its own page for Close House.
What makes one Close House petrol in a diesel job cost more than the next
A fair single price doesn't exist here: four scenarios, four separate tasks. The situation itself does most of the work of moving your cost. The share matters next, meaning how much of that tank is petrol, followed by the position of your car and whether getting to it is safe for a van.
Before any quote, not after, come three questions: the fuel that went in, its quantity, and if it's run. That's why. Those replies are what turn a range into one firm number.
About Close House itself
Close House is a small village in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of 106 metres, approximately 9 miles from the city of Durham. Close House has a population of around 826 residents, with predominantly terraced housing. Close House is located near several other small villages, including Eldon, Coundon Grange, and Eldon Lane, in the north east of England.
Across Durham and around Close House: fuel drain cover
Petrol in diesel calls in Close House — part of the DL postcode area — go to vans that also cover the places round it, Eldon, Coundon Grange and Eldon Lane among them. We drain where the vehicle is — your own drive, a lay-by, a supermarket car park, a forecourt — so it never needs to come to us.
At the pump around Close House, still?
Then, you couldn't be in a better position. Ring, and leave it switched off.