Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Newtown
If it has not been started, worry far less than you probably are. Everyone in Newtown starts with "have I wrecked it?", and the fair answer is usually no: petrol resting in your tank of any diesel stays harmless until priming, cranking or driving pulls it into the system. Leave the engine off then phone Petrol in Diesel — that is how you keep it that way. Read on for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel engine, the signs of how far it has got, and the way to make sure you never repeat it.
Your engine and petrol in a diesel: what happens
On its way through a motor, diesel does two jobs. It combusts, and before it ignites it lubricates. Extremely fine tolerances go into the fuel injectors and the high-pressure pump, and just the diesel flowing through keeps their surfaces from grinding together.
Badly at the first, not at all at the second: that is petrol. A pump running on a petrol mix is wearing itself out, since petrol is runnier than diesel and strips out the protection the fuel system relies on. Petrol is also made to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel wants from its fuel — and that is where the clattering comes.
Taken together, they make clear the shape the problem has. Not contact but movement is what does the harm. Petrol in a tank is a fuel fault. Whatever a worn pump sheds goes on, borne by your fuel, into your injectors downstream, which is why a pump that has worked on that petrol is where a mechanical problem begins.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four situations our technicians see in Newtown
Fuelled, and not started: nothing beats it. At a forecourt, and really only there, the petrol is still confined to the tank — because everywhere else your car was driven to get to it. The job is emptying and flushing on the spot.
Started for a moment, or only the ignition on. Petrol has left that tank and reached the filter and the fuel lines, since the system has been bled. Normally nothing more than emptying, rinsing and sorting your filter, so still simple.
Driven a few miles. Now the pump has spent these miles labouring on diluted fuel. The work is that tank, the lines, your filter and clean fuel through the whole circuit, and how hard the vehicle was driven matters as much as how far. A school run to Westacre Middle School is one thing. A run as far as Worcester, under 10 miles away, is a very different job. So is any mileage on the M5, under a mile from Newtown, where the engine has been labouring hard the whole time.
Knocking, a ragged idle, smoke, a throttle gone soft: driven till it complained. That is the motor telling you its fuel no longer is behaving like diesel. Pull up wherever you are — the verge on Ombersley Street West, a lay-by, a side street — and leave the vehicle where it is. A vehicle stopped soon very seldom has permanent damage, because the drain and the flush-through, which still go first, deal with it.
Stories Newtown people hear about petrol in a diesel
Myth: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It does not. A bigger tank of the same mix is all you get, because topping up takes out nothing. The idea behind the guidance — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
Myth: a current diesel copes with a bit of petrol. Rather, the opposite. Protection counts more on current diesels, not less, because their fuel passes through finer parts at higher pressure.
One myth that catches drivers out: if it starts and drives, it must be unharmed. Diesel in a petrol motor usually leaves a motor that won't run: the motorist stops, and so does the damage. Feed petrol to a diesel and it generally fires up, idles and drives away as if nothing happened — all while its pump wears. Being able to run isn't proof of being fine.
Myth: a two-stroke additive lets you to drive home. It is an old fix, supposed for another fault. It does not put back what petrol has weakened, and that petrol is still in that tank later on.
The next start draws petrol back round your pump from your lines and the filter, where some of it sits once the engine has run. That's why a DIY tank drain does not sort it — a myth. Clearing petrol into a can by the roadside is also genuinely hazardous.
Why petrol in a diesel happens at all
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Rarely, if ever. A diesel nozzle generally won't go into a petrol car, yet the smaller petrol nozzle goes into the filler of a diesel nearly without resistance — so forecourts make this one error straightforward, and only in that direction.
When routine and your car stop matching, it happens. A new car, a hire car or a courtesy car. One petrol and one diesel on the drive of the same household. Your usual forecourt, its pumps suddenly in a different order. A train to catch, and a hurried fill en route to Droitwich Spa. Years of petrol cars behind you, a diesel Volkswagen Golf in front of you at the forecourt for its first tank — that is when. With rain, a call coming in, or a car full of children to deal with, your hand just does what it always has.
Next time you fill up in Newtown: avoiding petrol in a diesel
- The label is what counts, so read the petrol pump rather than the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are normally green and diesel black, yet not on each forecourt.
- In a motor you do not know, look inside the flap over the filler or at the cap before your first fill: plenty of vehicles state the fuel type there.
- Good intentions do less than a sticker or a fob in a vivid colour on the diesel's key if a household has one of each. So label it.
- "Diesel", out loud, before you pick up the nozzle — each time a new or hired car needs its first tank. It seems silly. It works.
- Tuck the phone away. This is an easy mistake to make while you're 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 are available for motors without one. They are a safety net, not a reason to stop checking the pump.
- Stop the moment you realise. Less petrol inside the tank makes a thinner blend. It doesn't change what to do next, which is still not to fire it up.
Put petrol in a diesel around Newtown already?
Then the order of things is brief. Do not turn your ignition on, and do not fire it up. Ask the staff to help you push it clear of the petrol pump if you are still on the forecourt, whether that is Valero or somewhere else. Then phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us what got in, about how much, and whether it's run.
If it was AdBlue rather than petrol, say so. That is a different problem — corrosion and deposits and not lost protection — and it has its own page for Newtown.
One petrol in a diesel job in Newtown costs more than another. Why?
The four situations above are four separate jobs, so no single price for this would be fair. What shifts your cost is chiefly which of them you are in. Two things follow that: the petrol that was put in as a proportion of what the tank takes, then the spot the vehicle is in and whether a van can get to it safely.
Before any quote, not after, come three queries: your fuel that went in, the volume, and if it has run. That is why. A range becomes a straight figure once those replies are in.
About Newtown, briefly
Newtown is a suburban area in Worcestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 40 metres. Newtown lies close to the city of Worcester, approximately 5.8 miles away, and is near other local places such as Westacre and Netherwich. Newtown has a population of around 4057 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Newtown is located in the West Midlands region, about 101.3 miles from London.
Fuel drain cover across Worcestershire, Newtown included
Our teams answering petrol in diesel call-outs around Newtown, in the WR postcode area, equally work the places around it, Westacre, Netherwich and The Vines included. Our engineers drain where your car is — your own drive, a lay-by, a supermarket car park, a forecourt — so it never needs to come to us.
At the pump in Newtown, right now?
Then you're in the best place there is. Keep the car switched off, then ring.