How is gasoline different from diesel, and why does it damage the car if you put the wrong kind in the tank?
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Diesel requires a lot more heat to ignite. If you pour it on the ground and hold a lighter to it, it won’t burn. It’s also a lubricant that keeps the moving parts in a diesel fuel system lubricated and working smoothly.
Gasoline is a lot more volatile. It evaporates quickly and the vapors it emits are extremely flammable. That’s why people use it to start fires. It’s also a solvent, meaning it dissolves other substances and cannot be used as a lubricant.
Putting diesel in a gas car will just shut it down as a gas car cannot burn it. The fuel system now has a lubricant in it and all that has to removed before it can run again. Diesel nozzles are actually larger to prevent doing this, most people won’t try to fill their car with a nozzle that won’t actually fit in their car.
If you put gas in a diesel vehicle, it will run and you may not notice a difference initially. Since gas is more volatile, it will over heat your exhaust and melt different parts of it. It’s like putting a flame thrower down the exhaust. Gas being a solvent means that those fuel pumps that need diesels lubricant properties is no longer there. The low pressure and high pressure pumps will begin to break down. The metal lines in the high pressure side can begin to rust and all that debris can block things further down the line.
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