Any way to tell the difference between petrol and diesel in a can?

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Soldato
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14 Jan 2009
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Right well I need petrol badly, my mates said he's found a jerry can at the back of his garage and he's not sure what it is. Says it was there when he moved in.
Is there any way to tell?
 
More to the point, are you for real? LOL Why not go to a garage? Even if the car is immobile, just buy a £3 jerry can and fill that? I'm surprised you can't tell the difference between petrol and derv tbh; even my missus and the kids can do that! Petrol is not viscous and has visible, stinky vapour (like vodka on steroids). Derv/diesel is oily, thick and smells like, well, diesel :D

EDIT: Oh, and yeah - you wouldn't want to use either if it's been sat around in a shed that long.
 
Quite simple really. Petrol smells like petrol and diesel smells like diesel. Assuming you've ever put either in your car you'll know whay it is.
 
^ What they said.

Also, fuel that's been sitting since he moved in? How long's he lived there? That fuel's probably not fit for use in anything but a lawnmower to be honest!
 
You've no idea whats actually in there.. so I wouldn't risk it as mentioned above.

To tell between Petrol & Diesel I can usualy tell by popping the cap as petrol tends to give off a hiss due to the pressure built up in the can. You can also see the vapour that petrol gives off (like a haze) I've not noticed this with Diesel.

Its not easy though :p
 
You don't want to risk it. I'd go a buy a can and fill it up. At least it's guaranteed to be what you want. Better than have to rebuild your engine if you got it wrong or was contaminated in any way.
 
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