How Worried Should You Be? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Widley
Provided it hasn't been started, you can worry far less than you likely are. Everyone in Widley begins with "have I ruined it?", and the fair answer is generally no: petrol left in your tank of a diesel stays harmless till priming, cranking or driving draws it into the fuel system. Keep it that way: leave the motor off and call Petrol in Diesel. 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 again.
Petrol in a diesel: what does it do to the motor?
Two tasks fall to diesel on its route round a motor. It lubricates to begin with, and after that does it burn. Built to very fine tolerances, your injectors and your pump rely on the diesel flowing through them to stop their surfaces wearing against one another.
Petrol handles the first task badly and the second not at all. A pump working on a petrol blend is wearing itself out, because petrol is thinner than diesel and strips out 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 is where the knocking starts.
Seen together, they make clear what shape the issue has. Not contact but movement is what does the harm. Petrol in a tank is a fuel issue. A pump that has been labouring on that petrol is the start of a mechanical one, and whatever a worn pump sheds moves on with the fuel to the fuel injectors downstream.
How serious is petrol in a diesel? Four scenarios our technicians see in Widley
Filled up, not once started. The best case there is. Only the tank has petrol in it, and so the task is emptying the tank and cleaning your system where the car sits. This scenario can only really happen at a forecourt: anywhere else, your car got there by being driven.
Ignition on, or started for a second. The fuel system has been bled, and so petrol has left your tank and reached the fuel filter and your lines. Drain, flush, deal with the filter: still normally straightforward.
A couple of miles driven, and your pump has spent every one of them labouring on thinned fuel. Tank, lines, filter, then fresh fuel run through the entire circuit: that's the work, and the way the vehicle was driven matters as much as the mileage. The school run to Purbrook Infant School is one matter. Any mileage on the A3(M), under 3 miles from Widley, means your engine has worked hard throughout, and a run to Portsmouth, under 5 miles away, makes a very different job as well.
Driven on till it complained — rattling, smoke, an uneven idle, a soft throttle. The fuel isn't behaving like diesel any more, and the engine is telling you. Leave it where it stops: a lay-by, a side street, the verge on Downside Road. Long-term damage is very uncommon if a vehicle is pulled over early, and the drain and flush that still go first take care of it.
Petrol in a diesel myths Widley people hear
Myth: "Fill it the rest of the way with diesel and it'll be fine." It will not. Nothing is removed by topping up — you're left with a fuller tank, still the same mixture. The assumption behind the guidance — that diesel fuel systems tolerate petrol by percentage — is wrong.
If anything, the reverse is true. Myth: "A current diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." At higher pressure, through more precise parts: that is how a modern diesel moves its fuel, so the protection matters more, not less.
This is the one that fools drivers. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there is no harm done." Diesel in a petrol motor generally leaves a motor that won't run: the driver stops, and so does the damage. While the pump grinds, a diesel fed petrol usually starts, idles and drives away as if nothing has happened. A running engine doesn't mean fine.
Myth: "Add some two-stroke oil and drive the car home." It's an old fix for a different issue. That petrol is still inside your tank after that, and whatever it has thinned isn't put back.
The next start sends petrol back round your pump from your lines and the filter, where some of it ends up once the motor has run. That's why a DIY tank drain doesn't sort it — a myth. On top of that, petrol drained into a can by the road is truly dangerous.
Why petrol in a diesel occurs at all
It's seldom carelessness, and no one does it on purpose. The petrol nozzle is the smaller of the two and slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance; a diesel nozzle generally won't go into a petrol vehicle at all. The forecourt makes it simple, and the mistake runs one way.
When habit and your car stop matching, it happens. Hire cars, courtesy cars, and cars that are new to you. Households running one of each, petrol and diesel. A familiar forecourt with the pumps in a different order. Rushing for a train at Cosham and fuelling up en route. Years of petrol vehicles behind you, a diesel Volkswagen Golf in front of you on the forecourt for its first tank — that's when. With rain, a call coming in, or a car full of children to deal with, the hand simply does what it has always done.
Avoiding petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Widley
- Check the petrol pump, not the colour. In the UK unleaded handles are generally green and diesel black, but not on each forecourt. The label is what counts.
- In a vehicle you don't know, look inside the flap over your filler or at the cap before your first fill: plenty of cars print the fuel there.
- One of each in the household? Label the key to the diesel — a coloured fob, a sticker — because meaning to remember isn't enough.
- "Diesel", aloud, before you pick up the nozzle — each time a new or hired car needs its first tank. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- Whilst you're thinking about something else, this is an easy mistake to make — so put your phone away.
- Up to a point, a misfuel inhibitor helps: some diesels have a filler built to reject a petrol nozzle, and add-on devices exist for the remainder. Count it as a backstop, then keep reading the petrol pump.
- Spotting it mid-fill? Stop there and then. A weaker mixture results from less petrol inside the tank, yet the next step stays the same: do not start the vehicle.
Put petrol in a diesel around Widley already?
Then, there is just a short order of things. Leave it unstarted, with the ignition off too. Ask the staff to help you roll it away from the petrol pump if you're still on the forecourt, whether that's Shell or somewhere else. Next, 0333 366 0103. We'll ask what got in, about how much, and if it has been run.
Corrosion and deposits form the issue with AdBlue, where petrol brings lost lubrication. So if it was AdBlue, say so — and see its own Widley page.
Why one petrol in a diesel task around Widley costs more than another
An honest single price does not exist here: four situations, four separate tasks. The situation itself does most of the work of moving your cost. Two things follow that: the petrol that got in as a share of what that tank holds, then the spot the vehicle is in and whether a van can reach it safely.
Ahead of any quote, not after, we ask three queries: the fuel that was put in, the quantity, and if it's run. That's why. Those replies change a range into a straight figure.
About Widley, for a moment
Widley is a suburban area located on the southern coast of England, in Hampshire, with an elevation of 51 metres above sea level. Widley sits near the city of Portsmouth, approximately 4.8 miles away, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Purbrook Heath, Crookhorn, and Purbrook. Widley has a population of around 3397 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Widley is also situated within commuting distance to London, being around 59.9 miles away.
Fuel drain cover in Widley and across Hampshire
Purbrook Heath, Crookhorn and Purbrook are among the spots around Widley that the same teams work, answering petrol in diesel jobs across Widley's PO postcode area. The car does not need to come to us: our engineers drain on a forecourt, in a supermarket car park, in a lay-by or on your own drive.
In Widley and still at the petrol pump?
Then you are in the best position there can be. Leave the vehicle switched off, and ring.