How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Kennoway
Provided it has not been started, you can worry less than you probably are. Petrol sitting in a diesel tank does nothing to the motor till something pulls it through your fuel system — the ignition priming the pump, your starter, or driving itself. So the honest answer to the first query anyone in Kennoway asks, "have I ruined it?", is usually no. To leave the car that way, phone Petrol in Diesel and leave your motor alone. What petrol actually does to a diesel, how to gauge how far it's travelled, and how to stop it from happening a second time: that is the rest of this page.
Petrol in a diesel: what does it do to your engine?
Two jobs fall to diesel on its route through a motor. Before it ignites, it protects — then it ignites. Made to extremely fine gaps, the injectors and the pump depend on the diesel moving through them to stop their surfaces wearing against one another.
Badly at the first, not at all at the second: that's petrol. It is runnier than diesel and takes away the protection your fuel system hinges on, so a pump running on a petrol blend is a pump wearing itself. And petrol is designed to resist igniting under compression, which is the opposite of what a diesel needs from its fuel. That's where the clattering comes from.
Put those together and the shape of the problem is plain. The harm is done by circulation, not by contact. Where the petrol is only inside the tank, it's an issue of fuel, nothing more. The start of a mechanical one is a pump that has been labouring on that petrol — and whatever a worn pump sheds moves on with your fuel to the injectors beyond it.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four scenarios we see in Kennoway
Fuelled, and not started: no case is better. Only the tank has petrol in it, and so the job is emptying that tank and cleaning the system where the vehicle stands. This scenario can only really take place at a forecourt: anywhere else, the vehicle got there by being driven.
Your ignition turned on, or a short start. Once primed, your system has drawn petrol from that tank as far as the fuel filter and the lines. Usually nothing more than clearing, rinsing and sorting the filter, so still straightforward.
Your pump has worked a couple of miles on diluted fuel — that's what driving the vehicle does. Distance is only half of it; how hard it was driven matters equally. Either way the work runs to that tank, your lines, your filter and clean fuel through the whole circuit. Short trips, such as the school run to the local primary school, are one thing. Driving as far as Dundee, under 25 miles away, makes a very different task — as does any mileage on the M90, under 15 miles from Kennoway, with the engine labouring hard all the way.
It protested, and only then stopped: smoke, clattering, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone lumpy. That is your engine telling you its fuel no longer is behaving like diesel. Whether it is the verge on Leven Road, a lay-by or a side street, stop where you are then leave it. What comes first is still the drain and flush, and that sorts it out, with permanent damage very unusual when a car is stopped quickly.
Stories Kennoway people hear about petrol in a diesel
It will not be fine. The myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it will be." Nothing is removed by topping up — you're left with a bigger tank, still the same mixture. Percentage is not how a diesel fuel system tolerates petrol, whatever that guidance presumes.
If anything, the opposite holds. Myth: "A current diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." A modern diesel sends its fuel through finer components at higher pressure, which makes the lubrication count more, not less.
Myth: "If it starts and drives, there is no harm done." This is the one that catches motorists. Diesel in a petrol motor generally means a motor that won't run: the motorist stops, and so does the damage. A diesel fed petrol normally starts, ticks over and drives away as if nothing has happened, while your pump wears. 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 separate problem. It doesn't put back what petrol has diluted, and that petrol is still in the tank later on.
Myth: "Drain the tank yourself and you are sorted." After the engine has run, some of the petrol is no longer in your tank: it's in the fuel filter and your lines, and it goes right back through the pump at the next start. And, a can of petrol drained by the kerbside is truly hazardous.
Why petrol in a diesel happens at all
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Seldom, if ever. The petrol nozzle is the slimmer 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 mistake runs one way.
The moment routine stops matching the vehicle is the moment it happens. Courtesy car, hire car, or a vehicle that is new. Two motors on one drive, one petrol, one diesel. The pumps in a different order on a well-known forecourt. Racing for a train outside Cameron Bridge and fuelling up en route. The first fill-up in a diesel Skoda Octavia after years of driving petrol is precisely the moment it takes place. The hand does what it has always done once you add rain, a phone call or a back seat full of kids.
Kennoway people: how to prevent petrol in a diesel next time
- A green handle for unleaded and black for diesel is normal in the UK — but not on every forecourt. Go by the label on the pump, not the colour.
- Inspect your filler flap. Plenty of cars state the fuel type inside the flap or on the cap. Look at it on the first fill in any motor you don't know.
- A coloured fob or a sticker on the diesel's key achieves more than any amount of intending to remember, for a household with one of each.
- Before the nozzle comes off the pump the first time you fuel a hired or new car, say "diesel" out loud. Daft, yes, but it does the trick.
- Put your phone away. This is an easy mistake to make whilst you're thinking about something else.
- Some diesels come with a filler built to reject a petrol nozzle, and devices you can add exist for vehicles without one. Such an inhibitor helps up to a point — as a safety net, not a reason to stop reading the pump.
- Less petrol means a weaker blend, so stop as soon as you realise — though remembering that your next step is unchanged. It's still not to fire it up.
Petrol already in a diesel in Kennoway? Start here
The order of things is short, then. Starting it is out, and so is turning on your ignition. If you're still at the forecourt — JET or anywhere else — ask the staff to help you push it clear of the petrol pump. Ring 0333 366 0103 next, with three facts — the fuel, the approximate amount, and if it has run.
Say so if it was AdBlue rather than petrol: it's a separate problem, with its own page for Kennoway, because AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits instead of lost protection.
Why one petrol in a diesel job in Kennoway costs more than another
There's no honest single price for this, since the four scenarios above are four separate jobs. The situation itself does most of the work of moving the cost. Where your car is matters too, and whether our van can safely get to it, after the proportion of petrol to what that tank takes.
What got in, how much, and if it's run — three questions we ask before costing, not after, for exactly that reason. With the answers, you get a straight figure rather than a range.
About Kennoway itself
Kennoway is a coastal village in Fife, situated near the towns of Bonnybank, Baintown, and Balcurvie, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Kennoway sits at an elevation of 77 metres, overlooking the coastal landscape of eastern Scotland. Kennoway is located approximately 17 miles from Dundee, the nearest city, and is part of the wider Fife region. Kennoway has a population of around 1918 residents, living in a variety of housing types, predominantly semi-detached homes.
Fuel drain cover across Fife, Kennoway included
Bonnybank, Baintown and Balcurvie are among the locations near Kennoway that the same teams work, answering petrol in diesel call-outs across Kennoway's KY postcode area. No need to bring the car to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own drive are all places where we work.
Kennoway: still at the petrol pump?
Then, you couldn't be in a better position. Phone, and leave it switched off.