How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Skirlaugh
Probably less than you are now — as long as nobody has started it. Till your ignition primes the pump, your starter cranks, or the vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank simply waits there and does no harm. Which makes the honest reply to the first Skirlaugh question — "have I ruined it?" — usually no. Leave the motor off then call Petrol in Diesel — that is how you keep it like that. The rest of this page covers what petrol actually does to a diesel, how to judge how far it has got, and how to make sure it doesn't happen to you a second time.
Inside the engine: what petrol in a diesel really does
Two jobs fall to diesel on its journey through a motor. It protects to begin with, and after that does it burn. Very fine tolerances go into the injectors and the high-pressure pump, and only the diesel running through keeps those surfaces from grinding together.
Of those two jobs, petrol manages the first poorly and the second never. The clattering comes from petrol being designed not to ignite when compressed, which is precisely the reverse of what a diesel needs. On top of that it is thinner than diesel, it strips away the lubrication the fuel system depends on, and any pump working on that blend is wearing itself.
Combined, those leave the shape of the problem plain. Not contact but movement is what does the harm. All a tank with petrol in it amounts to is a fuel fault. The beginning of a mechanical problem is a pump that has been running on that petrol — and whatever a worn pump sheds moves on with the fuel to your injectors downstream.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four scenarios our engineers see in Skirlaugh
Fuelled, and never started: no case is better. Just that tank has petrol in it, so the job is draining the tank and rinsing the system where the vehicle sits. This situation can only truly take place on a forecourt: anywhere else, the car got there by being driven.
A brief spell of running, or merely the ignition on. Once primed, the fuel system has pulled petrol from that tank as far as your filter and the lines. Drain, flush, deal with the fuel filter: still usually simple.
A couple of miles driven, and the pump has spent each of them labouring on weakened fuel. The work is your tank, the lines, the fuel filter and clean fuel through the whole system, and how hard your car was driven counts as much as how far. The school run to Skirlaugh Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School is one thing. Any miles on the M62, under 25 miles from Skirlaugh, means your engine has worked hard throughout, and a run to Kingston upon Hull, under 10 miles away, makes a very different job too.
Driven on till it complained — knocking, smoke, a lumpy idle, a dead throttle. What you are hearing is the engine reporting fuel that no longer behaves like diesel. Pull up where you are — on the verge on Sandringham Lane, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it. What comes first is still the drain and flush, and that sorts it out, with long-term damage very unusual when a car is stopped quickly.
Myths Skirlaugh motorists hear about petrol in a diesel
It will not be fine. The myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be." Nothing is removed when you top up — the tank just holds more of the same blend. That advice assumes a diesel fuel system handles petrol by percentage. It doesn't.
Myth: "A current diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." If anything, the reverse. At higher pressure, through smaller parts: that's how a newer diesel handles its fuel, and so the protection counts more, not less.
Myth: "If it starts and drives, there's no harm done." This is the one that fools people. Feed diesel to a petrol motor and it generally won't run, so the motorist stops — and the damage stops with them. Feed petrol to a diesel and it usually starts, idles and pulls away like nothing has happened — all while its pump is wearing. Fine and running are not the same thing.
Myth: a two-stroke additive makes it safe to drive home. It is an old workaround, supposed for another issue. The petrol is still inside that tank after that, and whatever it has weakened is not put back.
"Drain it yourself and you are sorted" — a myth, since after it's been running some petrol sits in the fuel filter and lines, waiting to go straight back through the pump at the next start. On top of that, petrol emptied into a can by the road is truly hazardous.
How does petrol in a diesel occur?
No one does it on purpose, and it's rarely carelessness. One way only, because of the nozzles: the narrower petrol one slips inside a diesel filler with almost no resistance, whereas the diesel one generally won't fit a petrol car. That is how the forecourt makes it easy.
Routine and the vehicle getting out of step is when it occurs. Hire cars, courtesy cars, and motors that are new to you. Two motors on one drive, one petrol, one diesel. The pumps in a different order on a familiar forecourt. A hurried fill on the way to Beverley with a train to catch. A new-to-you diesel Volkswagen Golf, its first fuelling, and a driver accustomed to petrol: precisely when it happens. With rain, a call arriving, or children to deal with, the hand just does what it always has.
Next time you fill up in Skirlaugh: avoiding petrol in a diesel
- 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, yet not on every forecourt.
- Plenty of motors state the fuel inside the filler flap or on the cap, and so check it on your first fill in a motor you do not know.
- Label your key. In a house with one of each, a coloured fob or a sticker on the diesel's key does more than any amount of meaning to remember.
- Before the nozzle leaves the petrol pump the first time you fuel a hired or new car, say "diesel" aloud. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- Mistakes like this are simple to make whilst your mind is on something else, so the phone goes away.
- Up to a point, a misfuel inhibitor helps: some diesels have a filler built to refuse a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices are available for the remainder. Treat it as a safety net, and keep checking the pump.
- Less petrol means a weaker blend, so stop the moment you notice — while remembering that your next step is unchanged. It's still not to fire it up.
Already put petrol in a diesel in Skirlaugh?
The order of things is short, then. Starting it is out, and so is turning on your ignition. If you are still at the forecourt — Gulf or anywhere else — ask the attendants to help you push it away from the petrol pump. Next, 0333 366 0103. We will ask what got in, about how much, and if it has been run.
AdBlue, not petrol? Then tell us. Corrosion and deposits, not lost protection, make it a different issue — Skirlaugh has a page just for it.
One petrol in a diesel task in Skirlaugh costs more than another. Why?
The four scenarios above are four separate tasks, so no single price for this would be fair. The scenario itself does most of the work of moving your cost. Next it's the proportion — how much petrol was put in against how much your tank takes — and after that where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely.
Ahead of any quote, not after, we ask three queries: your fuel that got in, the quantity, and whether it's run. That's why. A range turns into a straight figure once the answers are in.
About Skirlaugh, for a moment
Skirlaugh is a village situated on the banks of a river in the East Riding of Yorkshire, with a low elevation of around 12 metres. Skirlaugh lies approximately 7 miles from Kingston upon Hull, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Arnold, New Ellerby, and Oubrough. Skirlaugh has a population of around 1359 people, and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Skirlaugh is located in a region that is relatively close to major cities, yet still maintains a rural feel, being around 161 miles from London.
Skirlaugh and East Riding of Yorkshire: where our fuel drain cover runs
Petrol in diesel calls around Skirlaugh — part of the HU postcode area — go to teams that also cover the locations about it, Arnold, New Ellerby and Oubrough included. A forecourt, a supermarket car park, a lay-by or your own driveway are all places our engineers work, and the vehicle does not need to come to us.
Still at the petrol pump in Skirlaugh?
In that case, you could not be in a better spot. Ring, and keep it turned off.