Fazakerley: Petrol in a Diesel Car? How Worried to Be
Far less than you probably are, provided it has not been started. Petrol sitting in a diesel tank does nothing to the engine till something pulls it through your fuel system — your ignition priming your pump, your starter, or driving on its own. So the fair answer to the first question everyone around Fazakerley asks, "have I wrecked it?", is generally no. Petrol in Diesel is who to call, with the engine kept off, so it stays that way. Read on for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel engine, the signs of how far it has spread, and the way to make sure you never do it again.
The motor and petrol in a diesel: what happens
Diesel has two tasks on its way through an engine. It lubricates first, and only then does it burn. Extremely fine tolerances are built into your injectors and the high-pressure pump, and only the diesel running through keeps those surfaces from grinding together.
The second task petrol doesn't do at all, and the first it does poorly. The knocking comes from petrol being made not to ignite when compressed, which is exactly the reverse of what a diesel needs. On top of that it is runnier than diesel, it strips away the lubrication the system rests on, and any pump running on that mix is wearing itself.
The shape of the issue is plain when you put those together. It is movement that does the harm, not contact. Petrol in the tank is a fuel issue. Once the pump has been running on that petrol, a mechanical issue has begun: anything shed by a pump that's grinding is carried downstream to the injectors with the fuel.
Petrol in a diesel around Fazakerley: how serious is it? Four situations
Filled but not once started — the best it gets. The petrol is in your tank and only that tank, and the job is a drain and a flush where your car sits. This is the one scenario that can only really occur at a forecourt, because anywhere else your car has been driven to get there.
The ignition switched on, or a short start. Petrol has left that tank and got to the fuel filter and the lines, because the fuel system has been bled. That is normally still a straightforward job — a drain, a flush, and the fuel filter seen to.
A couple of miles driven, and your pump has spent each of them running on thinned fuel. The work is your tank, the lines, your filter and fresh fuel through the whole system, and how hard the vehicle was driven matters as much as how far. A school run to Our Lady and St Philomena's Catholic Primary School is one thing. Driving as far as Liverpool, under 5 miles away, makes a very different task — as does any distance on the M57, under 3 miles from Fazakerley, with the engine running hard all the way.
Clattering, an uneven idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven till it complained. The motor is telling you your fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Pull up on the spot — on the verge on Higher Lane, at the kerb, down a side road — and don't move it. The fuel drain and flush still go first, and they deal with it: if a vehicle is pulled over quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Fazakerley people and the petrol in a diesel stories they hear
"Top it up the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be fine" — a myth. It won't. Topping up removes nothing; it gives you a fuller tank of the same mix. A diesel fuel system doesn't accept petrol by percentage in the way that advice presumes.
If anything, the reverse holds. Myth: "A current diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." Lubrication matters more on current diesels, not less, since their fuel runs through more precise parts at higher pressure.
One myth that catches motorists off guard: if it starts and drives, it must be unharmed. Feed diesel to a petrol motor and it usually will not run, and so the driver stops — and the damage stops with them. Whilst your pump wears, a diesel fed petrol usually starts, ticks over and drives away as though nothing has happened. Being able to run is not the same as being fine.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, borrowed from a fix from years ago, for a different problem. What petrol has weakened remains diluted, and that petrol stays inside the tank anyway.
"Drain it yourself and you're sorted" — a myth, because after it's been running some petrol sits in the fuel filter and lines, waiting to go right back through the pump at the next start. Also, a can of petrol filled by the kerbside is genuinely risky.
Petrol in a diesel: how does it occur?
Carelessness is rarely the cause, and no one means to do it. A diesel nozzle generally won't 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 that direction.
The moment routine stops matching the vehicle is the moment it takes place. Courtesy car, hire car, or a vehicle that's new. Two cars on one driveway, one petrol, one diesel. The pumps in a different order on a familiar forecourt. A train to catch, and a hurried fill on the way to the nearest station. The first fill-up in a diesel Volkswagen Golf after years of driving petrol is precisely the moment it happens. Throw in a back seat full of children, a phone call or rain, and the hand takes over.
Preventing petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Fazakerley
- Not every forecourt in the UK follows green for unleaded and black for diesel, though most usually do. Check the pump's label; the colour is just a hint.
- Many motors state the fuel inside your filler flap or on the cap, and so check it on the first fill in a motor you do not know.
- One of each in the home? Mark the key to your diesel — a coloured fob, a sticker — since meaning to remember is not enough.
- "Diesel", aloud, before you pick up the nozzle — each time a new or hired car needs its first tank. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Put your phone away. This is an easy mistake to make while you are thinking about something else.
- Add-on devices are available for motors without one, and some diesels are built with a filler that will not accept a petrol nozzle. Helpful — but a backstop at best, never a reason to stop checking the label.
- The moment you notice, stop: less petrol inside your tank means a weaker mix. What to do next does not change, though — still don't crank it.
Put petrol in a diesel around Fazakerley already?
The order of things is short, then. Do not switch the ignition on, and don't fire it up. The staff on the forecourt — whether at BP itself or wherever you filled up — will normally help roll it away from the petrol pump if you ask. Then ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us what got in, about how much, and if it's run.
AdBlue, not petrol? Then tell us. Corrosion and deposits, not lost lubrication, make it a separate fault — Fazakerley has a page just for it.
Fazakerley petrol in a diesel tasks: why one costs more than another
The four situations above are four separate jobs, so no single quote for this would be fair. The situation itself does most of the work of moving the cost. Two things come after that: the petrol that was put in as a share of what the tank holds, then the spot your car is in and whether a technician can reach it safely.
What was put in, how much, and whether it has run — three questions we ask before quoting, not after, for exactly that reason. A range turns into a straight figure once the replies are in.
About Fazakerley
Fazakerley is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the River Alt and close to the city of Liverpool. Fazakerley sits at an elevation of 28 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Fazakerley is located near several local landmarks, including Hartleys Village and Copple House, and is home to a number of pubs, such as the Dog and Gun. Fazakerley has a population of approximately 1772 residents, who enjoy easy access to Liverpool, just 3.9 miles away.
Fuel drain cover across Merseyside, Fazakerley included
Fazakerley rests in the L postcode area, and the vans that answer petrol in diesel call-outs there work the spots around it as well — Hartleys Village, Copple House and Dog and Gun among them. Our engineers drain where the vehicle is — your own driveway, a lay-by, a supermarket car park, a forecourt — so it does not have to come to us.
At the petrol pump around Fazakerley, still?
Then, you could not be in a better place. Leave the car switched off, then ring.