Bill Quay: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
Don't fire up the engine. While the petrol is still sitting in the tank and your engine has not been started, a fuel drain is almost always all it requires — and that is determined in the following few minutes, not by how much was put in. Petrol in Diesel drains and flushes wrong-fuelled vehicles where they stand, across Bill Quay and the remainder of Tyne and Wear, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on a private drive. Ring us before everything else begins, so you'll hear what comes next.
What to do now about petrol in a diesel
- While you drive, your pump and the injectors wear. This is why you never start the car, and why you do not believe it once it has started. The trick about petrol in a diesel especially — the point motorists get wrong — is that it pulls away happily for the first mile or two. Diesel in a petrol engine generally won't run at all, which stops the person and stops the harm with them. This one lets you carry on.
- Flicking the car's ignition on frequently primes the system, and priming is what moves petrol out of your tank then into the pump and injectors. Those are the components diesel keeps oiled on its way through, before it ignites. Petrol manages the burning and none of the oiling. Leave the car's ignition be.
- That guidance supposes a diesel fuel system accepts petrol by percentage. It will not. Pour diesel on top and nothing at all is taken out; what you end with is a larger tank of the same mix. And no, the grade makes no difference — super unleaded is simply petrol.
- We would much rather drive to a tricky spot than have it started — so if you reasonably can, stay put. Nothing is simpler to handle than a motor that has never shifted. On the verge on Cromwell Terrace, that means hazards on and keep the car.
- Get your location prepared before you call. A postcode starting NE10 0 and whatever is nearest to you with a label on it is the difference between a van turning up and our van circling.
- Three answers decide the full job: the stuff you tipped in, the ballpark amount involved, and if anything has been running since. Our line is 0333 366 0103.
Tonight, please, rather than Monday. Running it home is the only thing not to do: a commute has put real volume through your pump already, petrol-thinned diesel and plenty of that, and the return trip would close to double the figure to no end. The Renault Megane can stay outside Heworth perfectly safely. Ring from the platform if handier; standing over us while our engineers work isn't needed.
Tell us this much and we can work with it: a diesel Volkswagen Passat, some litres of unleaded in it, two miles or so, turned off at Aldi now. Time gone by isn't the thing we need. Fuel sucked by your pump is.
Here's what a job in the car park at The Wardley normally looks like. We reach the vehicle, ask what got in, about how much, and whether the motor has run since — these three replies settle most of the work. Then the contaminated mixture comes out of that tank, the lines get cleaned, and the fuel filter comes off where your Audi A4 has a serviceable one. Fresh diesel goes in and your system is primed. Then our engineers start it, make sure it runs smoothly, and you pull away.
Happy on the way out, sluggish on the way back. If that is how the run to St Mary's Church Hall garden went, that tank is where to look. Petrol dilutes diesel, and thinner fuel seeps past the close-fitting components that are meant to build injection pressure — so the farther your Mercedes C-Class travelled, the less well it held that pressure. Stop somewhere safe, switch off and call us.
It got a couple of streets and stopped. The throttle went limp, the idle turned lumpy, and the diesel Citroen C4 is now waiting close to St Alban's. That softness is your fuel failing to build pressure correctly rather than your engine packing up — and because there is no warning for it, motors in that position generally get driven a second time before somebody calls. Don't. Turn it off then ring us.
Draining petrol from the diesel at a forecourt
A fair chunk of this job is finished at a pump, as that's where it mostly kicks off. We work on garage forecourts routinely, with the site's consent, so if you're still at JET that's normally where the drain happens.
At a garage, this gets halted with the engine never run, and no place else does that. Anywhere else — a car park, a drive, a lay-by — your car was started and driven to get there, which means fuel was pulled from that tank, through the filter and into the high-pressure pump. That's not a calamity, and our technicians can still deal with it where it is. It does mean the fuel lines and your filter need cleaning as well as that tank, and that's determined by the few seconds between reading the receipt and reaching for the keys.
The staff will normally happily wheel the vehicle out from the petrol pump so the next driver can get by. That's worth doing. Firing it just to move four vehicle lengths isn't.
Bill Quay plus the towns beside it
Bill Quay is a residential suburb, and our vans are out to it and to the places near it on the same journeys: Pelaw, Pelaw Main, Heworth Shore, St Anthonys and Heworth Lane.
Not on the list? That says nothing. The places above are simply the closest few, and the majority of towns in Tyne and Wear have a page of their own elsewhere on the site. Ring us to enquire rather than guessing, particularly if you are on a boundary or anywhere your phone struggles with.
The map marks the patch this page spans. Every bit of that is territory our technicians serve: a roadside, a forecourt, a private drive, a car park. You never move the vehicle anywhere.
Bill Quay: stuck wherever you stopped
Not everybody has a sensible spot to stop. Hazards going at a lay-by somewhere, or pulled onto the verge of Hainingwood Terrace since you noticed after setting off — we take that call so often that it is the normal kind.
Whether you wait beside the motor or step away from it turns on if being in it seems safe. Never restart it to reach a nicer spot. It will go — a diesel on petrol usually obliges — and each mile of obliging drags the mix deeper into the fuel system. A technician coming to a difficult place is no bother for us, and it is far better for the car than driving on.
So you've driven it? Petrol in a diesel over a couple of miles
This is where the local A194(M) matters, under 3 miles out of Bill Quay. A misfilled diesel will frequently take you onto it and some distance along before anything seems wrong, while the symptoms when they come are generally lost power, an uneven idle and smoke rather than a tidy stop.
Take the next junction that is safe, stop there, and do not restart the vehicle to move it. It affects what we bring, and so say so when you ring: on a longer trip — anything close to the under 5 miles to the closest city — assume the petrol has been through the fuel filter, your pump and the injectors.
A bit about Bill Quay
Bill Quay is a suburban area located on the southern bank of the River Tyne in north-east England, sitting at an elevation of around 40 metres. Bill Quay lies approximately 3.2 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne and is near other local places such as Pelaw and Heworth Shore. Bill Quay has a population of around 2767 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Bill Quay is situated near the mouth of the River Tyne, which has played a significant role in the region's history and economy.
What happens when our technicians reach you in Bill Quay
- The answers change the work, which is why our engineers ask before pricing: what got in, how much of that, and if the engine has run.
- Away goes the polluted fuel.
- What is left in your system shouldn't be what started the problem, so the lines get rinsed and the filter cleared.
- Priming follows, once new diesel is in.
- The motor is turned on and checked to confirm it runs correctly on clean diesel.
The car is then ready for you to drive away. Our engineers do everything wherever the car has stopped, which means it never has to go to a garage, and if it has been spotted early, it's very unusual for there to be long-term damage.
A separate job: AdBlue in a diesel tank around Bill Quay
Don't crank it: that opening step stands whether what got in was AdBlue or petrol. What differs is the problem itself. Petrol weakens the diesel and removes the protection the fuel system relies on. AdBlue? Urea dissolved in water. Pour that in with the diesel and you get rust instead, plus residue.
Both are ours. There is a separate Bill Quay page for AdBlue removal, with the details on it — including the reasons it frequently turns out to be the worse of the two.
What a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain costs in Bill Quay
What shifts the price is listed below, since the job is not one job and we can't honestly put a single price on this page.
- Started? Driven? Either answer matters more than anything else on this list.
- Wrong fuel in, against what that tank takes — that ratio.
- AdBlue or petrol, whichever got in.
- Access: the car's position, and whether working on it there's safe for a van.
Tell us what your car is, how much got in, and if the engine has run. A straight answer comes back, not a range. Motor at home, going nowhere, nothing pressing about it — is fine for that.
Petrol in diesel: frequent questions in Bill Quay
I am on a forecourt in Bill Quay. Can you drain the car on the spot?
Yes, and it is where a big portion of this work takes place. Tell us which one you're at when you phone and we will tell you if our engineers can work there. With the site's consent our engineers attend Jet and the other forecourts around town all the time.
How much petrol in a diesel is too much?
Whether the motor has run counts much more, though the proportion counts too, rather than the litres. What determines how much work is required is whether that mix has been sucked through your fuel system — because though five litres in a nearly empty tank is a different situation from five in a full one, either way that's the query.
Already driven it with petrol in your diesel? What now?
Somewhere sensible, then stop, then turn off and leave it off. Driving takes the problem along — out of your tank, into the pump and injectors. Motorists fear it a good deal more than the recovery rate warrants, mind. The one really helpful thing left to you is not restarting the vehicle.
Is a fuel drain going to void my warranty?
No. Carried out properly, clearing and purging is no alteration at all, and the warranty from your manufacturer is unaffected by it. A dispute over a warranty is likelier to come from running a diesel on petrol — so leave it switched off.
Can I just add two-stroke oil and drive home?
What petrol has thinned is not replaced by two-stroke oil, which is an old fix for a separate problem. So no. That tank still has petrol in it afterwards, and your pump still has to live with it.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
You don't need one. The vehicle is drained and cleaned wherever it is, with no need to take it to a franchised dealer.
Is the car still with you?
Switched off is how it stays.
Already driven it? Then stop somewhere safe, turn off, then let it stay that way. A still, cold vehicle is the best position to be in, and this is recoverable from far more often than people fear.
Across Tyne and Wear and around Bill Quay: mobile fuel draining, at home or on the forecourt or at the roadside.