How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Saughall Massie
Not started? Then less worried than you likely feel. Till your ignition primes your pump, your starter turns, or the car is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just waits there and does nothing. Which makes the truthful reply to the first Saughall Massie query — "have I ruined it?" — usually no. Leave the motor off and phone Petrol in Diesel — that keeps it like that. Below, you will find what petrol actually does inside a diesel, how far it might have got, and how to stop it happening to you a second time.
What petrol in a diesel does to the motor
Passing through a motor, diesel does two jobs at the same time. Lubricating comes before burning; it does both. What stops the surfaces inside the high-pressure pump and the injectors from wearing against each other is the diesel flowing through them — they are built to very fine gaps.
Of these two tasks, petrol manages the first poorly and the second never. A pump running on a petrol mix is wearing itself out, since petrol is runnier than diesel and takes away the lubrication the fuel system depends on. Petrol is also made to resist igniting under compression — the opposite of what a diesel wants from its fuel — and that is where any rattling comes.
Put these together and the shape of the issue is clear. It is circulation that causes the harm, not contact. All a tank with petrol in it amounts to is a fuel fault. The start of a mechanical one is a pump that has been working on that petrol — and whatever a worn pump sheds travels on with the fuel to the injectors downstream.
Four situations our engineers see in Saughall Massie: how bad is petrol in a diesel?
Filled up, never started. The best case there is. That petrol is inside the tank and only your tank, and the job is a drain and a flush where the car stands. This is the one situation that can only truly take place at a forecourt, since anywhere else the car has been driven to get there.
Started for a second, or just your ignition on. With the system primed, the fuel lines and filter now contain petrol that came from your tank. Still usually straightforward: drain, flush, and the fuel filter sorted.
A few miles driven, and the pump has spent every one of them labouring on weakened fuel. How hard your car was driven counts as much as how far, and the work covers your tank, the fuel lines, your filter and fresh fuel through the entire circuit. A school run to Moreton Christ Church CofE Primary School is one matter. A run as far as Liverpool, under 10 miles away, is a very different job. So is any mileage on the Moreton Spur, under a mile from Saughall Massie, where the engine has been working hard throughout.
Driven on till it protested — clattering, smoke, a lumpy idle, a soft throttle. The fuel is not acting like diesel any more, and your engine is saying so. Whether it is the verge on Birchfield, a lay-by or a side street, stop there then leave it. What goes first is still the drain and flush-through, and that takes care of it, with permanent damage very unusual when a car is pulled over soon.
Myths Saughall Massie motorists hear about petrol in a diesel
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine." It will not. A bigger tank of the same mix is all it gives, because topping up takes out nothing. Percentage isn't how a diesel fuel system copes with petrol, however much that advice supposes.
"Newer diesels can handle a little petrol" — a myth, and nearer the opposite. Finer parts and higher pressure are the way a newer diesel runs its fuel, and that makes the lubrication count more, not less.
This is the one that catches people. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no harm done." Diesel in a petrol motor usually leaves a motor that will not run: the motorist stops, and so does the damage. Nothing seems to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, which it usually will; meanwhile the pump wears. Running doesn't mean fine.
An outdated workaround for a different issue is behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive it home." It doesn't put back what petrol has thinned, and that petrol is still inside your tank later on.
If your engine has been run, part of the petrol is in the filter and the fuel lines, not that tank — and the next start pulls it right back through the pump. So the myth "drain your tank yourself and you're sorted" doesn't hold. It's also truly dangerous to drain petrol into a can at the roadside.
Petrol in a diesel: how does it take place?
It's seldom carelessness, and no one does it on purpose. The forecourt makes it easy: the petrol nozzle is the slimmer of the two, and it slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance, while a diesel nozzle generally won't go into a petrol motor at all. So the error runs one way.
When routine and the car stop matching, it occurs. Courtesy car, hire car, or a vehicle that is new. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the drive. A forecourt you know, only with its pumps arranged differently. A train to catch, and a hurried fill en route to Meols. Precisely the moment it takes place: after years of driving petrol, someone fills a diesel Renault Megane for the first time. With rain, a call arriving, or a car full of children to deal with, your hand just does what it always has.
How to prevent petrol in a diesel on your next fill-up in Saughall Massie
- Check the pump, not the colour. In the UK unleaded handles are usually green and diesel black, but not on every forecourt. The label is what matters.
- The first fill in a new motor is the time to check your filler flap — inside it, or on the cap, many vehicles state the fuel they take.
- One of each in the household? Label your key to the diesel — a coloured fob, a sticker — since meaning to remember isn't enough.
- "Diesel", aloud, before you pick up the nozzle — every time a new or hired car needs its first tank. It sounds daft. It works.
- Whilst you are thinking about something else, this is an easy mistake to make — so put the phone away.
- Up to a point, a misfuel inhibitor helps: some diesels come with a filler built to refuse a petrol nozzle, and aftermarket devices are available for the remainder. Treat it as a safety net, and keep checking the petrol pump.
- The moment you notice, stop: less petrol inside that tank means a weaker blend. What to do next does not change, though — still don't fire it up.
Saughall Massie: already put petrol in a diesel?
In that case, there is just a short order of things. Do not switch the ignition on, and don't crank it. Still at the forecourt, at BP or anywhere else? Ask the staff to help you roll it clear of the pump. What went in, roughly how much, and if it has run: tell us that when you phone 0333 366 0103.
Corrosion and deposits are the issue with AdBlue, whereas petrol brings lost lubrication. So if it was AdBlue, say so — and see its own Saughall Massie page.
Saughall Massie petrol in a diesel jobs: why one costs more than another
There's no fair single quote for this, because the four situations above are four different jobs. The scenario itself does most of the work of moving your cost. Where the vehicle is counts too, and whether a technician can safely reach it, after the ratio of petrol to what the tank takes.
Before any quote, not after, we ask three questions: the fuel that was put in, its volume, and if it has run. That is why. With those replies, you get a straight figure instead of a range.
About Saughall Massie itself
Saughall Massie is a suburban area on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, situated near the coast at an elevation of around 14 metres. Saughall Massie lies within the wider Liverpool urban area, approximately 6 miles from the city centre, and is close to nearby places such as Moreton and Greasby. Saughall Massie has a population of around 3440 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
Fuel drain cover across Merseyside, Saughall Massie included
The teams answering petrol in diesel calls around Saughall Massie, in the CH postcode area, equally work the places around it, Moreton, Upton Meadow and Greasby included. The vehicle doesn't need to move to us: we drain at a forecourt, in a supermarket car park, in a lay-by or on your own driveway.
In Saughall Massie and still at the pump?
The best position there is, then — that's where you are. Keep it off. Phone.