Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Hinckley
Not started? Then less worried than you probably are. Everyone in Hinckley begins with "have I ruined it?", and the fair answer is normally no: petrol left inside the tank of any diesel remains harmless till priming, cranking or driving draws it into your fuel system. Leave the motor off then phone Petrol in Diesel — that is how you keep it that way. Further down, this page sets out what petrol really does inside a diesel, how far it may have gone, and how to stop it happening to you again.
What petrol in a diesel does to your engine
Two jobs fall to diesel on its journey round a motor. Lubricating comes before burning; it does both. What stops the surfaces inside the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors from grinding against one another is your diesel passing through them — they are designed to extremely fine gaps.
Petrol does the first task badly and the second not at all. Being less viscous than diesel, petrol strips away the protection a fuel system needs, so a pump running on the blend wearing itself. It is equally made to resist igniting under compression — the opposite of what a diesel needs — which is why you hear the clattering.
The shape of the issue is plain when you put those together. The harm is done by circulation, not by contact. Petrol in a tank is a fuel problem. Once your pump has been working on that petrol, a mechanical fault has started: whatever is shed by a pump that is grinding is carried onward to your injectors with your fuel.
Petrol in a diesel in Hinckley: how bad is it? Four cases
Fuelled up, never started. The best case there is. At a forecourt, and truly only there, that petrol is still confined to that tank — since anywhere else the vehicle was driven to reach it. The task is emptying and cleaning on the spot.
A moment's running, or just your ignition on. With the system primed, your lines and filter now contain petrol that has come from that tank. That's normally still an easy job — a drain, a flush, and the fuel filter dealt with.
Those few miles driven meant the pump working on fuel diluted by petrol the whole way. Distance is only half of that; how hard it was driven matters just as much. Either way this work includes your tank, your lines, the fuel filter and clean fuel through the entire system. Short trips, such as the school run to St Mary's Church of England Primary School, Hinckley, are one matter. A run as far as Coventry, under 15 miles away, is a very different job. So is any miles on the M69, under 3 miles from Hinckley, where your engine has been labouring hard the whole time.
Driven until it complained. Knocking, a ragged idle, smoke, a throttle that has gone soft. The motor is telling you your fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Whether it's the verge on Regent Street, a lay-by or a side road, stop where you are and leave it. A car pulled over soon very seldom has long-term damage, because the fuel drain and the flush, which still come first, deal with it.
Stories Hinckley people hear about petrol in a diesel
"Top it up the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine" — a myth. It will not. Nothing comes out when you top up — your tank just carries more of the same mixture. The idea behind the advice — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
"Modern diesels can handle a little petrol" — a myth, and closer to the opposite. At higher pressure, through finer parts: that's how a modern diesel handles its fuel, so the lubrication counts for more, not less.
"It starts, it drives, and so no harm done" — the myth that catches most people than any other. The driver of a petrol motor fed diesel usually has no choice but to stop, since it will not run, and the harm stops there. Nothing seems to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, which it usually does; meanwhile the pump grinds. Running is not the same as fine.
Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive it home." It's an outdated workaround for a distinct issue. What petrol has weakened remains diluted, and the petrol stays inside that tank anyway.
Myth: "Drain that tank yourself and you are sorted." After the engine has been run, some of that petrol is no longer in your tank: it is in the fuel filter and the lines, and it goes right back through the pump on the next start. Also, a can of petrol drained by the kerbside is genuinely risky.
Why petrol in a diesel takes place at all
It is seldom carelessness, and nobody does it on purpose. The petrol nozzle is the smaller of the two and slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance; a diesel nozzle generally will not go into a petrol motor at all. The forecourt makes it easy, and the error runs one way.
When habit and the car stop matching, it takes place. A new vehicle, a hire car or a courtesy car. Households running one of each, petrol and diesel. Your normal forecourt, its pumps suddenly in a different order. A train to catch, and a rushed fill on the way to the nearest station. Years of petrol motors behind you, a diesel Nissan Qashqai in front of you on the forecourt for its first tank — that is when. Throw in a back seat full of children, a phone call or rain, and the hand takes over.
How to prevent petrol in a diesel on your next fill-up in Hinckley
- The label is what counts, so check the pump instead of the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are usually green and diesel black, yet not on every forecourt.
- Inspect the filler flap. Plenty of motors state the fuel inside the flap or on the cap. Look at it on the first fill in a motor you don't know.
- Label 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 intending to remember.
- "Diesel", out loud, before you pick up the nozzle — each time a new or hired car needs its first tank. It sounds silly. It works.
- Tuck your phone away. This is an easy mistake to make while you're thinking about something else.
- Up to a point, a misfuel inhibitor helps: some diesels have a filler built to block a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices are available for the remainder. Count it as a backstop, then keep reading the petrol pump.
- The moment you notice, stop: less petrol inside the tank makes a weaker mix. What to do next does not change, though — still don't fire it up.
Hinckley: already put petrol in a diesel?
Then, there's only a short order of things. Do not fire it up, and do not switch your ignition on. Still at the forecourt, at Tesco or anywhere else? Ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Next, 0333 366 0103. We'll ask what went in, about how much, and if it has been run.
Corrosion and deposits form the trouble with AdBlue, whereas petrol brings lost lubrication. So if it was AdBlue, say so — and read its own Hinckley page.
Hinckley petrol in a diesel tasks: why one costs more than another
The four situations above are four separate jobs, so no single price for this would be honest. Mostly, your cost shifts with which one you're in. Where your car is matters too, and whether a technician can safely get to it, after the share of petrol to what your tank takes.
That's why our engineers ask three queries before costing rather than after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Those answers are what turn a range into one firm number.
About Hinckley, for a moment
Hinckley is a town in Leicestershire, situated on the banks of the River Sence, with an elevation of around 117 metres. Hinckley lies approximately 88.9 miles northwest of London and 10.8 miles southwest of Coventry. Hinckley has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent, and its suburbs include areas like The Crescent, Hollycroft, and Sketchley.
Across Leicestershire and in Hinckley: fuel drain cover
Petrol in diesel call-outs in Hinckley — part of the LE postcode area — go to teams that likewise cover the spots round it, The Crescent, Hollycroft and Sketchley included. Our technicians drain where your car is — your own drive, a lay-by, a supermarket car park, a forecourt — so it does not have to come to us.
Still at the petrol pump around Hinckley?
No position is better: that's where you are. Keep it off. Ring.