Should You Worry? Petrol in a Diesel Car in Wylam
Probably less than you are now — provided no one has started the car. Until your ignition primes your pump, your starter cranks, or the vehicle is driven, petrol in a diesel tank just rests there and does nothing. Which means the truthful reply to the first Wylam query — "have I ruined it?" — usually no. To leave it that way, call Petrol in Diesel and leave the motor switched off. Read on for three things: the effect petrol has inside a diesel engine, the clues of how far it has spread, and the way to make sure you never repeat it.
The engine and petrol in a diesel: what happens
Passing through an engine, diesel is doing two things at once. It ignites, and before it burns it lubricates. What keeps the surfaces inside the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors from wearing against one another is your diesel flowing through them — they are built to very fine tolerances.
Petrol handles the first job poorly and the second not at all. Being less viscous than diesel, petrol strips away the protection a fuel system needs, so a pump on the blend wearing itself. It is equally made to resist igniting under compression — the opposite of what a diesel needs — which is where you hear the knocking.
Taken together, they show the shape the trouble 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 working on that petrol is the start of a mechanical one, and whatever a worn pump sheds travels on with the fuel to your injectors downstream.
Four situations our technicians see around Wylam: how bad is petrol in a diesel?
Fuelled but never started — as good as it gets. At a forecourt, and really only there, the petrol is still limited to that tank — since anywhere else your car was driven to reach it. The job is draining and flushing on the spot.
Started for a second, or only the ignition on. With the system primed, your lines and filter already contain petrol that came from your tank. That is normally still a simple job — a drain, a flush, and your filter seen to.
A few miles driven, and the pump has spent every one of them running on diluted fuel. Tank, lines, filter, then clean fuel put through the whole circuit: that's the work, and the way the vehicle was driven matters as much as the miles. Short trips, like the school run to Wylam First School, are one thing. A run as far as Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, is a very different job. So is any mileage on the Central Motorway East, under 10 miles from Wylam, where the motor has been labouring hard throughout.
It complained, and only then stopped: smoke, clattering, a throttle gone soft, an idle gone uneven. The engine is telling you your fuel is no longer acting like diesel. Stop where you are — on the verge on Falcon Terrace, at the kerb, down a side road — and do not move it again. What comes first is still the drain and flush, and that takes care of it, with lasting damage very unusual if a car is stopped early.
Petrol in a diesel myths Wylam people hear
"Top it up the rest of the way with diesel and it will be fine" — a myth. It won't. Nothing is removed by topping up — you are left with a fuller tank, still the same mixture. A diesel fuel system does not tolerate petrol by percentage in the way that advice supposes.
If anything, the reverse is true. Myth: "A modern diesel can cope with a bit of petrol." At higher pressure, through smaller components: that is how a newer diesel moves its fuel, so the protection matters for more, not less.
This is the one that fools drivers. Myth: "If it starts and drives, there is no damage done." The driver of a petrol engine fed diesel usually has no choice but to stop, because it will not run, 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 wears. Fine and running aren't the same thing.
Not so: a two-stroke additive makes it safe to drive home. It is an old fix, meant for another fault. That petrol is still in your tank after that, and what it has diluted isn't put back.
The next start sends petrol back round your pump from the lines and the fuel filter, where some of that sits once the motor has run. That's why a DIY tank drain does not sort it — a myth. It is also really hazardous to drain petrol into a can by the kerbside.
Why petrol in a diesel happens so easily
Nobody does it on purpose, and it's rarely carelessness. The petrol nozzle is the narrower of the two and slides into a diesel filler with almost no resistance; a diesel nozzle mostly won't go into a petrol car at all. The forecourt makes it easy, and the slip runs one way.
The moment habit stops matching your car is the moment it takes place. A new motor, a hire car or a courtesy car. A household with one petrol and one diesel on the driveway. A well-known forecourt with the pumps in a different order. Fuelling up in a rush en route to the nearest station, with a train to catch. Years of petrol motors behind you, a diesel Volkswagen Golf in front of you on the forecourt for its first tank — that is when. Throw in rain, a phone call or a back seat full of children, and the hand does what it has always done.
Preventing petrol in a diesel next time you fill up in Wylam
- Read the pump, not the colour. In the UK unleaded handles are usually green and diesel black, yet not on each forecourt. The label is what counts.
- In a vehicle you don't know, look inside the flap over the filler or at the cap before the first fill: many vehicles state the fuel type there.
- Good intentions count for less than a sticker or a fob in a vivid colour on your diesel's key if a home has one of each. So label it.
- Say it before you lift it. On your first fill in a new or hired car, say "diesel" out loud before you lift 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, so put the phone away then keep your mind on the petrol pump.
- Add-on devices are available for vehicles without one, and some diesels come with a filler that won't accept a petrol nozzle. Useful — but a safety net at best, never a reason to stop checking the label.
- Less petrol makes a weaker mixture, so stop as soon as you notice — though remembering that the next stage is unchanged. It's still not to fire it up.
Already put petrol in a diesel in Wylam?
The order of things is brief, then. Leave it unstarted, with your ignition switched off as well. The attendants at the forecourt — whether at JET itself or wherever you filled up — will normally help roll it clear of the pump if you ask. Then ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run.
Say so if it was AdBlue rather than petrol: it is a separate issue, with its own page for Wylam, since AdBlue brings corrosion and deposits instead of lost lubrication.
Wylam petrol in a diesel jobs: why one costs more than another
An honest single price doesn't exist here: four situations, four separate tasks. What moves the cost is mostly which of them you are in. The proportion counts next, meaning how much of the tank is petrol, and then the location of the vehicle and whether getting to it is safe for a technician.
That's why our technicians ask three queries before quoting rather than after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. With those answers, you get a straight figure instead of a range.
About Wylam, for a moment
Wylam is a village situated on the River Tyne in Northumberland, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Wylam lies close to the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, approximately 8 miles to the west, and is near other local places such as Clara Vale and Crawcrook. Wylam has a population of around 1830 people and is located at a relatively low elevation of 18 metres above sea level. Wylam is part of the wider Tyne Valley area, which has a rich history and natural beauty.
Fuel drain cover in Wylam and across Northumberland
Our vans answering petrol in diesel call-outs in Wylam, in the NE postcode area, equally work the places near it, Clara Vale, West Wylam and Crawcrook among them. A forecourt, a supermarket car park, a lay-by or your own driveway are all places our engineers drain, and your vehicle does not need to come to us.
Still at the pump around Wylam?
Then you're in the best spot there can be. Ring, and keep it switched off.