Petrol in a Diesel Car in East Looe: How Worried Should You Be?
Probably less than you are now — provided nobody has started the vehicle. "Have I ruined it?" is the first question everyone around East Looe asks, and the truthful answer is usually no, because petrol left in a diesel tank harms nothing till it's drawn through the system — by ignition priming, by your starter, or by driving. Petrol in Diesel is who to ring, with the motor kept off, so it remains that way. The remainder of this page sets out 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.
The motor and petrol in a diesel: what goes on
Diesel does two tasks on its way through a motor. It lubricates first, and only then does it burn. What stops the surfaces inside the high-pressure pump and the injectors from wearing against one another is your diesel passing through them — they're made to extremely fine clearances.
Badly at the first, not at all at the second: that's petrol. The clattering comes from petrol being designed not to ignite when compressed, which is precisely the reverse of what a diesel needs. On top of that it is runnier than diesel, it strips out the lubrication your system depends on, and any pump running on such a mixture is wearing itself.
Seen together, they make clear the shape the issue has. It is circulation that causes the damage, not contact. Where that petrol is only inside your tank, it's a problem of fuel, nothing more. The beginning of a mechanical problem is a pump that has been running on that petrol — and whatever a worn pump sheds moves on with the fuel to your injectors beyond it.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four situations our technicians see around East Looe
Filled up, and never started: no case is better. Only the tank has petrol in it, so the job is clearing the tank and purging the fuel system where the car sits. This situation can only really take place at a forecourt: anywhere else, the vehicle got there by being driven.
Ignition on, or started for a second. Once primed, the fuel system has pulled petrol from that tank up to your filter and the fuel lines. That's normally still a straightforward task — a drain, a flush, and the fuel filter dealt with.
A few miles driven, and your pump has spent every one of them running on thinned fuel. How hard your car was driven counts as much as how far, and this work covers that tank, the fuel lines, the fuel filter and fresh fuel through the entire circuit. Driving the children to Looe Primary Academy is one kind of trip. A run as far as Plymouth, under 15 miles away, is a very different task. So is any mileage on the M5, under 50 miles from East Looe, where your engine has been labouring hard the whole time.
Knocking, an uneven idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven until it complained. That is the motor telling you its fuel no longer is behaving like diesel. Stop where you are — on the verge on East Cliff, at the kerb, down a side road — and don't move it again. The fuel drain and flush still go first, and they deal with it: if a car is stopped early, long-term damage is very unusual.
Stories East Looe drivers hear about petrol in a diesel
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be fine." It will not. Nothing is removed by topping up — you're left with a bigger tank, still the same mix. That advice presumes a diesel fuel system tolerates petrol by percentage. It doesn't.
Myth: "A newer diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." If anything, the opposite. Finer components and higher pressure are how a current diesel runs its fuel, and that makes the protection matter more, not less.
This is the one that catches motorists. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no damage done." Feed diesel to a petrol engine and it normally won't run, so the driver stops — and the harm stops with them. Feed petrol to a diesel and it normally starts, ticks over and pulls away like nothing happened — all the while its pump is wearing. Running isn't the same as fine.
Myth: a two-stroke additive lets you to drive home. It was an old workaround, supposed for another fault. It doesn't put back what petrol has weakened, and the petrol is still inside the tank later on.
"Drain it yourself and you are sorted" — a myth, since after it's been running some petrol lies in the filter and lines, ready to go right back through your pump at your next start. Also, a can of petrol drained by the kerbside is truly dangerous.
How it happens: petrol in a diesel
A careless moment is rarely the cause, and nobody means to do it. One way only, since of the nozzles: the slimmer petrol one slides inside a diesel filler with almost no resistance, while the diesel one generally won't fit a petrol car. That's how the forecourt makes it easy.
It occurs when routine and the vehicle stop matching. Courtesy car, hire car, or a vehicle that is new. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the driveway. The pumps in a different order on a well-known forecourt. Fuelling up in a rush en route to Looe, with a train to catch. A new-to-you diesel Volkswagen Passat, its first fuelling, and a driver used to petrol: precisely when it takes place. Throw in rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children, and the hand repeats what it has always done.
How to avoid petrol in a diesel on your next fill-up in East Looe
- The label is what counts, and so read the petrol pump instead of the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are usually green and diesel black, but not on each 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 a vehicle you do not know.
- Good intentions do less than a sticker or a fob in a vivid colour on the diesel's key when a household has one of each. So mark it.
- Before the nozzle comes off the petrol pump the first time you fuel a hired or new motor, say "diesel" aloud. Daft, perhaps, but it works.
- Thinking about something else is when this becomes an easy mistake to make, so tuck your phone away then keep your mind on the pump.
- Up to a point, a misfuel inhibitor helps: some diesels come with a filler built to block a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices are available for the remainder. Count it as a safety net, then keep checking the petrol pump.
- Stop as soon as you notice. Less petrol in your tank means a weaker blend. It does not change what to do next, which is still not to fire it up.
Petrol already in a diesel around East Looe? Begin here
The order of things is short, then. Leave it unstarted, with the ignition off too. If you're still at the forecourt — Texaco or anywhere else — ask the staff to help you roll it away from the pump. Phone 0333 366 0103 next, with three answers — the fuel, the approximate quantity, and if it has run.
Say so if it was AdBlue rather than petrol: it is a separate issue, with its own page for East Looe, since AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits rather than lost protection.
One petrol in a diesel task in East Looe costs more than another. Why?
There's no fair single price for this, because the four scenarios above are four separate tasks. Which of them you are in is chiefly what moves your cost. Where the car is counts too, and whether a van can safely reach it, after the ratio of petrol to what your tank takes.
Three questions come first, before any quote, rather than after — what went in, how much, has it run — and that is the reason. With those answers, you get a straight figure instead of a range.
About East Looe, briefly
East Looe is a suburban area situated on the coast of Cornwall, with a population of around 2193 people. East Looe lies near the town of Looe and the village of Shutta, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. East Looe is located close to the city of Plymouth, which is approximately 13.7 miles away. East Looe sits at a low elevation of around 13 metres above sea level, overlooking the coastal waters of the South West region.
East Looe and Cornwall: where our fuel drain cover runs
Looe, Shutta and West Looe are among the places near East Looe that the same teams work, answering petrol in diesel jobs across East Looe's PL postcode area. You need not bring the car to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own driveway are all places we drain.
In East Looe and still at the petrol pump?
In that case, you could not be in a better position. Switched off it remains; then call.