How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Oakenhead Wood
Unstarted? Then less worried than you likely are. Till your ignition primes your pump, your starter cranks, or the vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank simply rests there and does no harm. Which means the honest reply to that first Oakenhead Wood question — "have I wrecked it?" — normally no. Petrol in Diesel is who to ring, with your motor left off, so it stays that way. The rest of this page sets out what petrol really does to a diesel, how to tell how far it has got, and how to make sure it does not happen to you again.
Petrol in a diesel: what does it do to the engine?
Two tasks fall to diesel on its journey through a motor. It combusts, and before it combusts it protects. What stops the surfaces inside the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors from grinding against each other is your diesel flowing through them — they are built to very fine gaps.
Poorly at the first, not at all at the second: that's petrol. A pump working on a petrol mixture is wearing itself out, because petrol is runnier than diesel and takes away the lubrication your fuel system depends on. Petrol is also made to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel needs from its fuel — and that's where the knocking comes.
The shape of the problem is plain when you put those together. Contact does not do the damage — movement does. Where the petrol is only in that tank, it's a fault of fuel, nothing more. Once your pump has been running on that petrol, a mechanical problem has begun: whatever is shed by a pump that's wearing is carried onward to the injectors with your fuel.
Oakenhead Wood, petrol in a diesel: four cases, from mild to serious
Fuelled, and not started: nothing beats it. Being on a forecourt is what makes this possible: elsewhere, the car has been driven there to begin with. With the petrol held inside the tank alone, it is drained and rinsed on the spot, and nothing more is needed.
Ignition on, or started for a moment. The fuel system has been bled, so petrol has left your tank and reached the fuel filter and your lines. Usually little more than emptying, flushing and seeing to the filter, so still simple.
A couple of miles driven, and your pump has spent every one of them labouring on weakened fuel. Tank, lines, filter, then fresh fuel run through the whole circuit: that is this work, and the way your car was driven matters as much as the mileage. On the school run to St James-the-Less Roman Catholic Primary School, Rawtenstall, the miles is small. Very different once more: a trip to Salford, under 25 miles away, or any mileage on the M66, under 3 miles from Oakenhead Wood, where your engine never stopped labouring hard.
It complained, and only then stopped: smoke, knocking, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone uneven. The fuel isn't acting like diesel any more, and your engine is saying so. Pull up on the spot — on the verge on Lower Cribden Avenue, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it. The fuel drain and flush-through still come first, and they deal with it: if a car is pulled over early, permanent damage is very unusual.
Stories Oakenhead Wood motorists hear about petrol in a diesel
False: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It does not. Topping up removes nothing; it gives you a fuller tank of the same mix. A diesel fuel system does not accept petrol by percentage in the way that advice assumes.
Not so: a current diesel copes with a bit of petrol. If anything, the opposite. At higher pressure, through finer components: that is how a modern diesel moves its fuel, and so the protection counts more, not less.
Myth: "If it starts and drives, there is no damage done." This is the one that catches people. Diesel in a petrol motor normally leaves a motor that will not run: the motorist stops, and so does the harm. Feed petrol to a diesel and it normally fires up, idles and drives away as if nothing happened — all the while its pump wears. Being able to run isn't the same as being fine.
An outdated fix for a separate problem lies behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the car home." What petrol has weakened stays diluted, and the petrol remains inside your tank regardless.
The next start sends petrol back round your pump out of the fuel lines and your filter, where some of it sits after the engine has been run. That is why draining the tank yourself doesn't sort it — a myth. Clearing petrol into a can at the roadside is also truly risky.
How it happens: petrol in a diesel
No one does it on purpose, and it is seldom carelessness. One way only, because of the nozzles: the smaller petrol one slides inside a diesel filler with almost no resistance, whereas the diesel one generally will not fit a petrol vehicle. That's how the forecourt makes it simple.
Habit and the car falling out of step is when it takes place. Any motor that's new to you — hired, on loan as a courtesy car, or brand new. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the driveway. The pumps in a different order on a familiar forecourt. A train to catch, and a hurried fill en route to Accrington. The first fill-up in a diesel Volkswagen Golf after years of driving petrol is exactly the moment it takes place. With rain, a call coming in, or children to deal with, the hand simply does what it has always done.
Oakenhead Wood motorists: how to avoid 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 inside the filler flap or on the cap, so check there on the first fill in any car you do not know.
- One of each in the home? Mark your key to your diesel — a coloured fob, a sticker — because meaning to remember isn't enough.
- Say it before you lift it. On the first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" aloud before you lift 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 put the phone away and keep your mind on the pump.
- Add-on devices exist for motors without one, and some diesels come with a filler that will not take a petrol nozzle. Helpful — but a backstop only, never a reason to stop checking the label.
- As soon as you realise, stop: less petrol inside the tank means a weaker mix. What to do next doesn't change, though — still do not fire it up.
Already put petrol in a diesel around Oakenhead Wood?
Then, there's just a short order of things. Do not turn your ignition on, and don't fire it up. If you are still on the forecourt — Shell or anywhere else — ask the attendants to help you push the car away from the petrol pump. Then ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us what was put in, about how much, and if it has run.
Say so if it was AdBlue instead of petrol: it's a separate issue, with its own page for Oakenhead Wood, since AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits rather than lost lubrication.
Why one petrol in a diesel job around Oakenhead Wood costs more than another
There's no honest single quote for this, because the four scenarios above are four different jobs. What shifts the cost is chiefly which of them you're in. Two things come after that: the petrol that got in as a share of what that tank takes, then the spot your car is in and whether a technician can get to it safely.
That's why our technicians ask three queries before pricing instead of after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. A range becomes a straight figure when the answers are in.
About Oakenhead Wood and where it is
Oakenhead Wood is a suburban area situated near the riverside in Lancashire, with an elevation of 251 metres. Oakenhead Wood lies approximately 15 miles from Salford and is surrounded by nearby places such as New Hall Hey and Height End. Oakenhead Wood has a population of around 2483 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Oakenhead Wood is located in the North West region of England, about 177 miles from London.
Oakenhead Wood and Lancashire: where our fuel drain cover runs
Petrol in diesel jobs around Oakenhead Wood — part of the BB postcode area — go to vans that also cover the locations about it, New Hall Hey, Height End and Longholme included. You need not bring the vehicle to us. Forecourts, supermarket car parks, lay-bys and your own drive are all locations where we work.
In Oakenhead Wood and still at the pump?
The best spot there is, then — that is where you are. Keep it off. Call.