How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Kilkeel
Far less than you probably are, provided it has not been started. Everyone around Kilkeel begins with "have I ruined it?", and the honest answer is generally no: petrol resting inside your tank of any diesel remains harmless till priming, cranking or driving pulls it into the fuel system. Petrol in Diesel is who to ring, with the motor kept off, and so it remains that way. Read on for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel engine, the clues of how far it has spread, and the way to make sure you don't do it again.
Petrol in a diesel: what does it do to the engine?
On its way through a motor, diesel has two jobs. It protects to begin with, and after that does it burn. Made to extremely fine tolerances, the fuel injectors and your pump rely on your diesel moving through them to stop their surfaces wearing against one another.
Of these two tasks, petrol handles the first badly and the second never. Being less viscous than diesel, petrol strips out the protection a fuel system needs, leaving a pump running on that mixture wearing itself. It's also made to resist igniting under compression — the opposite of what a diesel needs — which is where you get the rattling.
The shape of the issue is plain once you put those together. Contact doesn't do the damage — circulation does. A tank with petrol in it is a fuel issue. After the pump has been working on that petrol, a mechanical fault has started: anything shed by a pump that's wearing down travels downstream to your injectors with the fuel.
Four situations our technicians see around Kilkeel: how bad is petrol in a diesel?
Fuelled but never started — as good as it gets. Being on a forecourt is what makes this possible: elsewhere, the car has been driven there to begin with. With the petrol held inside that tank alone, it's drained and rinsed right where it stands, and nothing more is needed.
The ignition turned on, or a short start. The fuel system has been bled, so petrol has left the tank and got to the filter and the fuel lines. Still normally easy: drain, flush, and your filter sorted.
Some miles driven, and your pump has spent each of them labouring on thinned fuel. The work is that tank, the fuel lines, the filter and clean fuel through the entire system, and how hard your car was driven counts as much as how far. Short trips, such as the school run to the local primary school, are one matter. Very different once more: a run to Newry, under 25 miles away, or any miles on the M55, over 50 miles from Kilkeel, where the engine never stopped running hard.
Rattling, a ragged idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven till it complained. What you are hearing is your engine reporting fuel that no longer runs like diesel. Whether it is the verge on B7041, a lay-by or a side street, stop there then leave it. The fuel drain and flush-through still come first, and they deal with it: when a vehicle is pulled over soon, lasting damage is very unusual.
What Kilkeel motorists get told about petrol in a diesel — and the myths in it
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine." It will not. A fuller tank of the same mix is all it gives, because topping up removes nothing. Percentage isn't how a diesel fuel system copes with petrol, whatever that guidance assumes.
If anything, the opposite holds. Myth: "A modern diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." A modern diesel sends its fuel through smaller parts at higher pressure, which makes the lubrication count more, not less.
This is the one that fools drivers. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no harm done." Any petrol motor fed diesel generally will not run, and so the motorist stops and the harm stops with them. Nothing looks to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, as it usually will; meanwhile the pump grinds. Fine and running are not the same at all.
An old fix for a separate problem is behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the car home." It does not put back what petrol has weakened, and the petrol is still inside the tank later.
The next start sends petrol back round the pump out of the lines and your filter, where some of it sits after the motor has run. That's why a DIY tank drain doesn't leave you sorted — a myth. It's also truly hazardous to drain petrol into a can at the roadside.
How it happens: petrol in a diesel
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Rarely, if ever. One way only, since of the nozzles: the smaller petrol one slips inside a diesel filler with almost no resistance, while the diesel one mostly won't fit a petrol motor. That is how the forecourt makes it straightforward.
Habit and your car getting out of step is how it occurs. Courtesy car, hire car, or a motor that is brand new. Two vehicles on one drive, one petrol, one diesel. Your ordinary forecourt, its pumps suddenly in a different order. Rushing for a train outside the nearest station and filling up en route. The first fill-up in a diesel Renault Clio after years of driving petrol is precisely the moment it occurs. Throw in a back seat full of kids, a phone call or rain, and habit wins.
Kilkeel motorists: how to avoid 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 usually green and diesel black, yet not on each forecourt.
- Many motors state the fuel inside your filler flap or on the cap, so check it on your first fill in a car you do not know.
- One of each in the house? Label the key to your diesel — a bright fob, a sticker — because intending to remember isn't enough.
- Before the nozzle leaves the pump the first time you fuel a hired or new car, say "diesel" aloud. Daft, yes, yet it works.
- While you're 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 come with a filler that won't accept a petrol nozzle. Useful — but a safety net only, never a reason to stop checking the label.
- Less petrol makes a weaker mix, so stop the moment you notice — though remembering that the next step is unchanged. It's still not to fire it up.
Petrol already in a diesel around Kilkeel? Begin here
Then the order of things is brief. Do not fire it up, and do not switch your ignition on. The staff at the forecourt — whether at the nearest petrol station itself or wherever you filled up — will normally help push it away from the pump if you ask. Next, 0333 366 0103. We will ask what got in, roughly how much, and if it has been run.
AdBlue, not petrol? Then say so. Corrosion and deposits, not lost lubrication, make it a different issue — Kilkeel has a page just for it.
What makes one Kilkeel petrol in a diesel job cost more than the next
Four separate jobs sit behind the four situations above — which is why there's no honest single price. Which of them you're in is mostly what shifts the cost. Two things follow that: the petrol that went in as a share of what the tank takes, then the spot the car is in and whether a van can reach it safely.
Ahead of any quote, not after, we ask three queries: your fuel that was put in, the volume, and if it's run. That is why. Given those replies, there is a straight figure instead of a range.
About Kilkeel itself
Kilkeel is a small coastal town in County Down, situated on the shores of Carlingford Lough. Kilkeel has a population of around 3841 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Kilkeel sits near the villages of Dunnaval, Atticall, and Annalong, and is approximately 16.6 miles from the city of Newry. Kilkeel is located at a low elevation of around 2 metres above sea level.
Fuel drain cover across County Down, Kilkeel included
Petrol in diesel call-outs around Kilkeel — part of the BT postcode area — go to vans that likewise cover the locations about it, Dunnaval, Atticall and Annalong among them. A forecourt, a supermarket car park, a lay-by or your own drive are all locations our technicians drain, and your vehicle doesn't need to come to us.
In Kilkeel and still at the pump?
Then you're in the best position there can be. Ring, and leave it turned off.