How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Portobello
Not started? Then less worried than you probably are. Till your ignition primes the pump, the starter cranks, or the vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just waits there and does no harm. Which means the honest reply to that first Portobello query — "have I ruined it?" — normally no. Keep it like that: leave your engine off and phone Petrol in Diesel. Keep reading for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel motor, the clues of how far it has spread, and the way to make sure you never repeat it.
Inside the motor: what petrol in a diesel does
Diesel does two tasks on its way through a motor. Oiling comes before burning; it does both. Extremely fine tolerances go into the injectors and your high-pressure pump, and only your diesel flowing through stops their surfaces grinding together.
Of these two jobs, petrol manages the first badly and the second never. It's runnier than diesel and removes the protection the system depends on, and so a pump running on a petrol mixture is a pump wearing itself. And petrol is designed to resist igniting under compression, which is the opposite of what a diesel needs from its fuel. That is where the rattling comes from.
The shape of the trouble is clear once you put those together. It is movement that does the damage, not contact. A tank with petrol in it is a fuel fault. After the pump has been working on that petrol, a mechanical issue has started: anything shed by a pump that's grinding is carried downstream to the injectors with the fuel.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four scenarios our engineers see in Portobello
Filled up, and never started: nothing beats it. That petrol is inside the tank and just your tank, and the task is a drain and a flush where your car sits. This is the one situation that can only truly occur on a forecourt, as anywhere else the vehicle has been driven to get there.
A brief spell of running, or merely your ignition on. Your system has been bled, and so petrol has left your tank and reached the filter and the lines. That's usually still a straightforward task — a drain, a flush, and the filter seen to.
Driven a couple of miles. Now the pump has spent those miles running on diluted fuel. Distance is only half of that; how hard it was driven matters equally. Either way the work includes the tank, your lines, the fuel filter and fresh fuel through the whole circuit. The school run to Ravensworth Terrace Primary School is one thing. Very different once more: a run to Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, or some mileage on the A1(M), under a mile from Portobello, where the motor kept labouring hard.
Driven on till it complained — rattling, smoke, a lumpy idle, a soft throttle. That's the motor telling you its fuel no longer is acting like diesel. Stop where you are — on the verge on A1(M), at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it again. What comes first is still the fuel drain and flush, and that deals with it, with permanent damage very rare when a car is stopped soon.
Stories Portobello people hear about petrol in a diesel
"Top it up the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine" — a myth. It will not. Nothing is removed when you top up — the tank simply holds more of the same mixture. That advice supposes a diesel fuel system tolerates petrol by percentage. It doesn't.
"Newer diesels can handle a little petrol" — a myth, and nearer the opposite. A current diesel sends its fuel through finer parts at higher pressure, which makes the protection matter more, not less.
Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no damage done." This is the one that catches motorists. The driver of a petrol engine fed diesel normally stops, since it will not run, and the harm stops there. Nothing looks to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, as it usually does; meanwhile your pump grinds. Fine and running aren't the same thing.
An outdated workaround for a distinct problem is behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the car home." What petrol has diluted remains diluted, and that petrol remains inside the tank regardless.
Once your engine has run, part of the petrol is in your filter and the lines, not that tank — and your next start sends it right back through your pump. So the myth "drain the tank yourself and you are sorted" does not hold. Also, a can of petrol filled by the roadside is genuinely dangerous.
Why petrol in a diesel takes place so easily
Carelessness is seldom the cause, and nobody means to do it. One way only, since of the nozzles: the slimmer petrol one slides inside a diesel filler with almost no resistance, whereas the diesel one mostly won't fit a petrol car. That's how the forecourt makes it easy.
The moment habit stops matching the car is the moment it takes place. Courtesy car, hire car, or a vehicle that's brand new. Households running one of each, petrol and diesel. Your normal forecourt, its pumps now in a different order. A train to catch, and a hurried fill on the way to Chester-Le-Street. Precisely the moment it happens: after years of driving petrol, someone fills a diesel Volkswagen Golf for the first time. With rain, a call arriving, or children to deal with, your hand simply does what it has always done.
How to avoid petrol in a diesel on your next fill-up in Portobello
- Green for unleaded and black for diesel is normal in the UK — but not on every forecourt. Trust the label on the petrol pump, not the colour.
- Check the filler flap. Many motors state the fuel inside the flap or on the cap. Look at it on the first fill in a vehicle you do not know.
- One of each in the house? Label your key to the diesel — a bright fob, a sticker — because intending to remember isn't enough.
- It sounds silly and it does the trick: on your first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" out loud before you take the nozzle off the pump.
- Mistakes like this are straightforward to make while your mind is on something else, and so your phone goes away.
- A misfuel inhibitor helps, up to a point. Some diesels have a filler built to reject a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices are available for vehicles without one. They are a safety net, not a reason to stop checking the pump.
- Stop the moment you notice. Less petrol in that tank means a thinner mixture. It doesn't change what to do next, which is still not to fire it up.
Petrol already in a diesel around Portobello? Start here
Then, there is only a short order of things. Starting it is out, and so is switching on the ignition. If you are still at the forecourt — BP or anywhere else — ask the attendants to help you push the car clear of the petrol pump. Next, 0333 366 0103. We'll ask what went in, about how much, and if it's been run.
AdBlue, not petrol? Then say so. Corrosion and deposits, not lost protection, make it a separate fault — Portobello has a page all for it.
One petrol in a diesel job around Portobello costs more than another. Why?
Four separate tasks lie behind the four situations above — which is why there is no fair single quote. What shifts the cost is mostly which of them you're in. Two things follow that: the petrol that went in as a share of what that tank takes, then the spot the car is in and whether a van can get to it safely.
That is why we ask three queries before quoting rather than after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. With the answers, you get a straight figure rather than a range.
About Portobello and where it is
Portobello is a suburban area located inland in Tyne and Wear, sitting at an elevation of 94 metres. Portobello is situated approximately 6 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne, and is part of the larger North East region of England. Portobello has a population of around 2843 people, and is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Portobello is also close to nearby places such as Ayton and Birtley.
Across Tyne and Wear and around Portobello: fuel drain cover
Petrol in diesel calls around Portobello — part of the DH postcode area — go to teams that also cover the locations about it, Ayton, North Side and Birtley included. Our engineers drain where the car is — your own driveway, a lay-by, a supermarket car park, a forecourt — so it never needs to come to us.
Portobello: still at the petrol pump?
No position is better: that is where you are. Keep it off. Phone.