Botley: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
With the tank still holding the petrol and your engine not yet turned over, almost every job needs only a drain, so keep your engine off. That result is decided in the minutes immediately after filling up, and not by the amount that went in. Across Botley and the remainder of Oxfordshire, Petrol in Diesel drains the vehicle and cleans it where it is, whether at a roadside, on a private drive or at a forecourt. We shall explain what your next stage will be. Phone — this comes ahead of everything else.
Petrol in a diesel: what to do now
- Never start the car. Turned on all the same? Then never depend on it. Diesel in a petrol vehicle usually will not run, and so the motorist stops and the harm ends with them. Petrol in a diesel? It starts. It ticks over. It drives off normally, for a couple of miles. Drivers get that confused. It is not all right — that fuel system is wearing every mile you do.
- Two tasks, diesel: it ignites, and on the way through it keeps that high-pressure pump and injectors lubricated. Petrol only handles the one. That is why the ignition is left off too — turn it on and you frequently prime that system, and that is petrol exiting your tank for exactly those parts.
- Don't add diesel on top to thin it. A diesel fuel system will not tolerate petrol by percentage in the way that advice implies, and topping up takes out nothing — it only leaves you a bigger tank of the same blend. The octane makes no difference either: super unleaded is still petrol.
- Stay still if it is safe to. Hazards on, engine off, leave the vehicle. Wherever you have stopped — the verge on Westminster Way, anywhere — a tricky location for us is better than a started diesel, and nothing is simpler for us to deal with than a vehicle that never shifted.
- Our van arriving rather than circling rests on two things: a postcode starting OX2 9, and whatever is closest to you with a name on it. Have both prepared before you dial.
- Ring 0333 366 0103. Tell us what got in, roughly how much, and also if the car has fired. These three answers decide your whole job.
How many miles you travelled is what we query, not how long your vehicle has been parked — and here's why. Diesel does two tasks on its way through a motor: it burns, and before burning it protects its injection pump and the injectors. Petrol does the first only. So a fast refuel on the drive in, the penny dropping at about eleven, and a diesel Renault Clio parked at Oxford since quarter past eight means those couple of miles were driven with the pump labouring on a liquid stripped of much of its protection. Phone then leave the vehicle exactly where it is.
Shift it out of that gateway and deal with it later — that's what a passer-by will say, and it is wrong. Parked on the zig-zags at North Hinksey Church of England Primary School, a wrongly fuelled diesel Audi A4 is a hassle and nothing worse. Fired up three more times for politeness, it is no longer a tank problem but a fuel system one, since priming occurs with every start and more petrol goes through the filter towards the pump. Let them moan. Call us.
Your pump sits before the injectors, so whatever a wearing one sheds moves downstream with your fuel — which is why we are blunt about not driving on. Phone us, then leave your diesel Peugeot 3008 where it is by Our Lady of the Rosary.
Rattling, a lumpy idle, white smoke, a throttle gone dead. That's a wrongly fuelled diesel Mercedes A-Class telling you what's wrong. Turn off where you have stopped, by The Rosary Room or anywhere else, and do not start the car to find a better place.
A few streets, then it stopped. Throttle limp, idle ragged, and your diesel Kia Sportage is parked up close to Stone of Remembrance. Your engine is not failing — that softness is fuel that won't build pressure. There's no light on the dash for it, so cars like yours generally get driven once more before anyone picks up the phone. Don't. Off, and call us.
Draining petrol from a diesel at the forecourt
A good part of this work ends up finished at a pump, since that is where it usually starts. Still at BP? Then that's usually where it happens. Station forecourts are normal for us, with the consent of the station.
Nowhere else except a garage can this be stopped with the engine still unrun. Anywhere else — a car park, a driveway, a lay-by — the vehicle was fired up and driven to get there, which means fuel was sucked from that tank, through the fuel filter and into your high-pressure pump. That is not a catastrophe, and our engineers can still sort it out where it stands. It does mean your lines and your filter need cleaning as well as the tank, and that is determined by the few seconds between seeing your receipt and going for the key.
Staff will generally help out pushing it clear of the pump, which lets the next motorist get through. Take the help. Firing the car just to move four vehicle lengths isn't.
Do we reach your corner of Botley?
North Hinksey Village, New Botley, Harcourt Hill, Dean Court, Osney — every one of these on our journeys that take us across to Botley itself, a residential suburb.
If yours is not on that list it does not mean we never come — there are separate pages for most towns in Oxfordshire, and the ones named above are simply the nearest neighbours. Guessing is the habit to avoid, above all on a border or somewhere your phone fails. Contact us and check.
Check the map for the patch shown here. We operate roadside, at forecourts, on driveways and in car parks across all of it, and your vehicle never needs to travel to us.
Botley: broken down wherever you stopped
Not everybody has a chance to pull over somewhere sensible. If you realised after setting off and landed on the verge on Yarnell's Road, or in a lay-by somewhere with your hazards on, that's a common call for us rather than an unusual one.
Wait with the motor if it is sensible to wait there, but clear of it if it is not. It will often oblige. A diesel running on petrol limps along perfectly willingly, and that's the problem: restart the vehicle to reach somewhere better and that mixture goes further into the fuel system with every mile driven. However awkward the spot, it's no bother for us to come to it, and that is much better for your car than carrying on.
Petrol in a diesel, but the motor has gone
This is where the Wheatley Spur comes into it — under 10 miles away from Botley. Lost power, an uneven idle, some smoke: those are the signs when they appear, rather than a neat stop — and a misfilled diesel will usually take you onto it and some distance along before anything seems wrong at all.
Get off at the next sensible junction, switch off, and never restart it to reposition. It affects what our technicians bring, so say so when you ring: on a longer drive — anything close to the under 3 miles to the nearest city — take it the petrol has been through your filter, your pump and your injectors.
Where's Botley?
Botley is a suburban area located on the western edge of Oxford, beside the River Thames. Botley sits at an elevation of around 78 metres, with views across the surrounding countryside. Botley is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and proximity to nearby places such as North Hinksey Village and New Botley. Botley is also close to Harcourt Hill, a notable local landmark.
What we do when we get to you in Botley
- Our technicians find out what got in, how much, and if your motor has run. The responses shape the work, which is why we ask before quoting.
- The tainted mixture is drawn out of that tank.
- Lines flushed, filter cleaned. Whatever is left afterwards isn't the thing that created the problem.
- Priming follows, once clean diesel is in.
- Once it is turned on, our technicians check it runs properly on fresh diesel.
From there, you're ready to drive away. Our technicians do all of it wherever your car has ended up, which means it never needs to go to a garage, and if it has been spotted soon, it is very unusual for there to be lasting damage.
AdBlue in your diesel tank instead, around Botley?
AdBlue rather than petrol? Then the first step is unchanged — your engine stays off — while the problem underneath it's a different one altogether. Petrol does two things to diesel: dilutes it, and strips out the protection the system depends on. Urea in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that brings corrosion and build-up.
Both are ours. There is a separate Botley page for AdBlue removal, with the full story on it — including the reasons it often turns out to be the worse of the two.
Paying for a petrol-in-diesel drain in Botley
What shifts the price is laid out below, because the job isn't one job and our technicians can't frankly put a single number on this page.
- Started? Driven? Either answer counts more than anything else on this list.
- The tank's capacity, set against how much of the wrong fuel went into it.
- The sort of liquid in the tank, petrol or AdBlue.
- Access: the car's position, and whether working on it there's safe for our van.
Tell us the car, the amount and whether it has run, and you will get a clear answer rather than a range. Not time-critical, with the vehicle at home and going nowhere? Then is fine.
Botley motorists ask us these about petrol in diesel
Fuel drains on a Botley petrol station forecourt
Yes, and it is where a good portion of this work takes place. Tell us which one you are at when you ring and we will tell you if our technicians can work there. With the site's consent our engineers attend another forecourt nearby and the other forecourts nearby all the time.
How much petrol in a diesel is too much?
Whether your motor has run counts a lot more, though the proportion counts too, rather than the litres. Five litres in a nearly empty tank is a different case from five in a full one — but either way, the thing that decides how much work is required is if that blend has been drawn through your fuel system.
I put petrol in my diesel and drove the car. What now?
Somewhere safe, then stop, then switch off and leave it off. Not restarting it is the single most helpful thing available to you now. Driving does move the problem out of the tank and into your pump and injectors, yes, and it remains recoverable much more frequently than people expect.
Is a fuel drain going to void my warranty?
It's not a change, and so a drain and flush carried out properly doesn't invalidate a manufacturer's warranty. Running a diesel on petrol is the thing likelier to cause a dispute with one, which is another good reason to leave the car turned off.
Adding two-stroke oil, then driving home
No. It belongs to a different problem from a bygone era, and petrol has diluted something no oil of that kind restores. Your tank still has petrol in it afterwards, and your pump still has to cope with it.
A main dealer for petrol in a diesel — necessary?
Wherever the car is, we drain and flush it there, so a drive to the main dealer doesn't come into it.
You, and your vehicle, still together?
Switched off is the way it remains.
If you have already driven the vehicle, pull in somewhere safe, turn it off and leave it off. Cold and stationary, a car is in the best position available — and people fear this a lot more than the recovery rate warrants.
Across Oxfordshire and around Botley: call-out fuel draining, at home or on the forecourt or at the roadside.