Petrol in a diesel engine
Breakdown organisations put the figure of petrol misfuelling at around 150,000 cars a year, with repair bills totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.
Petrol will strip your diesel engine of the lubricant used to keep it ticking over and cause metal components to grate against each other and disintegrate.
This runs the risk of damaging the fuel pump and fuel-injection systems, or wrecking an engine completely if used for a significant amount of time.
To make matters worse pre-ignition systems start fuel pumps in new diesel models when car doors are unlocked. This cuts out the time it takes for new diesel engines to warm up, but means that diesel engines can be ruined by petrol by simply unlocking doors.
The fuel pump and injection systems and filters will likely need to be replaced on new models, while an entire engine could be wrecked beyond repair if it has been run for long enough. Regardless of the extent of the damage, the repair bill could potentially run into thousands of pounds.
Avoiding turning the engine over or stopping as soon as possible is vital to prevent more damage to the engine in these circumstances. A fuel-tank drain could be sufficient in such cases to prevent damage.
Diesel in a petrol engine
Theoretically it should be hard to fill a petrol tank with diesel, as diesel nozzles are too wide to fit into the tank. However using diesel in a petrol engine may destroy the engine´s catalytic converter, necessitating a costly replacement.
Breakdown organisations put the figure of petrol misfuelling at around 150,000 cars a year, with repair bills totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.
Petrol will strip your diesel engine of the lubricant used to keep it ticking over and cause metal components to grate against each other and disintegrate.
This runs the risk of damaging the fuel pump and fuel-injection systems, or wrecking an engine completely if used for a significant amount of time.
To make matters worse pre-ignition systems start fuel pumps in new diesel models when car doors are unlocked. This cuts out the time it takes for new diesel engines to warm up, but means that diesel engines can be ruined by petrol by simply unlocking doors.
The fuel pump and injection systems and filters will likely need to be replaced on new models, while an entire engine could be wrecked beyond repair if it has been run for long enough. Regardless of the extent of the damage, the repair bill could potentially run into thousands of pounds.
Avoiding turning the engine over or stopping as soon as possible is vital to prevent more damage to the engine in these circumstances. A fuel-tank drain could be sufficient in such cases to prevent damage.
Diesel in a petrol engine
Theoretically it should be hard to fill a petrol tank with diesel, as diesel nozzles are too wide to fit into the tank. However using diesel in a petrol engine may destroy the engine´s catalytic converter, necessitating a costly replacement.
