Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Highley
Less than you likely are, provided it hasn't been started. "Have I ruined it?" is the first thing anyone in Highley asks, and the truthful answer is generally no, since petrol left in a diesel tank harms nothing till it's dragged through your fuel system — by ignition priming, by your starter, or by being driven. To leave the vehicle that way, phone Petrol in Diesel then leave the motor alone. Below, you will find what petrol actually does inside a diesel, how far it may have gone, and how to stop it happening to you again.
The engine and petrol in a diesel: what happens
Two jobs fall to diesel on its route round a motor. It burns, and before it combusts it lubricates. Extremely fine tolerances are built into your injectors and your high-pressure pump, and just the diesel running through stops their surfaces grinding together.
The second job petrol doesn't do at all, and the first it does badly. A pump working on a petrol mix is wearing itself out, since petrol is thinner than diesel and takes away the lubrication your fuel system relies on. Petrol is also made to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel needs from its fuel — and that is where the clattering comes.
Put these together and the shape of the issue is clear. The harm is done by circulation, not by contact. Where that petrol is only inside the tank, it is an issue of fuel, nothing more. Whatever a worn pump sheds travels on, borne by your fuel, into your injectors downstream, which is why a pump that has worked on the petrol is where a mechanical fault begins.
Highley, petrol in a diesel: four situations, from mild to significant
Fuelled, and not started: no case is better. That petrol is inside the tank and just your tank, and the task is a drain and a flush where the car sits. This is the one scenario that can only truly happen at a forecourt, since anywhere else the vehicle has been driven to get there.
A brief spell of running, or just the ignition on. With the system primed, the lines and filter now hold petrol that has come from your tank. Drain, flush, see to the fuel filter: still usually simple.
Driven a few miles. Now the pump has spent those miles working on diluted fuel. Tank, lines, filter, then clean fuel put through the whole system: that is the work, and the way the vehicle was driven matters as much as the miles. On the school run to Highley Community Primary School, the miles is small. Driving as far as Wolverhampton, under 15 miles away, makes a very different job — as does any mileage on the M5, under 15 miles from Highley, with the engine labouring hard all the way.
Knocking, an uneven idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven until it complained. That is your motor telling you its fuel has stopped acting like diesel. Leave it where it stops: a lay-by, a side street, the verge on High Street. The fuel drain and flush still come first, and they take care of it: when a vehicle is pulled over early, permanent damage is very unusual.
What Highley drivers get told about petrol in a diesel — and the stories in it
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be fine." It will not. Topping up removes nothing; it gives you a bigger tank of the same mixture. A diesel fuel system doesn't tolerate petrol by percentage in the way that advice supposes.
"Newer diesels can handle a little petrol" — a myth, and nearer the opposite. Smaller parts and higher pressure are the way a newer diesel runs its fuel, and that makes the lubrication matter more, not less.
This is the one that catches motorists. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no damage done." Diesel in a petrol motor generally means a motor that won't run: the motorist stops, and so does the harm. A diesel fed petrol generally starts, ticks over and drives away as if nothing has happened, whilst your pump grinds. Running is not the same as fine.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, taken from a fix from years ago, for a distinct problem. What petrol has weakened remains thinned, and that petrol remains in your tank regardless.
"Drain it yourself and you're sorted" — a myth, since after it has been running some petrol lies in the fuel filter and lines, ready to go right back through the pump on your next start. On top of that, petrol cleared into a can by the road is genuinely dangerous.
How does petrol in a diesel occur?
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Seldom, if ever. The petrol nozzle is the smaller of the two and slips into a diesel filler with almost no resistance; a diesel nozzle mostly won't go into a petrol vehicle at all. The forecourt makes it easy, and the slip runs one way.
When routine and the car stop matching, it takes place. A car that's new to you — a hire car, on loan as a courtesy car, or just bought. Two motors on one driveway, one petrol, one diesel. A forecourt you know, but with its pumps arranged differently. Rushing for a train at Kidderminster and filling up en route. A new-to-you diesel Renault Megane, its first fuelling, and a motorist used to petrol: precisely when it happens. Throw in rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children, and your hand repeats what it has always done.
Highley drivers: how to prevent petrol in a diesel next time
- The label is what counts, and so check the petrol pump rather than the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are normally green and diesel black, but not on every forecourt.
- Check the filler flap. Plenty of motors state the fuel inside the flap or on the cap. Look at it on your first fill in any car you don't know.
- Good intentions do less than a sticker or a fob in a bright colour on the diesel's key if a household has one of each. So label it.
- "Diesel", aloud, before you pick up 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 whilst you are thinking about something else.
- Some diesels come with a filler designed to block a petrol nozzle, and devices you can add are available for vehicles without one. Such an inhibitor helps up to a point — as a safety net, not a reason to stop reading the petrol pump.
- Less petrol means a weaker mixture, so stop the moment you notice — though remembering that your next step is unchanged. It's still not to start the vehicle.
Highley: already put petrol in a diesel?
Then, there's just a short order of things. Starting it is out, and so is switching on your ignition. If you're still at the forecourt — the nearest petrol station or anywhere else — ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the pump. What got in, about how much, and whether it has run: tell us that when you ring 0333 366 0103.
If it was AdBlue rather than petrol, say so. That's a different problem — corrosion and deposits and not lost protection — and it has its own page for Highley.
What makes one Highley petrol in a diesel job cost more than the next
There is no fair single price for this, since the four scenarios above are four separate jobs. Chiefly, the cost moves with which one you're in. The share counts next, meaning how much of your tank is petrol, and then the location of the vehicle and whether reaching it is safe for our van.
Ahead of any quote, not after, come three questions: your fuel that got in, its amount, and if it has run. That's why. With those replies, you get a straight figure instead of a range.
About Highley and where it is
Highley is a village in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 109 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Highley lies approximately 14 miles from Wolverhampton and 116 miles from London, placing it in a relatively central position within the West Midlands region. Highley is surrounded by other small villages, including Netherton, Stanley, and Woodhill, and has a population of around 1389 residents. Highley remains a small, quiet community with a strong sense of local identity.
Across Shropshire and in Highley: fuel drain cover
Highley waits in the WV postcode area, and our teams that answer petrol in diesel call-outs there work the locations near it as well — Netherton, Stanley and Woodhill among them. You need not move the car to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own driveway are all places where we work.
Highley: still at the petrol pump?
Then you're in the best place there is. Keep the car switched off, then ring.