Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Dolton
Not started? Then less anxious than you probably are. Petrol resting in a diesel tank does nothing to the motor till something pulls it through the fuel system — the ignition priming your pump, the starter, or driving itself. So the fair answer to the first query anyone around Dolton asks, "have I ruined it?", is generally no. Petrol in Diesel is who to phone, with your engine left off, and so it stays that way. Further down, this page sets out what petrol really does inside a diesel, how far it might have gone, and how to stop it happening to you a second time.
Petrol in a diesel: what does it do to the engine?
On its way through a motor, diesel has two jobs. Lubricating comes before burning; it does both. The high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors are built to extremely fine tolerances, and your diesel passing through them is what stops those surfaces from wearing down against each other.
Poorly at the first, not at all at the second: that's petrol. A pump running on a petrol blend is wearing itself out, since petrol is runnier than diesel and takes away the protection your fuel system relies on. Petrol is also made to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel needs from its fuel — and that is where any rattling comes.
Put those together and the shape of the problem is clear. Contact does not do the harm — circulation does. A tank with petrol in it is a fuel problem. Whatever a worn pump sheds goes on, carried by your fuel, into the fuel injectors further along, which is why a pump that has been working on the petrol is where a mechanical problem begins.
Four scenarios our engineers see in Dolton: how bad is petrol in a diesel?
Filled but never started — as good as it gets. Just that tank has petrol in it, and so the job is draining that tank and rinsing the system where the vehicle sits. This situation can only truly take place on a forecourt: anywhere else, your car got there by being driven.
Your ignition switched on, or a short start. Your system has been bled, and so petrol has left your tank and got to the filter and your lines. Drain, flush, see to the filter: still usually easy.
A few miles driven, and the pump has spent each of them running on weakened fuel. Tank, lines, filter, then clean fuel put through the entire circuit: that's this work, and the way the vehicle was driven matters as much as the miles. On the school run to Dolton Church of England Primary School, the mileage is short. Driving as far as Exeter, under 25 miles away, makes a very different job — as does any distance on the M5, under 50 miles from Dolton, with the engine working hard all the way.
Knocking, an uneven idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven till it complained. That's the engine telling you its fuel has stopped behaving like diesel. Leave it wherever it has stopped: a lay-by, a side street, the verge on Fore Street. The drain and flush still go first, and they take care of it: when a car is stopped early, lasting damage is very rare.
Myths Dolton motorists hear about petrol in a diesel
"Top it up the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine" — a myth. It won't. Topping up removes nothing; it gives you a fuller tank of the same mixture. The idea behind the advice — that diesel fuel systems accept petrol by percentage — is wrong.
"Newer diesels can handle a little petrol" — a myth, and closer to the opposite. At higher pressure, through more precise components: that is how a newer diesel moves its fuel, and so the protection counts more, not less.
Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no harm done." This is the one that catches people. Feed diesel to a petrol engine and it generally won't run, and so the motorist stops — and the damage stops with them. A diesel fed petrol normally starts, idles and drives away as though nothing has happened, while the pump grinds. Running does not mean fine.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, taken from a fix from years ago, for a separate problem. The petrol is still in that tank after that, and whatever it has diluted isn't put back.
Myth: "Drain the tank yourself and you are sorted." Once the motor has run, some of the petrol is no longer in that tank: it is in your filter and the fuel lines, and it goes straight back through your pump at your next start. And, a can of petrol drained at the kerbside is genuinely dangerous.
Petrol in a diesel: how does it occur?
A careless moment is seldom the cause, and nobody means to do it. A diesel nozzle generally will not go into a petrol motor, yet the slimmer petrol nozzle goes into the filler of a diesel nearly without resistance — so forecourts make this one mistake straightforward, and only in that direction.
Habit and the vehicle getting out of step is how it occurs. A car that is new to you — hired, on loan as a courtesy car, or brand new. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the driveway. Your normal forecourt, its pumps suddenly in a different order. Filling up in a hurry on the way to Portsmouth Arms, with a train to catch. The first fill-up in a diesel Volkswagen Golf after years of driving petrol is exactly the moment it happens. Throw in rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children, and your hand repeats what it has always done.
Dolton drivers: how to avoid petrol in a diesel next time
- Green for unleaded and black for diesel is normal in the UK — but not on every forecourt. Trust the label on the petrol pump, not the colour.
- Many cars state the fuel type inside the filler flap or on the cap, so check there on your first fill in a car you don't know.
- Label the key. In a home 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", aloud, before you pick up the nozzle — each time a new or hired car gets its first tank. It sounds silly. It works.
- While you're thinking about something else, this is an easy mistake to make — so tuck the phone away.
- Add-on devices are available for vehicles without one, and some diesels are built with a filler that will not take a petrol nozzle. Useful — but a safety net only, never a reason to stop checking the label.
- Noticing it mid-fill? Stop there and then. A weaker mix follows from less petrol in the tank, but the next step remains the same: do not start it.
Put petrol in a diesel in Dolton already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't fire it up, and don't switch your ignition on. The staff at the forecourt — whether at the nearest petrol station itself or wherever you filled up — will usually help push it away from the pump if you ask. Then phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us what got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run.
Say so if it was AdBlue instead of petrol: it's a separate issue, with its own page for Dolton, because AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits rather than lost lubrication.
What makes one Dolton petrol in a diesel job cost more than the next
Four different jobs lie behind the four situations above — which is why there is no fair single quote. What moves the cost is mostly which of them you're in. The proportion counts next, meaning how much of that tank is petrol, and then the position of your car and whether reaching it is safe for a van.
That's why we ask three questions before costing instead of after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. A range turns into a straight figure once those answers are in.
About Dolton itself
Dolton is a small village in inland Devon, situated approximately 117 metres above sea level. Dolton lies near the villages of Iddlecott, Dowland, and Upcott, and is about 24.7 miles from Exeter. Dolton has a population of around 682 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Dolton is located in the South West region of England, about 174.3 miles from London.
Fuel drain cover across Devon, Dolton included
Iddlecott, Dowland and Upcott are among the spots around Dolton that the same vans work, answering petrol in diesel calls across Dolton's EX postcode area. No need to bring your vehicle to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own drive are all spots where we work.
Dolton: still at the petrol pump?
Nothing beats it: that's where you are. Ring, and keep it turned off.