Petrol in a Diesel Car in Mauricewood: How Worried Should You Be?
Provided it hasn't been started, worry far less than you likely are. Till your ignition primes your pump, the starter turns, or the car is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just sits there and does no harm. Which makes the truthful reply to that first Mauricewood query — "have I wrecked it?" — normally no. Leave your motor off and ring Petrol in Diesel — that keeps it that way. Below, you will find what petrol actually does inside a diesel, how far it may have got, and how to stop it happening to you again.
The engine and petrol in a diesel: what goes on
On its way through an engine, diesel does two jobs. It lubricates first, and after that does it burn. The high-pressure pump and your injectors are built to very fine tolerances, and the diesel passing through them is what keeps those surfaces from wearing against each other.
The second job petrol does not do at all, and the first it does poorly. It's thinner than diesel and removes the lubrication the system rests on, so a pump running on a petrol mixture 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 is where the rattling comes from.
The shape of the issue is plain once you put those together. It is movement that does the harm, not contact. Petrol in a tank is a fuel issue. Whatever a worn pump sheds travels on, borne by the fuel, into the fuel injectors downstream, which is why a pump that has been working on the petrol is where a mechanical issue starts.
Four situations we see in Mauricewood: how serious is petrol in a diesel?
Filled up, and never started: nothing beats it. Only the tank has petrol in it, so the job is clearing the tank and cleaning the system where the vehicle sits. This scenario can only truly take place on a forecourt: anywhere else, the car got there by being driven.
The ignition turned on, or a brief start. The system has been bled, so petrol has left the tank and reached the filter and the lines. Drain, flush, see to your filter: still usually straightforward.
Your pump now worked a few miles on thinned fuel — that's what driving the car does. Distance is only half of it; how hard it was driven matters just as much. Either way the work includes the tank, your lines, the fuel filter and fresh fuel through the whole system. Short trips, like the school run to the local primary school, are one thing. A run as far as Edinburgh, under 10 miles away, is a very different job. So is any mileage on the M8, under 10 miles from Mauricewood, where your engine has been running hard the whole time.
It complained, and only then stopped: smoke, rattling, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone lumpy. The motor is telling you your fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Pull up wherever you are — the verge on Mauricewood Bank, a lay-by, a side street — and leave the vehicle where it is. What comes first is still the fuel drain and flush-through, and that deals with it, with lasting damage very uncommon when a car is pulled over early.
Petrol in a diesel stories Mauricewood drivers hear
Myth: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It does not. A fuller tank of the same mix is all you get, because topping up removes nothing. The idea behind the advice — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
Myth: "A newer diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." If anything, the reverse. Lubrication counts more on current diesels, not less, because their fuel passes through more precise parts at higher pressure.
This is the one that fools people. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no damage done." Diesel in a petrol motor generally leaves a motor that will not run: the driver stops, and so does the harm. Feed petrol to a diesel and it generally starts, idles and drives away like nothing has happened — all the while its pump wears. Running doesn't mean fine.
Myth: a two-stroke additive makes it safe to drive home. It is an old fix, meant for another fault. It doesn't put back what petrol has thinned, and the petrol is still in your tank after that.
Once the motor has been run, part of that petrol is in the fuel filter and the fuel lines, not that tank — and your next start pulls it right back through the pump. So the myth "drain that tank yourself and you are sorted" does not stand up. Besides, petrol drained into a can by the road is truly dangerous.
How petrol ends up: petrol in a diesel
A careless moment is seldom the cause, and nobody means to do it. A diesel nozzle generally won't go into a petrol vehicle, but the narrower petrol nozzle goes into the filler of a diesel nearly without resistance — so forecourts make this one error simple, and only in that direction.
Habit and your car getting out of step is how it occurs. Courtesy car, hire car, or a car that's new. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the drive. Your usual forecourt, its pumps suddenly in a different order. A hurried fill on the way to Wester Hailes with a train to catch. Precisely the moment it occurs: after years of driving petrol, someone fills a diesel Volkswagen Passat for the first time. Your hand repeats what it has always done once you add rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children.
Mauricewood motorists: how to prevent petrol in a diesel next time
- Read the petrol pump, not the colour. In the UK unleaded handles are generally green and diesel black, yet not on every forecourt. The label is what counts.
- Plenty of motors state the fuel type inside the filler flap or on the cap, and so check there on your first fill in any vehicle you do not know.
- A coloured fob or a sticker on your diesel's key does more than any amount of intending to remember, for a household with one of each.
- Say it before you lift it. On your first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" out loud before you take the nozzle off the petrol pump. It seems silly and it works.
- Thinking about something else is when this becomes an easy mistake to make, so tuck your phone away then keep your mind on the pump.
- Some diesels have a filler built to refuse a petrol nozzle, and devices you can add are available for motors without one. Such an inhibitor helps up to a point — as a backstop, not a reason to stop checking the pump.
- As soon as you notice, stop: less petrol in the tank means a thinner mix. What to do next does not change, though — still do not fire it up.
Already put petrol in a diesel in Mauricewood?
Then, there is only a short order of things. Starting it is out, and so is turning on the ignition. If you are still on the forecourt — Tesco or anywhere else — ask the staff to help you roll it away from the petrol pump. What went in, roughly how much, and if it's run: tell us those when you phone 0333 366 0103.
Corrosion and deposits form the issue with AdBlue, where petrol brings lost lubrication. So if it was AdBlue, say so — and see its own Mauricewood page.
Why one petrol in a diesel task around Mauricewood costs more than another
The four scenarios above are four different tasks, so no single quote for this would be fair. Which of them you are in is mostly what moves the cost. Two things come after that: the petrol that got in as a proportion of what that tank holds, then the place the vehicle is in and whether a van can reach it safely.
Ahead of any quote, not after, we ask three questions: the fuel that went in, the volume, and whether it's run. That is why. With the replies, there is a straight figure rather than a range.
About Mauricewood
Mauricewood is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Midlothian, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 4136 residents. Mauricewood sits at an elevation of 193 metres, close to the nearby communities of Greenlaw Mains, Eastfield, and Beeslack. Mauricewood is located approximately 7.9 miles from Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city. Mauricewood forms part of the wider commuter belt around Edinburgh, with easy access to the city centre.
Fuel drain cover across Midlothian, Mauricewood included
Mauricewood rests in the EH postcode area, and the vans that answer petrol in diesel jobs there work the places near it as well — Greenlaw Mains, Eastfield and Beeslack among them. You need not bring the vehicle to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own drive are all spots we drain.
At the pump in Mauricewood, still?
The best position there is, then — that is where you are. Call, and leave it switched off.