Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Hawes Side
If it has not been started, you can worry far less than you probably are. Till the ignition primes your pump, your starter cranks, or the vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just sits there and does nothing. Which makes the truthful reply to the first Hawes Side query — "have I ruined it?" — normally no. Keep it like that: leave the engine off then phone Petrol in Diesel. Keep reading 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 repeat it.
What petrol in a diesel does to the engine
Two tasks fall to diesel on its route through a motor. Before it combusts, it protects — and then it ignites. Designed to very fine gaps, the injectors and the pump depend on your diesel moving 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. Being less viscous than diesel, petrol strips out the lubrication a fuel system needs, leaving a pump on the blend wearing itself. It's equally made to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel needs — which is where you hear the rattling.
The shape of the trouble is plain when you put those together. Contact doesn't do the damage — circulation does. A tank with petrol in it is a fuel problem. After your pump has been working on that petrol, a mechanical issue has begun: anything shed by a pump that's wearing down is carried onward to the fuel injectors with the fuel.
Four situations our technicians see in Hawes Side: how serious is petrol in a diesel?
The best case there is: filled up, not once started. On a forecourt, and really only there, the petrol is still confined to your tank — since everywhere else your car was driven to reach it. The job is emptying and flushing on the spot.
A brief spell of running, or merely the ignition on. Petrol has come out of your tank and got to the fuel filter and the lines, since the system has been primed. That is generally still a straightforward task — a drain, a flush, and your filter seen to.
A few miles driven, and the pump has spent every one of them labouring on thinned fuel. The work is your tank, the fuel lines, your filter and clean fuel through the whole circuit, and how hard the car was driven counts as much as how far. Short trips, like the school run to Hawes Side Academy, are one thing. Getting as far as Preston, under 15 miles away, makes a very different task — as does any mileage on the M55, under 3 miles from Hawes Side, with the motor running hard all the way.
Clattering, a lumpy idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven until it complained. The fuel isn't behaving like diesel any more, and the engine is telling you. Stop where you are — on the verge on Dewhurst Avenue, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it. Long-term damage is very uncommon when a vehicle is pulled over soon, and the drain and flush that still come first sort it out.
What Hawes Side people get told about petrol in a diesel — and the myths in it
False: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It does not. Nothing is removed by topping up — you are left with a fuller tank, still the same mix. That advice supposes a diesel fuel system handles petrol by percentage. It does not.
If anything, the reverse is true. Myth: "A current diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." At higher pressure, through smaller parts: that is how a newer diesel handles its fuel, and so the lubrication counts for more, not less.
"It starts, it drives, so there is no harm" — the myth that catches most people than any other. Feed diesel to a petrol motor and it normally will not run, and so the motorist stops — and the damage stops with them. While your pump wears, a diesel fed petrol usually starts, ticks over and drives away as if nothing has happened. 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 different problem. It doesn't put back what petrol has weakened, and that petrol is still in your tank later on.
The next start draws petrol back round the pump out of the lines and your filter, where some of it sits after the engine has been run. That's why a DIY tank drain doesn't sort it — a myth. Also, a can of petrol filled at the kerbside is truly risky.
Why petrol in a diesel occurs so easily
It is rarely carelessness, and nobody does it on purpose. The forecourt makes it simple: the petrol nozzle is the slimmer of the two, and it slips into a diesel filler with almost no resistance, while a diesel nozzle generally won't go into a petrol motor at all. So the mistake runs one way.
It happens when routine and the vehicle stop matching. A new motor, a hire car or a courtesy car. One petrol and one diesel on the drive of the same household. A forecourt you know, only with its pumps laid out differently. Fuelling up in a hurry en route to Blackpool South, with a train to catch. Exactly the moment it happens: after years of driving petrol, someone fills a diesel Renault Clio for the first time. Your hand repeats what it has always done once you add rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children.
Hawes Side people: how to avoid petrol in a diesel next time
- The label is what counts, so read the pump instead of the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are usually green and diesel black, but not on each forecourt.
- The first fill in an unfamiliar motor is the time to check your filler flap — inside it, or on the cap, many vehicles state the fuel to use.
- A coloured fob or a sticker on your diesel's key does more than any amount of meaning to remember, for a household with one of each.
- "Diesel", aloud, before you lift the nozzle — every time a new or hired car gets its first tank. It seems silly. It works.
- Tuck the phone away. This is an easy mistake to make while you are thinking about something else.
- Add-on devices are available for cars without one, and some diesels come with a filler that will not take a petrol nozzle. Helpful — but a safety net only, never a reason to stop checking the label.
- The moment you realise, stop: less petrol inside your tank means a weaker mix. What to do next does not change, though — still do not fire it up.
Petrol already in a diesel in Hawes Side? Begin here
The order of things is short, then. Leave it unstarted, with your ignition switched off as well. If you are still on the forecourt — Asda or anywhere else — ask the attendants to help you push it clear of the petrol pump. What went in, roughly how much, and if it has run: tell us those when you call 0333 366 0103.
Corrosion and deposits form the issue with AdBlue, whereas petrol means lost protection. So if it was AdBlue, say so — and see its own Hawes Side page.
What makes one Hawes Side petrol in a diesel job cost more than the next
There is no honest single quote for this, since the four scenarios above are four separate jobs. The situation itself does most of the work of moving your cost. Two things come after that: the petrol that got in as a proportion of what that tank holds, then the place the car is in and whether a van can reach it safely.
What got in, how much, and if it has run — three questions our technicians ask before costing, not after, for exactly that reason. A range turns into a straight figure once the answers are in.
About Hawes Side and where it is
Hawes Side is a coastal suburban area in Lancashire, situated near the cities of Preston and Blackpool. Hawes Side has a relatively low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level, and is close to nearby places such as Common Edge and Great Marton. Hawes Side is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, and is home to a population of approximately 8807 people.
Fuel drain cover across Lancashire, Hawes Side included
Petrol in diesel call-outs around Hawes Side — part of the FY postcode area — go to teams that likewise cover the spots around it, Common Edge, Walkers Hill and Great Marton included. You need not move your car to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own drive are all locations where we work.
In Hawes Side and still at the petrol pump?
In that case, you could not be in a better place. Leave the vehicle switched off, and ring.