Forton: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?

Pump-side drains for petrol in a diesel

Much of this job begins at a pump, so a big part of that gets completed on site. If you are still at the forecourt at the nearest petrol station, that is normally where this drain gets done — our technicians work on petrol station forecourts routinely, with the station's consent.

No place except a garage can this be halted with the engine still unstarted. Everywhere else — a car park, a private drive, a lay-by — the vehicle was fired up and driven to get there, which means fuel was sucked from your tank, through your filter and into your high-pressure pump. That's not a disaster, and our technicians can still sort it out where it sits. It does mean the fuel lines and your filter need rinsing as well as your tank, and that is determined by the few seconds between reading the till receipt and reaching for the keys.

Wheel the vehicle out of the way if the staff volunteer, and they usually will. The next driver gets by the petrol pump, and that's worth doing. Firing it just to shift four car lengths is not.

You head off at the end, once our technicians have fired it up and confirmed it runs smoothly on clean diesel, with the system bled. Before that, in the car park outside The Battle Of Trafalgar, the contaminated fuel comes out of your tank, the lines get rinsed and the fuel filter comes off where your Nissan Qashqai has a replaceable one. It all begins with three questions when we reach your car: what was put in, how much of it, and whether it has been started since.

Fine on the way out, flat on the way back. If that is how that drive to Forton Field went, your tank is the place to look. Petrol dilutes diesel, and runnier fuel seeps past the precision components that are meant to build injection pressure — so the farther your Audi A4 went, the less well it held that pressure. Stop somewhere safe, turn off and call us.

Three things help when you ring from near The Salvation Army - Gosport: which side the filler is on, whether a van can park beside without blocking the road, and if your engine has run since you filled up. On-street is the commonest location our engineers work, so the place itself is hardly ever the trouble — we'd much rather deal with a tight parking spot than with a vehicle that has been driven to somewhere more handy. We will drain your Dacia Duster, change the filter where there is a workable one, flush the lines and put clean fuel through the entire system, since by this point the worst of it is resting in the fuel lines rather than in the tank.

Petrol in a diesel does its damage as a proportion, which is the reason our engineers ask at all: the same few litres waiting in an almost empty tank make a far stronger mixture than they would in a full one. And petrol is rated on how well it withstands igniting under pressure — the opposite of what a diesel needs — so a stronger blend rattles more, smokes more, goes flatter. None of which means you need an answer prepared. Nearly no one knows how full that tank was in a car collected two days ago, and our technicians work that out on site. Do phone the hire or company firm first, though: some contracts want them to authorise the work, and that's far quicker settled before than after. Then call us about the Mercedes E-Class close to St John the Evangelist.

Purged, not cleared — that is what a diesel Citroen C3 which got as far as Gosport Spiritualist Church needs. Running a diesel puts that blend into the filter, your lines, the pump and its rail, none of which empties with the tank, so by now the tank holds the smaller part of the problem.

A little about Forton

Forton is a suburban area located on the coast of Hampshire, near the city of Portsmouth. Forton sits at a low elevation of around 3 metres, and its proximity to the sea has influenced its development. Forton is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects its history of growth as a residential area. Forton is situated close to other nearby places, including Camdentown, Newtown, and Anns Hill.

Forton pricing for a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain

What moves the price is set out below, since the job isn't one job and we can't truthfully put a single price on this page.

• Has it been started or driven? Nothing else matters for as much.
• How much of the wrong fuel was put in, set against how much that tank takes.
• Whether it's unleaded or AdBlue.
• Where is it? And can a van get to it and work there safely?

The vehicle, the quantity, whether it has run — give us those and the answer comes back clear instead of as a range. Motor at home, going nowhere, nothing pressing about it — is fine for that.

How much petrol is too much for a diesel?

Proportion settles it instead of litres — and more than either, whether your motor has run. Five litres into an almost dry tank is not five into a full one, no. But both land on the same query in the end: has that mixture been sucked right through, or has it not?

My warranty — does a fuel drain void it?

It is not an alteration, so a drain and flush carried out properly does not invalidate a manufacturer's warranty. Running a diesel on petrol is the thing likelier to cause a disagreement with one, which is another reason to leave the vehicle turned off.