Hollywood: Petrol in a Diesel Car? How Worried to Be
If it has not been started, you can worry less than you likely are. Petrol resting in a diesel tank does nothing to the motor until something draws it through the system — the ignition priming the pump, the starter, or the drive itself. So the honest answer to the first query anyone in Hollywood asks, "have I ruined it?", is generally no. To keep the vehicle that way, phone Petrol in Diesel and leave your motor alone. Keep reading for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel engine, the clues of how far it has got, and the way to make sure you don't repeat it.
Inside the engine: what petrol in a diesel really does
On its way through a motor, diesel does two jobs. Before it burns, it protects — then it burns. Very fine clearances are built into your injectors and the high-pressure pump, and only the diesel running through keeps those surfaces from grinding together.
Badly at the first, not at all at the second: that's petrol. The rattling comes from petrol being designed not to ignite when compressed, which is exactly the reverse of what a diesel needs. On top of that it is thinner than diesel, it strips out the protection the fuel system hinges on, and any pump running on that mixture is wearing itself.
Together, those leave the shape of the problem plain. Not contact but circulation is what does the damage. All a tank with petrol in it amounts to is a fuel fault. Once the pump has been labouring on that petrol, a mechanical fault has started: whatever is shed by a pump that is wearing is carried onward to the injectors with your fuel.
Petrol in a diesel around Hollywood: how serious is it? Four situations
Fuelled up, not once started. The best case there is. Being at a forecourt is what makes this the case: elsewhere, your car has been driven there to begin with. With the petrol held inside the tank alone, it's emptied and rinsed right where it stands, and nothing more is needed.
The ignition switched on, or a short start. Once primed, the fuel system has pulled petrol out of your tank up to the filter and the lines. Still usually easy: drain, flush, and the fuel filter seen to.
Your pump now worked a couple of miles on thinned fuel — that is what driving it meant. The work is your tank, the fuel lines, your filter and clean fuel through the entire system, and how hard the vehicle was driven matters as much as how far. Short trips, such as the school run to Coppice Primary School, are one thing. Any mileage on the M42, under 3 miles from Hollywood, means the motor has worked hard throughout, and a run to Birmingham, under 10 miles away, is a very different job as well.
It protested, and only then stopped: smoke, clattering, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone lumpy. The engine is telling you the fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Leave it wherever it has stopped: a lay-by, a quiet street, the verge on Arden Road. A vehicle pulled over early very rarely has long-term damage, because the fuel drain and the flush-through, which still go first, take care of it.
Stories Hollywood motorists hear about petrol in a diesel
Myth: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It doesn't. Nothing is removed when you top up — the tank simply carries more of the same blend. The idea behind the advice — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
Not so: a modern diesel copes with a bit of petrol. If anything, the opposite. At higher pressure, through finer components: that's how a current diesel moves its fuel, and so the lubrication matters for more, not less.
"It starts, it drives, and so there is no harm" — the myth that trips up more motorists than any other. A petrol engine fed diesel generally will not run, and so the motorist stops and the damage stops with them. Whilst the pump wears, a diesel fed petrol normally starts, ticks over and drives away as though nothing has happened. Running doesn't mean fine.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, taken from a fix from years ago, for a different fault. It doesn't put back what petrol has weakened, and that petrol is still inside your tank after that.
The next start draws petrol back round your pump out of your lines and the fuel filter, where some of it sits after your engine has been run. That is why draining your tank yourself doesn't sort it — a myth. Besides, petrol emptied into a can by the road is genuinely hazardous.
How petrol ends up: petrol in a diesel
No one does it on purpose, and it's rarely carelessness. A diesel nozzle mostly won't fit a petrol motor, but the slimmer petrol nozzle goes into the filler of a diesel almost without resistance — so forecourts make this one mistake easy, and only in one direction.
Routine and the car getting out of step is how it takes place. Hire cars, courtesy cars, and vehicles that are new to you. Households running one of each, petrol and diesel. A familiar forecourt with the pumps in a different order. A hurried fill en route to Wythall with a train to catch. A new-to-you diesel Volkswagen Golf, its first fuelling, and a motorist accustomed to petrol: exactly when it happens. With rain, a call coming in, or a car full of children to deal with, the hand just does what it has always done.
Avoiding petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Hollywood
- Not every forecourt in the UK keeps to green for unleaded and black for diesel, even if most generally do. Check the pump's label; the colour is just a clue.
- In a motor you do not know, look inside the flap over the filler or at the cap before the first fill: plenty of motors state the fuel there.
- Good intentions count for less than a sticker or a fob in a bright colour on your diesel's key when a household has one of each. So label it.
- Before the nozzle leaves the pump the first time you fill a hired or new car, say "diesel" aloud. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- While you are thinking about something else, this is an easy mistake to make — so tuck your phone away.
- Add-on devices exist for cars without one, and some diesels are built with a filler that won't accept a petrol nozzle. Useful — but a safety net only, never a reason to stop checking the label.
- Stop the moment you realise. Less petrol inside that tank makes a weaker blend. It does not change what to do next, which is still not to crank it.
Already put petrol in a diesel in Hollywood?
Short and simple, then, is the order of things. Leave it unstarted, with your ignition switched off as well. Still on the forecourt, at JET or anywhere else? Ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. Next, 0333 366 0103. We will ask what got in, about how much, and if it's been run.
If it was AdBlue instead of petrol, say so. That is a different problem — corrosion and deposits rather than lost protection — and it has its own page for Hollywood.
Why one petrol in a diesel job around Hollywood costs more than another
The four scenarios above are four separate tasks, so no single quote for this would be honest. Mostly, the cost moves with which situation you're in. After that it is the proportion — how much petrol went in against how much that tank holds — and after that where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely.
Three queries come first, before quoting, instead of after — what went in, how much, has it run — and this is the reason. A range becomes a straight figure when the replies are in.
About Hollywood itself
Hollywood is a village in Worcestershire, situated inland at an elevation of around 152 metres, approximately 6 miles southwest of Birmingham. Hollywood lies near several smaller settlements, including Drakes Cross and Batemans Green, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Hollywood is a relatively small community, with a population of around 2841 residents, and is located about 96 miles northwest of London.
Fuel drain cover across Worcestershire, Hollywood included
Petrol in diesel calls around Hollywood — part of the B postcode area — go to vans that likewise cover the places about it, Drakes Cross, Batemans Green and Shawbrook included. No need to move your car to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own driveway are all places we drain.
In Hollywood and still at the petrol pump?
The best spot there is, then — that's where you are. Leave the car switched off, and ring.