--- title: Fuel Drain in Charles Bottom — Petrol in a Diesel Car canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/petrol-in-diesel/charles-bottom-devon/ location: Charles Bottom county: Devon latitude: 51.067730 longitude: -3.878160 service: Petrol in a Diesel Car updated: 2026-10-14 --- # Petrol in a Diesel Car in Charles Bottom Never start the engine. If the fuel is still inside your tank and your engine has not run, a drain is nearly always all it requires — and that's decided in the following few minutes, not by how much got in. Petrol in Diesel drains and cleans wrongly fuelled cars where they sit, all over Charles Bottom and the rest of Devon, on the forecourt, by the roadside or on a drive. Contact us before anything else starts, so you'll see what follows after that. ## Your first five minutes: petrol in a diesel - Never start the car — and never depend on it when it does start. Here is the part drivers have wrong about petrol in a diesel especially. A petrol engine filled with diesel typically just won't run, so the person stops and the harm halts with them. A diesel given petrol typically starts, ticks over and pulls away just fine for a few miles. It isn't fine. It is grinding that fuel system whenever you drive. - Leave your ignition off as well. Diesel has two roles: it ignites, and before it ignites it lubricates your injection pump and its injectors. Petrol handles the first and not the second. Turning your ignition on is usually enough to prime your system, which draws that petrol out of that tank then into just those components. - Topping up takes out nothing. It hands you a bigger tank of the same blend, since a diesel fuel system won't cope with petrol by percentage in the way that guidance implies — so do not add diesel on top to dilute it. Octane is beside the point too: super unleaded is petrol. - Stay where you are if you reasonably can. A motor that hasn't moved is the easiest one to deal with, and we'd rather come to an odd location than have it started. If you're parked on the verge on Mill Lane, switch your hazards on then leave the vehicle there. - Before you dial, work out your whereabouts. Anything nearest to you with a name on it, plus a postcode that starts EX32 7 — that's what settles whether the technician arrives or circles. - Three facts settle the entire job: the stuff you tipped in, the rough amount of it, and if it has been running since. The number is 0333 366 0103. ## Draining petrol from your diesel at a forecourt A good chunk of this work is done at the pump, since that is where it mostly begins. If you're still on the forecourt at JJ Garages, that is normally where the drain takes place — we work on garage forecourts routinely, with the owner's permission. Nowhere else but the forecourt can the mistake be caught with your engine still untouched. Anywhere else — a car park, a private drive, a lay-by — the car was switched on and driven to get there, which means fuel was sucked from the tank, through the fuel filter then into your high-pressure pump. That is not a disaster, and our engineers can still deal with it where it is. It does mean the fuel lines and the fuel filter need cleaning as well as that tank, and that's settled by the few seconds between reading the receipt and reaching for the keys. Roll it out of the way if the staff suggest it, and they normally will. The next motorist gets past the pump, and that is worth doing. Four car lengths isn't worth a start. How much fuel your pump has sucked is what we are really asking — not how long ago any of it was. So the call our engineers want sounds like this: diesel Audi A3, some litres of unleaded, a couple of miles covered, now switched off at Sainsbury's. ## Areas our vans reach near Charles Bottom As a small village, Charles Bottom has a frequent visit, whilst the places close by go with it on the same run: East Buckland and Newtown, Charles and Elwell, West Buckland. Not on the list? That means nothing. The names above are simply the closest few, and the majority of places across Devon have a page of their own somewhere on our site. Presuming is the thing to skip, especially on the boundary or somewhere the satnav goes wrong. Phone to ask. This map outlines the area this page includes. All of it is territory we work: a kerbside, a forecourt, a driveway, a car park. You don't bring your vehicle anywhere. ## Charles Bottom: stranded wherever you pulled up A chance to pull over somewhere sensible doesn't come to everyone. Hazards going in a lay-by somewhere, or stopped on the verge on Hobbs Lane because you noticed after setting off — our technicians take that call regularly enough that it is the usual kind. Remain with the motor if it's wise to sit in it, but clear of the vehicle when it isn't. Every mile a diesel obliges you for on petrol drags the mix further into the system — and oblige it often will, which is why your engine doesn't get restarted to limp somewhere handier. Our van heading to a tricky place is no trouble for us, and it's a lot better for your car than driving on. What we will ask about is if the drive there was brief and chilly, because that is where petrol is slowest to burn correctly — and what doesn't burn can get past the piston rings and into the oil. Right up to the moment somebody takes it home, a diesel Citroen C3 standing in the parking area at the pub in the village with a tank full of petrol in it is a straightforward job. Nothing worsens as it sits, so park the vehicle overnight and ring us first thing. ## Already run it? Petrol in a diesel over a couple of miles This is where the local M5 matters, under 25 miles out of Charles Bottom. Some distance along, and onto it in the first place: a misfuelled diesel will usually do both before anything seems wrong. What you get then is seldom a neat stop. Power falls away, the idle gets lumpy, and there may be some smoke. Don't restart it to reposition. Pull off at the next safe exit and turn off. It affects what our engineers bring, so tell us when you ring: on a longer run — anything approaching the under 50 miles to the closest city — take it the contamination has been through the fuel filter, your pump and the fuel injectors. Here's the whole process. Diesel needs enough body to seal the tight tolerances it goes through, and petrol takes that away. That's it. Which explains the ordinary Nadrid Copse call — a diesel Kia Sportage, out there without a murmur and back down on power, rough at idle, possibly a bit of smoke. Injection systems work hydraulically as well as chemically, so your fuel has to hold pressure and not just burn; diluted, it bleeds past those clearances instead of building, and delivery comes weaker, later, less even than the engine was engineered around. Not a failing engine, though. Fuel that has stopped behaving like diesel. Put that right and it stops. ## About Charles Bottom Charles Bottom is a small locality in inland Devon, situated at an elevation of 201 metres, approximately 28 miles from Exeter. Charles Bottom is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Charles Bottom sits within a network of small settlements, including nearby East Buckland and Newtown. ## What follows when we get to you around Charles Bottom - Three things get established before any quote — the fuel that was put in, the quantity, and if anything has been run since. Each answer changes the work. - The tank is emptied of everything. - Fuel lines are cleaned through and your filter cleaned, leaving nothing in the system that caused any of this. - Bleeding your system follows, once clean diesel is in. - Our engineers start the engine and make sure it runs properly on clean diesel. That leaves your car ready to pull away. Our technicians do everything wherever your car has stopped, which means it never has to go to a workshop, and if it has been spotted quickly, it's very uncommon for there to be lasting damage. ## AdBlue in a diesel tank around Charles Bottom is a separate job Never crank it: that first instruction stands whether what got in was AdBlue or petrol. What differs is this issue itself. Petrol does two things to diesel: thins it, and takes away the lubrication the fuel system depends on. Urea in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that leads to corrosion and build-up. Both are ours. There is a separate Charles Bottom page for AdBlue removal, with the full story on it — including the reasons it often turns out to be the worse of the two. Clattering, a ragged idle, white smoke, a throttle gone dead. That's a misfilled diesel Mercedes B-Class telling you what is wrong. Switch off where you have stopped, by St John The Baptist or anywhere else, and don't start the car to find a better location. ## Charles Bottom costs for a petrol-in-diesel drain We can't put one number on this page frankly, since the job is not one job. What moves it: - Has it been run or driven? Nothing else matters for as much. - How much of the wrong fuel was put in, judged against how much the tank holds. - The kind of fluid in the tank, unleaded or AdBlue. - Where is it? And can our van get to it and work there sensibly? Tell us what the vehicle is, how much got in, and if the motor has run. A firm answer comes back, not a range. If it's not pressing — the car is at home and going nowhere — is fine too. That deadness is your fuel failing to build pressure correctly, not the motor failing — and with no warning for it, motors in that position generally get driven once more before anybody phones. Don't. A couple of streets is all it got: throttle gone limp, idle turned lumpy, and a diesel Land Rover Range Rover Evoque now waiting near St Peter. Turn it off and call us. ## Petrol in diesel: frequent questions around Charles Bottom ## Fuel drains on a Charles Bottom petrol station forecourt A large portion of this work happens there, so yes. Regularly, provided the site agrees: Esso, plus every other forecourt nearby. Say on the phone where exactly you have stopped. Whether our engineers can work in that location is something we answer there and then. ## How much petrol in a diesel is too much? It depends on the ratio instead of the litres, and much more on whether your motor has run. What determines how much work is required is whether that mixture has been sucked through your fuel system — because though five litres in a nearly empty tank is a separate situation from five in a full one, either way that is the query. ## I put petrol in my diesel and drove the car. What next? Stop safely. Off. Nothing after that. It is fixable a lot more regularly than motorists expect, even though driving is what moves the problem from the tank into your pump and injectors — and the single most helpful thing you can do now is not restart it. ## Will a fuel drain void my warranty? No. Carried out correctly, draining and purging is no change at all, and the warranty from your manufacturer is untouched by it. What is likelier to start a dispute is a diesel that has been run on petrol. One more good reason for the engine to stay off. ## Can I just add two-stroke oil and drive home? What petrol has diluted is not put back by two-stroke oil, which is an old remedy for a distinct issue. So no. Later? Still petrol in your tank, and a pump that has to live with the stuff. ## Main dealers and petrol in a diesel Not at all. We drain and flush your car wherever it is, so there is no need to take it to a main dealer. ## Is the vehicle still with you? The motor remains off. Already driven it? Then pull in somewhere sensible, switch off, then let the vehicle stay that way. Cold and parked, a motor is in the best position available — and drivers fear this much more than the recovery rate warrants. Throughout Devon and in Charles Bottom: call-out fuel draining, at home or on the forecourt or at the roadside.