Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Netherwich
Less than you probably are, provided it has not been started. "Have I wrecked it?" is the first question anyone around Netherwich asks, and the truthful answer is normally no, since petrol left in a diesel tank hurts nothing until it's dragged through your fuel system — by ignition priming, by the starter, or by being driven. To leave the vehicle like that, call Petrol in Diesel and leave the engine switched off. Below, this page sets out what petrol actually does inside a diesel, how far it may have gone, and how to stop it happening to you again.
What petrol in a diesel does to your engine
Passing through an engine, diesel is doing two jobs at once. It lubricates first, and after that does it burn. What stops the surfaces inside your high-pressure pump and the injectors from wearing against one another is the diesel flowing through them — they're built to extremely fine tolerances.
The second task petrol does not do at all, and the first it does badly. A pump running on a petrol mix is wearing itself out, because petrol is runnier than diesel and strips out the protection your fuel system relies on. Petrol is also designed to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel wants from its fuel — and that is where the clattering comes.
Seen together, they make clear what shape the problem has. Not contact but circulation is what does the damage. A tank with petrol in it is a fuel issue. A pump that has been running on that petrol is the beginning of a mechanical one, and whatever a worn pump sheds travels on with your fuel to the injectors further on.
Netherwich, petrol in a diesel: four situations, from mild to major
Filled up, and not started: no case is better. Being at a forecourt is what makes this possible: elsewhere, the car has been driven there to begin with. With that petrol kept inside that tank alone, it's cleared and cleaned on the spot, and nothing more is needed.
Started for a second, or just your ignition on. The system has been bled, and so petrol has left that tank and reached the filter and your lines. Normally little more than draining, purging and sorting your filter, so still simple.
Driven a few miles. Now the pump has spent those miles labouring on thinned fuel. Distance is only half of that; how hard it was driven matters just as much. Either way this work runs to your tank, your lines, the fuel filter and clean fuel through the entire circuit. Short trips, such as the school run to Westacre Middle School, are one thing. A run as far as Worcester, under 10 miles away, is a very different job. So is any miles on the M5, under a mile from Netherwich, where the engine has been running hard the whole time.
Clattering, an uneven idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven until it complained. That is the engine telling you its fuel has stopped behaving like diesel. Whether it is the verge on Union Lane, a lay-by or a side street, stop where you are and leave it. A car pulled over quickly very seldom has permanent damage, as the fuel drain and the flush-through, which still come first, deal with it.
What Netherwich drivers get told about petrol in a diesel — and the stories in it
Myth: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It does not. Nothing is removed by topping up — you're left with a fuller tank, still the same mix. A diesel fuel system doesn't accept petrol by percentage in the way that advice presumes.
Not so: a modern diesel copes with a bit of petrol. If anything, the opposite. Protection matters more on current diesels, not less, because their fuel runs through finer parts at higher pressure.
The myth that catches people out: if it starts and drives, it must be unharmed. Diesel in a petrol motor generally means a motor that will not run: the driver stops, and so does the damage. Nothing seems to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, as it usually does; meanwhile the pump wears. Running does not mean fine.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, borrowed from a fix from years ago, for a different issue. None of what petrol diluted gets put back by it — and afterwards, that tank still holds that petrol.
Myth: "Drain your tank yourself and you're sorted." Once the motor has been run, some of the petrol is no longer in your tank: it's in the filter and your lines, and it goes straight back through the pump at your next start. Draining petrol into a can at the roadside is also genuinely hazardous.
How does petrol in a diesel take place?
It is seldom carelessness, and nobody does it on purpose. The petrol nozzle is the narrower of the two and slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance; a diesel nozzle generally won't go into a petrol motor at all. The forecourt makes it simple, and the slip runs one way.
When habit and the vehicle stop matching, it happens. Courtesy car, hire car, or a car that's brand new. One petrol and one diesel on the drive of the same household. A forecourt you know, only with its pumps arranged differently. Racing for a train outside Droitwich Spa and filling up en route. Exactly the moment it takes place: after years of driving petrol, someone fills a diesel Renault Megane for the first time. Throw in rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children, and your hand does what it has always done.
How to prevent petrol in a diesel on your next fill-up around Netherwich
- Check the petrol pump, not the colour. In the UK unleaded handles are normally green and diesel black, yet not on each forecourt. The label is what matters.
- In a car you don't know, look inside the flap over the filler or at the cap before the first fill: plenty of vehicles state the fuel there.
- One of each in the home? Label your key to the diesel — a bright fob, a sticker — because intending to remember isn't enough.
- Say it before you lift it. On your first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" out loud before you lift the nozzle off the petrol pump. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- While you're thinking about something else, this is an easy mistake to make — so put the phone away.
- A misfuel inhibitor helps, up to a point. Some diesels come with a filler built to reject a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices are available for vehicles without one. They are a backstop, not a reason to stop checking the petrol pump.
- Less petrol means a thinner blend, so stop as soon as you realise — though remembering that the next step is unchanged. It is still not to crank it.
Put petrol in a diesel around Netherwich already?
Then, there is only a short order of things. Do not fire it up, and don't turn the ignition on. Still at the forecourt, at Valero or anywhere else? Ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the petrol pump. What went in, about how much, and whether it's run: tell us that when you ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue, not petrol? Then tell us. Corrosion and deposits, not lost lubrication, make it a different problem — Netherwich has a page all for it.
Why one petrol in a diesel task in Netherwich costs more than another
A fair single price doesn't exist here: four scenarios, four separate jobs. What shifts the cost is chiefly which of them you're in. Two things come after that: the petrol that went in as a proportion of what your tank takes, then the place your car is in and whether a van can get to it safely.
Three questions come first, before quoting, rather than after — what was put in, how much, has it run — and this is the reason. Those answers are what change a range into one firm number.
About Netherwich
Netherwich is a suburban area located on the riverside in Worcestershire, with a relatively low elevation of 32 metres. Netherwich sits near the city of Worcester, approximately 6 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as The Vines, Newtown, and Westacre. Netherwich is characterised by a high proportion of flat housing, which is typical of many suburban areas in the West Midlands region. Netherwich is also situated about 101 miles west of London, making it a relatively accessible location.
Fuel drain cover across Worcestershire, Netherwich included
Netherwich rests in the WR postcode area, and the vans that answer petrol in diesel call-outs there work the spots around it as well — The Vines, Newtown and Westacre among them. You need not move your vehicle to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own driveway are all spots where we work.
Still at the pump around Netherwich?
Then you're in the best spot there can be. Ring, and keep it turned off.