How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Filey
Likely less than you are now — as long as no one has started the car. "Have I ruined it?" is the first question anyone in Filey asks, and the truthful answer is generally no, since petrol left in a diesel tank hurts nothing till it is dragged through your fuel system — by ignition priming, by the starter, or by driving. Leave your motor off and phone Petrol in Diesel — that keeps it like that. The remainder of this page covers what petrol actually does to a diesel, how to judge 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 happens
On its way through a motor, diesel has two tasks. It protects to begin with, and only then does it burn. What stops the surfaces inside the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors from wearing against each other is the diesel flowing through them — they're built to extremely fine gaps.
Of those two jobs, petrol handles the first badly and the second never. 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 protection your system rests on, and any pump running on such a blend is wearing itself.
Combined, those make the shape of the issue clear. The harm is done by circulation, not by contact. All a tank with petrol in it amounts to is a fuel fault. The start of a mechanical one is a pump that has been labouring on that petrol — and whatever a worn pump sheds travels on with your fuel to the injectors beyond it.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four scenarios our engineers see in Filey
The best case there is: filled up, not once started. Just your tank has petrol in it, and so the job is emptying your tank and rinsing the system where the vehicle sits. This situation can only really take place at a forecourt: anywhere else, your car got there by being driven.
Ignition on, or started for a moment. The system has been primed, so petrol has left that tank and got to your filter and the fuel lines. Usually nothing more than draining, cleaning and sorting the filter, and so still easy.
Driven a few miles. Now the pump has spent those miles working on weakened fuel. Miles is only half of that; how hard it was driven matters equally. Either way this work includes that tank, the fuel lines, your filter and clean fuel through the whole circuit. The school run to Filey Junior School is one matter. Any distance on the Petuaria Way, under 50 miles from Filey, means the engine has worked hard throughout, and a run to Kingston upon Hull, under 50 miles away, is a very different task as well.
Driven until it protested. Rattling, a lumpy idle, smoke, a throttle that has gone soft. What you are hearing is your motor signalling fuel that no longer runs like diesel. Leave it wherever it stops: a lay-by, a quiet street, the verge on Station Avenue. Permanent damage is very rare when a vehicle is pulled over quickly, and the drain and flush that still go first take care of it.
Petrol in a diesel stories Filey drivers hear
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine." It will not. Topping up takes out nothing; it gives you a bigger tank of the same mix. The idea behind the advice — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
Myth: a modern diesel copes with a bit of petrol. If anything, the reverse. Lubrication counts more on current diesels, not less, since their fuel runs through smaller parts at higher pressure.
One myth that catches drivers off guard: if it starts and drives, it must be unharmed. Any petrol motor fed diesel usually won't run, and so the driver stops and the damage stops with them. Whilst your pump grinds, a diesel fed petrol normally starts, idles and drives away as if nothing has happened. Fine and running aren't the same thing.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, taken from a fix from years ago, for a separate issue. That petrol is still in that tank afterwards, and what it has weakened is not put back.
Myth: "Drain that tank yourself and you are sorted." Once your engine has run, some of the petrol is no longer in your tank: it is in the filter and the fuel lines, and it goes straight back through the pump at the next start. And, a can of petrol filled at the roadside is truly risky.
Why petrol in a diesel takes place so easily
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Rarely, if ever. One way only, because of the nozzles: the smaller petrol one slides inside a diesel filler with almost no resistance, while the diesel one mostly won't fit a petrol car. That is how the forecourt makes it straightforward.
When routine and the car stop matching, it happens. Courtesy car, hire car, or a car that is brand new. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the driveway. The pumps in a different order on a well-known forecourt. A rushed fill en route to the nearest station with a train to catch. Years of petrol vehicles behind you, a diesel Volkswagen Passat in front of you at the forecourt for its first tank — that is when. Your hand does what it has always done when you add rain, a phone call or a back seat full of kids.
Avoiding petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Filey
- A green handle for unleaded and black for diesel is usual in the UK — but not on every forecourt. Go by the label on the pump, not the colour.
- Inspect the filler flap. Many vehicles state the fuel type inside the flap or on the cap. Look at it on your first fill in a motor you don't know.
- Mark 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 meaning to remember.
- "Diesel", out loud, before you pick up the nozzle — each time a new or hired car gets its first tank. It seems silly. It works.
- Tuck your phone away. This is an easy mistake to make whilst you're thinking about something else.
- A misfuel inhibitor helps, up to a point. Some diesels have a filler designed to refuse a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices are available for cars without one. They are a backstop, not a reason to stop reading the pump.
- Noticing it mid-fill? Stop there and then. A thinner mix follows from less petrol in the tank, yet the next step stays the same: don't crank it.
Put petrol in a diesel in Filey already?
Then the order of things is short. Starting it is out, and so is turning on the ignition. The staff on the forecourt — whether at Gulf itself or wherever you filled up — will normally help roll it away from the pump if you ask. Then phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run.
Say so if it was AdBlue rather than petrol: it is a different issue, with its own page for Filey, since AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits rather than lost protection.
Filey petrol in a diesel tasks: why one costs more than another
There's no honest single quote for this, since the four scenarios above are four different jobs. The situation itself does most of the work of moving your cost. Beyond that it is the proportion — how much petrol was put in against how much the tank holds — and then where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely.
Before any quote, not after, come three questions: the fuel that went in, the quantity, and if it has run. That's why. Given those replies, there is a straight figure rather than a range.
About Filey, for a moment
Filey is a seaside town on the coast of North Yorkshire, situated approximately 37 metres above sea level. Filey lies near several nearby places, including Muston, Gristhorpe, and Hunmanby Moor, and is about 32 miles from Kingston upon Hull. Filey has a population of around 6664 people, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type. Filey is located about 187 miles north of London, making it a popular destination for those seeking a coastal retreat.
Fuel drain cover across North Yorkshire, Filey included
Petrol in diesel call-outs around Filey — part of the YO postcode area — go to teams that likewise cover the places about it, Muston, Gristhorpe and Hunmanby Moor included. You need not bring the vehicle to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own drive are all places where we work.
Still at the petrol pump in Filey?
The best place there is, then — that is where you are. Leave the vehicle switched off, and ring.