Aylesham: Petrol in a Diesel Car? Here Is What Happens
Not for a moment, and not to move it: the motor remains off. Stop there. Emptied then rinsed, just where it is: that's normally all an unrun diesel with petrol in it needs. Whether it stays that straightforward depends on the minutes to come more than on everything else. From here on, in order, wherever you are around Aylesham:
Petrol in a diesel, engine off — the first minute
Work through the following before anything else, in this order.
- Pull your keys out. Even your ignition on its own can prime your fuel system, pulling petrol out of your tank to exactly the parts it damages, and so leave the vehicle alone completely.
- A fuller tank of the same mixture is all adding diesel gives you, since it takes out nothing. So no more diesel.
- Near passing traffic? Then the hazard lights go on before anything else, so the car is easy to spot.
- Off the petrol pump by hand. On a forecourt, ask the staff to help you push the car away from the petrol pump. Don't start the vehicle to shift it, however short the way.
- The first question you will be asked is which fuel went in and roughly how much — and the receipt shows both. Keep it.
On the M20, under 10 miles from Aylesham, the next exit is the place to leave the vehicle; anywhere, the first sensible location to stop. Don't press on to the services. Then go back to step one.
The fork in every Aylesham fuel drain: has it run yet?
Everything after this stage depends on one answer.
Motor not run at all?
- That petrol is still inside your tank and nowhere else.
- The job is a simple drain and a flush, usually done where your car stands.
- This, here, is the best spot to be in, and the reason step one matters.
Run at all, even for a second:
- Out of the tank, through the filter, into the lines: that's how far the petrol has travelled.
- The high-pressure pump as well as the fuel injectors see it too on a bigger run.
- Miles is what makes it a bigger job: the lines flushed, a filter seen to, and at times further work.
Diesel keeps the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors oiled as it goes through them. Petrol offers them nothing, and that is why the line is drawn there. A tank of petrol, left alone, hurts nothing. The parts that shift it are grinding the moment petrol is being pumped.
Before you call about petrol in a diesel around Aylesham: what our engineers need
Prepare a little, and the van finds you rather than circling.
- CT3 3 and the rest of the postcode is the ideal way to begin telling us where you are.
- The road or the car park. A road name is a help — Boulevard Courrieres, or wherever you have stopped.
- Car parks are found more easily by what they serve: say the one outside Co-op Food, and it is straightforward.
- Say what the vehicle is — make, model — and check it's diesel.
- Say which went in — petrol or AdBlue — since AdBlue is a different job, with a page of its own for Aylesham.
- Roughly how much — in litres from the receipt, or by how long the nozzle stayed in.
- If it's run, how far plus how heavily — and whether it's run at all.
- Whose motor it is. Some hire or company agreements want the owner to approve the work, and that is quicker settled before our technicians turn up than after.
Call 0333 366 0103 then. Email works too if it can wait, with the vehicle left at home, going nowhere.
Aylesham fuel drain on its way? Whilst you wait
In the wait, the harm comes from well-intended help — which is why these count.
- Stay with the car if it's safe where it is — but if it has stopped somewhere dangerous, you come first: away from the traffic, waiting apart from it.
- Not to roll it a few yards, not to check it is all right, not as a passer-by's favour: no one starts it.
- No additives. Two-stroke oil, injector cleaner, anything from your boot — none of that gets the petrol back out.
- Draining it yourself is out: a can of siphoned petrol on a verge is a danger, and your fuel beyond that tank remains where it is all the same.
- Even your radio or the windows aren't worth turning the ignition on for.
When the van arrives: your fuel drain, step by step
- First, three questions: which fuel went in, the quantity, and has it run? Those replies set the job, and so the quote follows them.
- Your tank is drained. The polluted mixture comes out of that tank.
- Purging your lines follows, since a motor that ran has petrol past your tank, inside the fuel lines themselves.
- The filter is sorted. Cleared, or swapped where the car has a serviceable one.
- Clean diesel goes in, and the system is primed.
- The start. With clean diesel in and your system primed, it's started and checked to confirm it runs smoothly.
Only when it's running on clean diesel do we go. When it has been caught quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon, and the car goes back to normal use at once.
After the fuel drain is done: driving in Aylesham once more
- Drive normally. There is nothing special to do after it has been started on fresh fuel.
- Give the first miles your attention. Smoke showing, a warning light coming on, the idle going lumpy or your throttle stumbling: pull over and ring us back.
- Keep the paperwork. A hire firm, a fleet manager or an insurer may ask what was done.
- The handle's colour is not the thing to go by next time — the label on the pump is.
About Aylesham
Aylesham is a village in Kent, situated approximately 6.5 miles from Canterbury and 60.5 miles from London, at an elevation of around 77 metres. Aylesham sits in a rural area surrounded by nearby places such as Snowdown, Ratling, and Nonington. Aylesham has a population of around 3297 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Aylesham remains a residential community with a mix of local amenities and rural surroundings.
Fuel drains around Aylesham and the locations nearby
Snowdown, Ratling and Nonington are served by the same vans that take petrol in diesel jobs around Aylesham — and so is most of Kent beyond. If you're near a boundary or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Leave it off and ring: petrol in a diesel in Kent
Keys out, motor off, the receipt in your pocket: that is stage one done. The rest is for Petrol in Diesel, wherever the car is — forecourt, kerbside or driveway.