How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Galashiels
Unstarted? Then less worried than you probably feel. Till the ignition primes your pump, your starter turns, or your car is driven, petrol in a diesel tank simply rests there and does nothing. Which makes the truthful reply to the first Galashiels question — "have I ruined it?" — usually no. Leave your engine off and phone Petrol in Diesel — that is how you keep it that way. The rest 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 again.
The motor and petrol in a diesel: what goes on
Diesel has two jobs on its way through an engine. It lubricates to begin with, and after that does it burn. Made to very fine clearances, the fuel injectors and the pump rely on your diesel flowing through them to keep their surfaces from wearing against one another.
The second job petrol doesn't do at all, and the first it does poorly. The rattling comes from petrol being designed not to ignite when compressed, which is exactly the opposite of what a diesel needs. On top of that it is thinner than diesel, it strips away the lubrication the system rests on, and any pump working on that mixture is wearing itself.
Put those together and the shape of the trouble is clear. The harm is done by movement, not by contact. Where the petrol is only in the tank, it is a fault of fuel, nothing more. The beginning of a mechanical one is a pump that has been working on that petrol — and whatever a worn pump sheds moves on with the fuel to your injectors downstream.
Four scenarios we see in Galashiels: how bad is petrol in a diesel?
The best case there is: filled up, not once started. On a forecourt, and truly only there, that petrol is still confined to your tank — since anywhere else the car was driven to get to it. The job is draining and flushing on the spot.
Started for a moment, or only your ignition on. Petrol has come out of that tank and got to the filter and the lines, because the system has been primed. Normally nothing more than clearing, rinsing and sorting the fuel filter, and so still simple.
The pump has worked a couple of miles on thinned fuel — that is what driving it meant. Tank, lines, filter, then clean fuel put through the whole system: that's this work, and the way your car was driven matters as much as the miles. Driving the kids to the local primary school is one kind of trip. Very different a second time: a run to Edinburgh, under 50 miles away, or any distance on the M8, under 50 miles from Galashiels, where your engine kept running hard.
Rattling, a lumpy idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven until it complained. That's your motor telling you its fuel no longer is behaving like diesel. Whether it is the verge on St. John Street, a lay-by or a side road, stop there then leave it. What comes first is still the drain and flush, and that sorts it out, with long-term damage very rare when a vehicle is pulled over quickly.
What Galashiels motorists get told about petrol in a diesel — and the stories in it
It will not be fine. The myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be." Topping up takes out nothing; it gives you a bigger tank of the same mix. Percentage isn't how a diesel fuel system tolerates petrol, however much that guidance supposes.
If anything, the opposite holds. Myth: "A newer diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." A current diesel runs its fuel through finer parts at higher pressure, which makes the lubrication count more, not less.
This is the one that catches people. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there is no damage done." Feed diesel to a petrol motor and it usually won't run, so the motorist stops — and the damage stops with them. Feed petrol to a diesel and it generally fires up, idles and drives away like nothing happened — all while its pump is wearing. Running isn't the same as fine.
Not so: a two-stroke additive makes it safe to drive home. It was an old fix, supposed for another problem. It does not put back what petrol has thinned, and the petrol is still in your tank afterwards.
The next start sends petrol back round the pump out of the lines and the fuel filter, where some of that ends up after the engine has been run. That's why draining the tank yourself does not sort it — a myth. It's also genuinely risky to drain petrol into a can by the kerbside.
How petrol ends up: petrol in a diesel
A careless moment is rarely the cause, and no one means to do it. A diesel nozzle mostly will not fit a petrol vehicle, but the slimmer petrol nozzle goes into the filler of a diesel nearly without resistance — so forecourts make this one mistake simple, and only in that direction.
Routine and your car getting out of step is when it occurs. Courtesy car, hire car, or a car that's brand new. Households running one of each, petrol and diesel. A forecourt you know, but with its pumps arranged differently. A train to catch, and a rushed fill en route to the nearest station. Precisely the moment it occurs: after years of driving petrol, someone fills a diesel Renault Megane for the first time. With rain, a call arriving, or children to deal with, the hand just does what it always has.
Preventing petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Galashiels
- The label is what matters, and so read the pump instead of the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are normally green and diesel black, yet not on every forecourt.
- Check your filler flap. Many cars state the fuel type inside the flap or on the cap. Look at it on your first fill in any car you don't know.
- One of each in the home? Label your key to your diesel — a coloured fob, a sticker — since meaning to remember isn't enough.
- Before the nozzle leaves the petrol pump the first time you fuel a hired or new vehicle, say "diesel" out loud. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- Mistakes like this are straightforward to make while your mind is on something else, so your phone goes away.
- Some diesels have a filler designed to refuse a petrol nozzle, and devices you can add are available for motors without one. Such an inhibitor helps up to a point — as a safety net, not a reason to stop checking the petrol pump.
- The moment you realise, stop: less petrol in your tank means a weaker mixture. What to do next doesn't change, though — still do not fire it up.
Galashiels: already put petrol in a diesel?
Short and simple, then, is the order of things. Starting it is out, and so is switching on your ignition. Ask the staff to help you push it clear of the pump if you're still on the forecourt, whether that's Asda or anywhere else. Next, 0333 366 0103. We will ask what got in, about how much, and if it has been run.
Say so if it was AdBlue rather than petrol: it's a different problem, with its own page for Galashiels, because AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits instead of lost protection.
What makes one Galashiels petrol in a diesel task cost more than the next
The four scenarios above are four different tasks, so no single price for this would be honest. Mostly, your cost shifts with which situation you are in. Two things come after that: the petrol that got in as a share of what the tank holds, then the place the vehicle is in and whether a van can reach it safely.
What went in, how much, and whether it has run — three queries our engineers ask before pricing, not after, for exactly that reason. With the answers, you get a straight figure rather than a range.
About Galashiels, briefly
Galashiels is a town situated on the River Gala in the Scottish Borders, with Gala Park and the Old Town being notable local areas. Galashiels has a population of around 8568 people and is characterized by predominantly flat housing. Galashiels is located approximately 27.7 miles from Edinburgh and 304.3 miles from London, making it a significant settlement in the region. Galashiels sits at an elevation of 117 metres, with the nearby Balmoral estate being a point of interest.
Fuel drain cover across Scottish Borders, Galashiels included
Our vans answering petrol in diesel jobs around Galashiels, in the TD postcode area, also work the locations near it, Gala Park, Old Town and Balmoral included. We drain wherever the vehicle is — your own drive, a lay-by, a supermarket car park, a forecourt — so it never needs to come to us.
Galashiels: still at the petrol pump?
In that case, you could not be in a better place. Leave the vehicle turned off, then ring.