Put Petrol in a Diesel Car? Don't Start It
If you have put petrol in a diesel car, leave the engine off and call us before you do anything else. While the engine stays off, the petrol is still sitting in the tank, and a drain is usually all the car needs. We come to the car and drain it where it is, on the forecourt, at the roadside or outside your home.
Petrol in a diesel, AdBlue in the diesel tank, diesel in a petrol car
Petrol in a diesel is the job we do most. A diesel will usually start and drive on petrol for a few miles, which is why people often get away from the pump before they notice anything is wrong.
AdBlue in the diesel tank is a different problem. It is mostly water, it does not burn and it does not mix with diesel, so it needs draining out before the engine draws it in.
Diesel in a petrol car is the rarer one, because a diesel nozzle is wider than most petrol fillers. A petrol engine fed diesel usually just will not run, so the car tends to stop on its own.
Each of the three has its own page, linked at the foot of this one.
Why it matters whether the engine has run
Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and the injectors as it passes through them, and petrol thins it. With the engine off, the wrong fuel is in the tank and nowhere else. Once the engine has run, it has been drawn through the filter, the pump and the injectors, so we flush those as well as draining the tank.
If you have already driven, pull over somewhere safe and switch off. We can still sort it out where you have stopped, and when it is caught early, lasting damage is very rare.
What we do when we get to you
We drain the tank, flush the fuel lines and the filter, refill with the right fuel and start the engine to check it runs properly. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a garage.
Your car and your area
If you want the tank size for your car, the vehicles section has a page for every diesel model we hold figures for, with each version and its tank. The counties we have pages for are listed at the foot of this page, and each one leads to the towns in it.
Who we are
Petrol in Diesel is owned and operated by Fuel Fixer Ltd. We are open 24 hours, and the number to ring is 0333 366 0103.