How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Netherfield
Not started? Then less worried than you likely feel. Until your ignition primes your pump, the starter cranks, or the vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just waits there and does no harm. Which means the honest reply to the first Netherfield question — "have I ruined it?" — usually no. Petrol in Diesel is who to call, with your 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 ways to make sure you don't do it again.
Petrol in a diesel: what does it do to your engine?
Diesel has two jobs on its way through a motor. It lubricates first, and after that does it burn. Made to extremely fine clearances, the fuel injectors and your pump depend on your diesel flowing through them to stop their surfaces wearing against one another.
Poorly at the first, not at all at the second: that is petrol. The rattling comes from petrol being designed not to ignite when compressed, which is precisely the opposite of what a diesel needs. On top of that it is thinner than diesel, it strips out the lubrication the fuel system rests on, and any pump working on such a mix is wearing itself.
The shape of the problem is clear when you put those together. Not contact but movement is what causes the damage. Where the petrol is only inside the tank, it is a problem of fuel, nothing more. After the pump has been working on that petrol, a mechanical problem has started: whatever is shed by a pump that is grinding is carried downstream to the injectors with your fuel.
Four situations our technicians see around Netherfield: how bad is petrol in a diesel?
Fuelled up, not once started. The best case there can be. Being at a forecourt is what makes this the case: elsewhere, the car has been driven there to begin with. With that petrol kept in your tank alone, it's cleared and rinsed right where it stands, and nothing more is needed.
Ignition on, or started for a moment. With the system primed, the lines and filter now contain petrol that has come from your tank. That's usually still a simple task — a drain, a flush, and your filter dealt with.
Those few miles on the road were your pump running on fuel diluted by petrol throughout. Tank, lines, filter, then fresh fuel put through the entire system: that is the work, and the way the car was driven matters as much as the distance. On the school run to Netherfield Primary School, the distance is short. Very different once more: a trip to Nottingham, under 5 miles away, or some distance on the M1, under 10 miles from Netherfield, where the engine kept running hard.
Driven on till it complained — clattering, smoke, a ragged idle, a soft throttle. The fuel isn't behaving like diesel any more, and your engine is saying so. Stop where you are — on the verge on Forester Street, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it. The fuel drain and flush still come first, and they take care of it: if a vehicle is stopped early, long-term damage is very rare.
Petrol in a diesel stories Netherfield drivers hear
False: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It doesn't. Topping up takes out nothing; it gives you a fuller tank of the same mixture. A diesel fuel system doesn't tolerate petrol by percentage in the way that advice presumes.
"Newer diesels can handle a little petrol" — a myth, and nearer the reverse. More precise components and higher pressure are the way a newer diesel runs its fuel, and that makes the lubrication count more, not less.
"It starts, it drives, so no harm done" — the myth that trips up more motorists than any other. Diesel in a petrol motor generally means a motor that won't run: the motorist stops, and so does the harm. Nothing seems 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 aren't the same at all.
Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the car home." It's an old fix for a separate issue. None of what petrol thinned is put back by it — and afterwards, your tank still holds the petrol.
"Drain it yourself and you are sorted" — a myth, because after it's been running some petrol lies in the filter and lines, waiting to go straight back through your pump on your next start. On top of that, petrol cleared into a can by the road is genuinely risky.
Why petrol in a diesel happens so easily
No one does it on purpose, and it's rarely carelessness. 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 vehicle stop matching, it happens. A new motor, a hire car or a courtesy car. One petrol and one diesel on the driveway of the same household. Your ordinary forecourt, its pumps now in a different order. A train to catch, and a rushed fill on the way to Carlton. Precisely the moment it occurs: after years of driving petrol, someone fills a diesel Peugeot 308 for the first time. Throw in rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children, and the hand does what it has always done.
Netherfield people: how to avoid petrol in a diesel next time
- The label is what matters, and so read the pump rather than the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are normally green and diesel black, yet not on each forecourt.
- The first fill in an unfamiliar vehicle is the time to check the filler flap — on it, or on the cap, many vehicles state which fuel they take.
- A coloured fob or a sticker on the diesel's key does more than any amount of intending to remember, in a house with one of each.
- Say it before you lift it. On the first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" out loud before you lift the nozzle off the pump. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Put your phone away. This is an easy mistake to make while you are thinking about something else.
- A misfuel inhibitor helps, up to a point. Some diesels come with a filler designed to reject a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices exist for motors without one. They are a safety net, not a reason to stop reading the petrol pump.
- Less petrol makes a weaker mixture, so stop as soon as you notice — while remembering that your next step is unchanged. It is still not to fire it up.
Petrol already in a diesel in Netherfield? Start here
Short and simple, then, is the order of things. Leave it unstarted, with the ignition switched off as well. Ask the attendants to help you push it clear of the petrol pump if you're still at the forecourt, whether that is Sainsbury's or anywhere else. What was put in, about how much, and if it's run: tell us those when you ring 0333 366 0103.
Say so if it was AdBlue instead of petrol: it's a separate problem, with its own page for Netherfield, since AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits rather than lost protection.
Why one petrol in a diesel task around Netherfield costs more than another
Four separate jobs lie behind the four scenarios above — which is why there's no fair single quote. The situation itself does most of the work of moving the cost. The proportion counts next, meaning how much of the tank is petrol, and then the location of the car and whether reaching it is safe for a technician.
That is why our technicians ask three queries before costing instead of after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Their replies are what turn a range into one firm number.
About Netherfield
Netherfield is a suburban area in Nottinghamshire, situated on the banks of the River Trent at an elevation of around 25 metres. Netherfield lies close to the city of Nottingham, approximately 3 miles from the city centre, and is near other local places such as Carlton and Colwick. Netherfield has a population of around 6807 people and is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing stock.
Fuel drain cover across Nottinghamshire, Netherfield included
Petrol in diesel jobs around Netherfield — part of the NG postcode area — go to teams that also cover the locations round it, Carlton, Colwick and Bakers Fields included. No need to move your vehicle to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own driveway are all places we drain.
Netherfield: still at the petrol pump?
Nothing beats it: that's where you now are. Leave the car switched off, then ring.