Petrol in a Diesel Car in Hathern: How Worried Should You Be?
If it hasn't been started, you can worry far less than you likely are. Until your ignition primes your pump, your starter turns, or your vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank simply waits there and does nothing. Which makes the truthful reply to that first Hathern question — "have I ruined it?" — usually no. Petrol in Diesel is who to ring, with the motor kept off, and so it stays that way. Read on for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel motor, the clues of how far it has spread, and the way to make sure you never do it again.
Inside the motor: what petrol in a diesel really does
Two jobs fall to diesel on its journey round a motor. Oiling comes before burning; it does both. Built to extremely fine gaps, the fuel injectors and your pump depend on the diesel flowing through them to keep their surfaces from wearing against one another.
Poorly at the first, not at all at the second: that is petrol. Being less viscous than diesel, petrol strips away the protection a fuel system needs, leaving a pump running on the mixture wearing itself. It is also made to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel needs — which is why you get the clattering.
Seen together, they make clear the shape the issue has. It's movement that does the harm, not contact. Where that petrol is only in that tank, it's a problem of fuel, nothing more. Once the pump has been running on that petrol, a mechanical problem has begun: whatever is shed by a pump that's grinding is carried downstream to the injectors with the fuel.
Petrol in a diesel around Hathern: how serious is it? Four situations
Fuelled, and not started: nothing beats it. Being on a forecourt is what makes this possible: elsewhere, your car has been driven there to begin with. With that petrol held inside the tank alone, it's cleared and flushed on the spot, and nothing more is needed.
A brief spell of running, or merely your ignition on. Your system has been primed, so petrol has left the tank and reached the fuel filter and the lines. Still usually simple: drain, flush, and your filter seen to.
Your pump has worked a few miles on weakened fuel — that is what driving the car does. Tank, lines, filter, then fresh fuel run through the entire system: that is the work, and the way the vehicle was driven matters as much as the mileage. A school run to Hathern Church of England Primary School is one thing. Any miles on the M1, under 3 miles from Hathern, means the engine working hard throughout, and a run to Nottingham, under 15 miles away, is a very different task as well.
Clattering, an uneven idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven until it complained. The engine is telling you your fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Whether it's the verge on Church Street, a lay-by or a side street, stop there then leave it. The drain and flush-through still go first, and they sort it out: when a vehicle is stopped early, lasting damage is very rare.
Stories Hathern motorists hear about petrol in a diesel
False: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It doesn't. A fuller tank of the same mix is all it gives, because topping up removes nothing. Percentage is not how a diesel fuel system copes with petrol, whatever that advice assumes.
Myth: "A newer diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." If anything, the opposite. Protection counts more on current diesels, not less, because their fuel passes through finer parts at higher pressure.
Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no damage done." This is the one that fools motorists. Diesel in a petrol motor normally leaves a motor that won't run: the motorist stops, and so does the damage. Feed petrol to a diesel and it normally starts, idles and drives away as if nothing happened — all the while its pump is wearing. 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 distinct fault. What petrol has weakened remains diluted, and that petrol stays in that tank regardless.
The next start sends petrol back round the pump out of the lines and the filter, where some of that sits after the motor has been run. That is why a DIY tank drain doesn't sort it — a myth. Besides, petrol cleared into a can by the road is genuinely dangerous.
Why petrol in a diesel occurs so easily
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Seldom, if ever. One way only, since of the nozzles: the smaller petrol one slides inside a diesel filler with almost no resistance, while the diesel one mostly will not fit a petrol vehicle. That is how the forecourt makes it easy.
Routine and the car falling out of step is how it happens. A vehicle that is new to you — hired, on loan as a courtesy car, or just bought. Households running one of each, petrol and diesel. A well-known forecourt with the pumps in a different order. Rushing for a train at Loughborough and fuelling up en route. The first fill-up in a diesel Volkswagen Golf after years of driving petrol is exactly the moment it happens. Throw in a back seat full of kids, a phone call or rain, and the hand takes over.
Hathern people: how to avoid petrol in a diesel next time
- The label is what counts, and so read the pump rather than the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are usually green and diesel black, but not on every forecourt.
- In a car you do not know, look inside the flap over the filler or at the cap before the first fill: many cars state the fuel there.
- Label your key. In a house with one of each, a coloured fob or a sticker on the diesel's key does more than any amount of intending to remember.
- Say it before you lift it. On the first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" aloud before you lift the nozzle off the petrol pump. It seems silly and it does the trick.
- Thinking about something else is when this becomes an easy mistake to make, and so put the phone away and 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 aftermarket devices exist for the remainder. Treat it as a backstop, then keep checking the pump.
- Spotting it mid-fill? Stop at once. A thinner blend follows from less petrol in your tank, yet the next stage stays the same: do not fire it up.
Put petrol in a diesel around Hathern already?
Then the order of things is short. Never start it, and do not switch the ignition on. The attendants on the forecourt — whether at Esso itself or wherever you filled up — will usually help roll it clear of the pump if you ask. Phone 0333 366 0103 next, with three answers — the fuel, the rough amount, and whether it has run.
If it was AdBlue rather than petrol, say so. That is a different fault — corrosion and deposits rather than lost protection — and it has its own page for Hathern.
Why one petrol in a diesel task around Hathern costs more than another
The four scenarios above are four different tasks, so no single quote for this would be fair. The scenario itself does most of the work of moving the cost. Two things follow that: the petrol that got in as a share of what your tank holds, then the spot the car is in and whether a technician can get to it safely.
That is why we ask three queries before quoting rather than after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. Those replies change a range into a straight figure.
About Hathern, briefly
Hathern is a village in Leicestershire, situated on the banks of the River Soar at an elevation of around 44 metres. Hathern lies near the Nottinghamshire border, approximately 11.9 miles from Nottingham and 101.1 miles from London. Hathern has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is close to nearby villages such as Zouch and Normanton on Soar.
Across Leicestershire and in Hathern: fuel drain cover
Petrol in diesel jobs around Hathern — part of the LE postcode area — go to teams that likewise cover the spots round it, Zouch, Normanton on Soar and Dishley among them. Our engineers drain where the vehicle is — your own drive, a lay-by, a supermarket car park, a forecourt — so it never needs to come to us.
In Hathern and still at the pump?
Then you are in the best spot there is. Keep it off. Phone.