Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Ravenscraig
Less than you probably are, if it hasn't been started. Till your ignition primes the pump, your starter turns, or your vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just waits there and does nothing. Which makes the truthful reply to the first Ravenscraig question — "have I ruined it?" — normally no. Leave the engine off then call Petrol in Diesel — that is how you keep it like that. Further down, you will find what petrol actually does inside a diesel, how far it may have got, and how to stop it happening to you a second time.
The engine and petrol in a diesel: what goes on
On its way through a motor, diesel has two jobs. Oiling comes before burning; it does both. Your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors are built to very fine clearances, and your diesel passing through them is what stops those surfaces from grinding against each other.
Poorly at the first, not at all at the second: that's petrol. A pump running on a petrol mix is wearing itself out, since petrol is runnier than diesel and takes away the lubrication your fuel system relies on. Petrol is also made to resist igniting under compression — the opposite of what a diesel needs from its fuel — and that's where any knocking comes.
Put those together and the shape of the problem is plain. Not contact but circulation is what causes the damage. All a tank with petrol in it amounts to is a fuel problem. The start of a mechanical problem is a pump that has been running on that petrol — and whatever a worn pump sheds moves on with your fuel to the fuel injectors downstream.
How bad is petrol in a diesel? Four situations our engineers see around Ravenscraig
Fuelled, and never started: nothing beats it. That petrol is in your tank and just the tank, and the task is a drain and a flush where your car stands. This is the one situation that can only really occur on a forecourt, as anywhere else the vehicle has been driven to get there.
A moment's running, or just your ignition on. With the system primed, your lines and filter now hold petrol that came from your tank. Drain, flush, see to your filter: still usually simple.
Your pump now worked a couple of miles on thinned fuel — that is what driving the car meant. The work is the tank, the fuel lines, your filter and clean fuel through the whole circuit, and how hard the vehicle was driven counts as much as how far. On the school run to the local primary school, the mileage is short. Any miles on the M8, under 10 miles from Ravenscraig, means the motor has worked hard throughout, and a run to Glasgow, under 25 miles away, makes a very different task as well.
Driven until it complained. Rattling, a ragged idle, smoke, a throttle that has gone soft. The motor is telling you your fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Leave it where it stops: a lay-by, a quiet street, the verge on Burns Road. A car pulled over quickly very rarely has lasting damage, since the drain and the flush-through, which still come first, take care of it.
Myths Ravenscraig motorists 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 comes out when you top up — the tank simply carries more of the same blend. The assumption behind that advice — that diesel fuel systems accept petrol by percentage — is wrong.
"Modern diesels can handle a little petrol" — a myth, and nearer the reverse. At higher pressure, through finer parts: that is how a newer diesel moves its fuel, and so the protection counts for more, not less.
"It starts, it drives, so there is no harm" — the myth that trips up most motorists than any other. A petrol engine fed diesel usually will not run, so the motorist stops and the damage stops with them. A diesel fed petrol generally starts, ticks over and drives away as though nothing has happened, while the pump wears. Running does not mean fine.
"A drop of two-stroke oil and drive it home" — a myth, taken from a fix from years ago, for a different problem. None of what petrol thinned gets put back by it — and later, the tank still contains that petrol.
The next start sends petrol back round the pump from your lines and your filter, where some of that ends up once the motor has run. That is why draining the tank yourself doesn't leave you sorted — a myth. Emptying petrol into a can by the kerbside is also really dangerous.
How petrol ends up: petrol in a diesel
On purpose? Never. Through carelessness? Seldom, if ever. A diesel nozzle generally will not fit a petrol motor, but the narrower petrol nozzle goes into the filler of a diesel nearly without resistance — so forecourts make this one error easy, and only in that direction.
Routine and the vehicle falling out of step is when it happens. Courtesy car, hire car, or a motor that's brand new. Two motors on one drive, one petrol, one diesel. A well-known forecourt with the pumps in a different order. Fuelling up in a hurry on the way to Branchton, with a train to catch. Years of petrol motors behind you, a diesel Renault Megane in front of you at the forecourt for its first tank — that is when. Add a back seat full of kids, a phone call or rain, and habit takes over.
Avoiding petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Ravenscraig
- Not every forecourt in the UK follows green for unleaded and black for diesel, even if most usually do. Read the petrol pump's label; the colour is just a hint.
- The first fill in a strange motor is the time to check the filler flap — on it, or on the cap, plenty of motors state the fuel to use.
- A coloured fob or a sticker on the diesel's key does more than any amount of intending to remember, in a home with one of each.
- "Diesel", aloud, before you lift the nozzle — every time a new or hired car needs its first tank. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Mistakes like this are simple to make while your mind is on something else, so your phone goes away.
- Add-on devices are available 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.
- Stop as soon as you notice. Less petrol inside the tank makes a thinner mixture. It does not change what to do next, which is still not to start it.
Put petrol in a diesel around Ravenscraig already?
The order of things is short, then. Starting it is out, and so is turning on your ignition. Ask the staff to help you push it away from the petrol pump if you are still on the forecourt, whether that's BP or somewhere else. What went in, roughly how much, and whether it has run: tell us that when you call 0333 366 0103.
Corrosion and deposits are the trouble with AdBlue, whereas petrol brings lost protection. So if it was AdBlue, say so — and see its own Ravenscraig page.
Why one petrol in a diesel task around Ravenscraig costs more than another
The four situations above are four different jobs, so no single price for this would be honest. Mostly, your cost shifts with which situation you're in. The share counts next, meaning how much of your tank is petrol, followed by the location of the car and whether getting to it is safe for our van.
What got in, how much, and if it's run — three queries we ask before pricing, not after, for precisely that reason. Those answers are what change a range into one firm number.
About Ravenscraig and its setting
Ravenscraig is a coastal suburban area in Inverclyde, situated near the towns of Spango, Braeside, and Branchton. Ravenscraig has a relatively low elevation of 51 metres and is located approximately 22 miles west of Glasgow. Ravenscraig is characterized by its predominance of terraced housing, which reflects the area's history of residential development. Ravenscraig is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of around 361 miles.
Fuel drain cover across Inverclyde, Ravenscraig included
Spango, Braeside and Branchton are among the places near Ravenscraig that the same teams work, answering petrol in diesel call-outs across Ravenscraig's PA postcode area. A forecourt, a supermarket car park, a lay-by or your own drive are all places our technicians work, and the car doesn't need to come to us.
Ravenscraig: still at the pump?
Then you are in the best place there is. Leave the car switched off, and ring.