Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Pitmedden
Probably less than you already are — provided nobody has started it. "Have I ruined it?" is the first thing anyone in Pitmedden asks, and the truthful answer is usually no, since petrol resting in a diesel tank hurts nothing till it's drawn through the system — by ignition priming, by your starter, or by driving. Petrol in Diesel is who to call, with the motor left off, and so it remains that way. Keep reading for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel engine, the clues of how far it has got, and ways to make sure you never do it again.
What petrol in a diesel does to your engine
Two jobs fall to diesel on its journey through a motor. Before it ignites, it protects — and then it burns. Made to very fine clearances, your injectors and your pump depend on the diesel flowing through them to stop their surfaces wearing against one another.
Of these two jobs, petrol handles the first badly and the second not at all. Being less viscous than diesel, petrol strips away the protection a fuel system needs, leaving a pump on the mixture to wear itself. It's also made to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel needs — which is why you get the clattering.
Seen together, they make clear the shape the trouble takes. Contact does not do the harm — movement does. Where that petrol is only in your tank, it's a problem of fuel, nothing more. Whatever a worn pump sheds travels on, borne by the fuel, into the injectors downstream, which is why a pump that has been working on that petrol is where a mechanical fault begins.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four situations we see in Pitmedden
Filled up, not once started. The best case there can be. At a forecourt, and really only there, that petrol is still limited to your tank — since anywhere else the vehicle was driven to get to it. The task is draining and rinsing on the spot.
Started for a second, or just your ignition on. Once primed, the system has pulled petrol from your tank up to the filter and the fuel lines. Drain, flush, deal with the filter: still usually simple.
A few miles driven, and the pump has spent every one of them working on diluted fuel. The work is that tank, your lines, the fuel filter and fresh fuel through the whole circuit, and how hard your car was driven matters as much as how far. On the school run to the local primary school, the mileage is small. A run as far as Aberdeen, under 15 miles away, is a very different task. So is any miles on the M90, over 50 miles from Pitmedden, where your engine has been working hard throughout.
It complained, and only then stopped: smoke, knocking, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone uneven. What you are hearing is the engine signalling fuel that no longer acts like diesel. Pull up where you are — on the verge on Oldmeldrum Road, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it. A car pulled over quickly very seldom has long-term damage, as the fuel drain and the flush, which still go first, deal with it.
Pitmedden drivers 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, because topping up takes out nothing. The assumption behind the advice — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
Myth: a newer diesel copes with a bit of petrol. If anything, the reverse. More precise components and higher pressure are how a newer diesel runs its fuel, and that makes the protection matter more, not less.
The myth that catches people out: if it starts and drives, it must be unharmed. A petrol motor fed diesel usually won't run, and so the driver stops and the damage stops with them. A diesel fed petrol normally starts, ticks over and drives away as though nothing has happened, while the pump wears. Being able to run isn't the same as being fine.
An old fix for a separate issue lies behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the vehicle home." It does not put back what petrol has diluted, and the petrol is still inside your tank after that.
If your engine has been run, part of that petrol sits in the fuel filter and the lines, not your tank — and the next start sends it right back through your pump. So the myth "drain your tank yourself and you're sorted" does not stand up. Emptying petrol into a can at the roadside is also really dangerous.
How does petrol in a diesel take place?
It is rarely carelessness, and no one does it on purpose. The forecourt makes it simple: the petrol nozzle is the narrower of the two, and it slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance, while a diesel nozzle mostly will not go into a petrol car at all. So the error runs one way.
Habit and the car getting out of step is when it occurs. Courtesy car, hire car, or a motor that's brand new. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the drive. Your usual forecourt, its pumps now in a different order. A train to catch, and a hurried fill en route to Inverurie. A new-to-you diesel Volkswagen Tiguan, its first fuelling, and a driver used to petrol: precisely when it happens. Throw in a back seat full of kids, a phone call or rain, and habit takes over.
How to avoid petrol in a diesel on your next fill-up around Pitmedden
- The label is what matters, so check the petrol pump rather than the colour: in the UK unleaded handles are normally green and diesel black, but not on every forecourt.
- Check the filler flap. Plenty of cars state the fuel inside the flap or on the cap. Look at it on the first fill in a car you don't know.
- A coloured fob or a sticker on your diesel's key achieves more than any amount of meaning to remember, for a home with one of each.
- "Diesel", aloud, before you pick up the nozzle — every time a new or hired car needs its first tank. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Tuck your 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 built to block a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices exist for vehicles without one. They are a safety net, not a reason to stop reading the petrol pump.
- Noticing it mid-fill? Stop there and then. A thinner blend results from less petrol inside your tank, yet your next step stays the same: don't fire it up.
Pitmedden: already put petrol in a diesel?
Short and simple, then, is the order of things. Starting it is out, and so is turning on your ignition. If you are still on the forecourt — Esso or anywhere else — ask the staff to help you roll it 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 different fault, with its own page for Pitmedden, since AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits instead of lost protection.
One petrol in a diesel job around Pitmedden costs more than another. Why?
The four scenarios above are four different tasks, so no single price for this would be fair. Which of them you are in is chiefly what moves the cost. Beyond that it's the proportion — how much petrol went in against how much that tank takes — and then where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely.
Three queries come first, before any quote, rather than after — what went in, how much, has it run — and this is the reason. A range turns into a straight figure when those replies are in.
About Pitmedden and where it is
Pitmedden is a village in Aberdeenshire, situated on the banks of the River Don at an elevation of 62 metres. Pitmedden lies approximately 13 miles west of Aberdeen and is surrounded by rolling countryside. Pitmedden has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being predominant. Pitmedden is close to nearby villages such as Udny Green and Bridgend.
Across Aberdeenshire and around Pitmedden: fuel drain cover
Pitmedden sits in the AB postcode area, and the teams that answer petrol in diesel jobs there work the places around it as well — Udny Green, Bridgend and Udny Station among them. The vehicle does not need to come to us: we drain on a forecourt, in a supermarket car park, in a lay-by or on your own driveway.
Pitmedden: still at the pump?
The best place there is, then — that is where you are. Ring, and leave it turned off.