How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Otterspool
Unstarted? Then less anxious than you probably feel. "Have I wrecked it?" is the first thing anyone in Otterspool asks, and the honest answer is normally no, because petrol left in a diesel tank harms nothing till it is dragged through the fuel system — by ignition priming, by your starter, or by being driven. Petrol in Diesel is who to ring, with the engine kept off, so it stays that way. What petrol actually does to a diesel, how to gauge how far it's travelled, and how to stop it from happening a second time: that is the rest of this page.
The engine and petrol in a diesel: what happens
Passing through a motor, diesel is doing two jobs at once. It protects to begin with, and after that does it burn. What keeps the surfaces inside the high-pressure pump and your injectors from wearing down against one another is your diesel passing through them — they are made to very fine gaps.
The second job petrol doesn't do at all, and the first it does badly. It's thinner than diesel and takes away the protection the system depends on, and so a pump running on a petrol blend is a pump wearing itself. And petrol is made to resist igniting under compression, which is the opposite of what a diesel needs from its fuel. That is where the clattering comes from.
Combined, those leave the shape of the problem clear. It's movement that does the harm, not contact. All a tank with petrol in it amounts to is a fuel fault. After the pump has been running on that petrol, a mechanical problem has started: anything shed by a pump that's wearing is carried onward to the fuel injectors with your fuel.
Petrol in a diesel in Otterspool: how bad is it? Four situations
Fuelled up, not once started. The best case there is. Only that tank has petrol in it, and so the task is emptying that tank and rinsing the fuel system where the vehicle stands. This scenario can only really occur at a forecourt: anywhere else, the vehicle got there by being driven.
A brief spell of running, or merely the ignition on. Petrol has come out of that tank and got to the fuel filter and the lines, because your system has been bled. Still normally easy: drain, flush, and your filter dealt with.
Those few miles on the road were your pump labouring on fuel diluted by petrol throughout. Tank, lines, filter, then clean fuel run through the entire system: that's this work, and the way the vehicle was driven matters as much as the mileage. Short trips, like the school run to Sudley Primary School, are one thing. A run as far as Liverpool, under 5 miles away, is a very different task. So is any distance on the M62, under 5 miles from Otterspool, where the engine has been running hard throughout.
It protested, and only then stopped: smoke, rattling, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone lumpy. The motor is telling you your fuel is no longer behaving like diesel. Stop on the spot — on the verge on Jericho Lane, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it. The fuel drain and flush-through still go first, and they take care of it: when a vehicle is pulled over quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Otterspool people and that petrol in a diesel stories they hear
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine." It will not. A bigger tank of the same mixture is all it gives, since topping up removes nothing. The assumption behind that guidance — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
If anything, the opposite holds. Myth: "A newer diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." A modern diesel runs its fuel through finer parts at higher pressure, which makes the lubrication count more, not less.
One myth that catches people out: if it starts and drives, it must be unharmed. Diesel in a petrol motor normally leaves a motor that won't run: the motorist stops, and so does the harm. While your pump wears, a diesel fed petrol normally starts, idles and drives away as if nothing has happened. Fine and running are not the same at all.
An old fix for a separate fault lies behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the car home." It does not put back what petrol has thinned, and that petrol is still inside that tank after that.
The next start draws petrol back round your pump from the fuel lines and the filter, where some of it ends up once the motor has run. That is why draining the tank yourself doesn't sort it — a myth. It's also genuinely dangerous to drain petrol into a can by the roadside.
Why petrol in a diesel occurs at all
It's seldom carelessness, and nobody does it on purpose. The petrol nozzle is the slimmer of the two and slips 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 simple, and the error runs one way.
It takes place when habit and your car stop matching. Courtesy car, hire car, or a car that's new. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the drive. A well-known forecourt with the pumps in a different order. A hurried fill en route to Aigburth with a train to catch. A new-to-you diesel Volkswagen Passat, its first fuelling, and a driver accustomed to petrol: precisely when it takes place. Your hand repeats what it has always done when you add rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children.
Otterspool people: how to prevent petrol in a diesel next time
- The label is what counts, and so check the pump rather than the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are usually green and diesel black, yet not on every forecourt.
- Plenty of vehicles state the fuel inside your filler flap or on the cap, so check it on the first fill in any motor you do not know.
- One of each in the household? Label the key to the diesel — a bright fob, a sticker — since 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 take the nozzle off the petrol pump. It seems daft and it does the trick.
- Mistakes like this are straightforward to make whilst your mind is on something else, so the phone goes away.
- Add-on devices exist for vehicles without one, and some diesels come with a filler that won't accept a petrol nozzle. Helpful — but a safety net only, never a reason to stop checking the label.
- Spotting it mid-fill? Stop at once. A weaker mixture follows from less petrol inside your tank, but your next stage remains the same: do not start the car.
Petrol already in a diesel around Otterspool? Begin here
Then the order of things is brief. Starting it is out, and so is turning on the ignition. Ask the staff to help you push it clear of the pump if you are still on the forecourt, whether that's Shell or somewhere else. Next, 0333 366 0103. We'll ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it's been run.
Corrosion and deposits form the issue with AdBlue, where petrol brings lost protection. So if it was AdBlue, say so — and read its own Otterspool page.
One petrol in a diesel job around Otterspool costs more than another. Why?
The four scenarios above are four different tasks, so no single price for this would be honest. Which of them you're in is mostly what moves your cost. Two things come after that: the petrol that got in as a share of what the tank holds, then the place your car is in and whether a van can reach it safely.
What got in, how much, and if it has run — three queries we ask before costing, not after, for exactly that reason. Given those answers, you get a straight figure instead of a range.
About Otterspool and where it is
Otterspool is a small suburban area in Merseyside, situated on the coast near Liverpool, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Otterspool sits at a low elevation of around 17 metres, looking out over the Mersey Estuary. Otterspool is close to nearby places such as Fulwood Park and St Michaels Hamlet, and is about 3 miles from Liverpool city centre. Otterspool has a relatively small population of around 955 residents.
Across Merseyside and in Otterspool: fuel drain cover
Otterspool rests in the L postcode area, and our teams that answer petrol in diesel call-outs there work the spots around it as well — Fulwood Park, St Michaels Hamlet and Aigburth Vale among them. A forecourt, a supermarket car park, a lay-by or your own drive are all places we work, and your vehicle doesn't need to come to us.
Still at the petrol pump in Otterspool?
The best position there is, then — that's where you are. Switched off it remains; then ring.