Petrol in a Diesel Car in Tullichewan: How Worried Should You Be?
Provided it has not been started, worry less than you likely are. Everyone in Tullichewan starts with "have I wrecked it?", and the fair answer is usually no: petrol resting in the tank of a diesel remains harmless till priming, cranking or driving pulls it into the fuel system. Petrol in Diesel is who to phone, with your motor left off, so it stays that way. Keep reading for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel engine, the signs of how far it has got, and the way to make sure you never do it again.
What petrol in a diesel does to your engine
Two jobs fall to diesel on its route through a motor. It combusts, and before it combusts it protects. Extremely fine clearances are built into the fuel injectors and your high-pressure pump, and just the diesel flowing through stops those surfaces grinding together.
The second job petrol doesn't do at all, and the first it does badly. A pump running on a petrol mixture is wearing itself out, because petrol is thinner than diesel and takes away the protection your fuel system relies on. Petrol is also made to resist igniting under compression — the reverse of what a diesel wants from its fuel — and that is where any rattling comes.
Seen together, they make clear the shape the issue takes. The damage is done by movement, not by contact. All a tank with petrol in it amounts to is a fuel problem. A pump that has been labouring on that petrol is the beginning of a mechanical one, and whatever a worn pump sheds travels on with your fuel to your injectors further on.
How bad is petrol in a diesel? Four scenarios we see around Tullichewan
Filled but never started — as good as it gets. Only that tank has petrol in it, so the job is draining your tank and cleaning the system where the car stands. This scenario can only truly occur on a forecourt: anywhere else, the car got there by being driven.
Ignition on, or started for a second. Once primed, the system has drawn petrol out of the tank up to the filter and your lines. Drain, flush, see to the fuel filter: still normally straightforward.
A few miles driven, and your pump has spent each of them working on thinned fuel. Distance is only half of it; how hard it was driven matters just as much. Either way the work runs to that tank, the fuel lines, the filter and fresh fuel through the entire system. Short trips, like the school run to the local primary school, are one thing. A run as far as Glasgow, under 25 miles away, is a very different job. So is any miles on the M8, under 10 miles from Tullichewan, where your engine has been labouring hard the whole time.
Driven on till it complained — rattling, smoke, an uneven idle, a soft throttle. The fuel isn't acting like diesel any more, and your engine is telling you. Pull up on the spot — on the verge on Tullichewan Drive, at the kerb, down a side road — and don't move it again. The drain and flush still go first, and they sort it out: if a car is stopped soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What Tullichewan motorists get told about petrol in a diesel — and the stories in it
Myth: topping up to full with diesel makes it fine. It does not. Nothing is removed by topping up — you are left with a bigger tank, still the same mix. Percentage is not how a diesel fuel system tolerates petrol, whatever that advice presumes.
Not so: a newer diesel copes with a bit of petrol. If anything, the reverse. A modern diesel runs its fuel through smaller parts at higher pressure, which makes the lubrication count more, not less.
The myth that catches motorists out: if it starts and drives, it must be unharmed. A petrol engine fed diesel generally won't run, so the motorist stops and the damage stops with them. Nothing seems to have happened when a diesel fed petrol fires up, ticks over and drives away, as it usually does; meanwhile your pump grinds. Being able to run isn't proof of being fine.
An outdated fix for a different problem lies behind this one. Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the vehicle home." It doesn't put back what petrol has diluted, and that petrol is still in the tank later.
The next start draws petrol back round the pump out of the lines and the filter, where some of it sits once your engine has been run. That is why draining your tank yourself does not sort it — a myth. And, a can of petrol drained at the kerbside is truly dangerous.
How it happens: petrol in a diesel
Nobody does it on purpose, and it's rarely carelessness. The forecourt makes it easy: the petrol nozzle is the narrower of the two, and it slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance, whilst a diesel nozzle mostly will not go into a petrol motor at all. So the mistake runs one way.
Habit and your car falling out of step is when it takes place. Courtesy car, hire car, or a motor that's new. Households running one of each, petrol and diesel. A familiar forecourt with the pumps in a different order. A train to catch, and a rushed fill en route to Balloch Central. A new-to-you diesel Renault Megane, its first fuelling, and a driver used to petrol: exactly when it happens. With rain, a call arriving, or a car full of children to deal with, the hand just does what it always has.
Avoiding petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Tullichewan
- Read the pump, not the colour. In the UK unleaded handles are generally green and diesel black, but not on each forecourt. The label is what matters.
- Many cars state the fuel inside your filler flap or on the cap, so check there on your first fill in any motor you don't know.
- Good intentions do less than a sticker or a fob in a bright colour on your diesel's key if a household has one of each. So mark it.
- Say it before you lift it. On the first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" aloud before you take the nozzle off the pump. It seems daft and it does the trick.
- Thinking about something else is when this becomes an easy mistake to make, and so put your phone away then keep your mind on the pump.
- Up to a point, a misfuel inhibitor helps: some diesels have a filler designed to refuse a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices exist for the remainder. Count it as a safety net, and keep reading the petrol pump.
- Noticing it halfway? Stop at once. A weaker mixture follows from less petrol in your tank, but the next step remains the same: don't start it.
Put petrol in a diesel around Tullichewan already?
In that case, there is only a short order of things. Starting it is out, and so is switching on your ignition. Ask the staff to help you roll it away from the petrol pump if you are still at the forecourt, whether that's John H Glen & Son or anywhere else. What got in, roughly how much, and whether it's run: tell us those when you ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue, not petrol? Then say so. Corrosion and deposits, not lost protection, make it a separate fault — Tullichewan has a page all for it.
Why one petrol in a diesel task in Tullichewan costs more than another
Four different jobs lie behind the four scenarios above — which is why there is no fair single price. Which of them you are in is mostly what moves the cost. Next it's the proportion — how much petrol got in against how much your tank takes — and after that where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely.
What got in, how much, and if it has run — three questions our engineers ask before pricing, not after, for precisely that reason. Those replies are what change a range into one firm number.
About Tullichewan
Tullichewan is a suburban area in West Dunbartonshire, situated inland at an elevation of 27 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Tullichewan lies approximately 16.5 miles northwest of Glasgow, near the towns of Alexandria and Balloch. Tullichewan is close to Levenvale and has a population of around 3182 residents. Tullichewan is located relatively far from London, at a distance of 359.7 miles.
Across West Dunbartonshire and around Tullichewan: fuel drain cover
Petrol in diesel calls around Tullichewan — part of the G postcode area — go to vans that also cover the spots around it, Levenvale, Alexandria and Balloch among them. A forecourt, a supermarket car park, a lay-by or your own driveway are all places we work, and your vehicle doesn't need to come to us.
Tullichewan: still at the petrol pump?
In that case, you could not be in a better position. Keep it switched off, and ring.