What Happens Now: Petrol in a Diesel Car in Godalming
Not for a moment, and not to move it: your motor stays off. Stop there. Hasn't been run? Then petrol in a diesel will usually be a straightforward drain-and-flush job wherever your vehicle has stopped — and no other factor settles that as much as the next few minutes do. What follows is the sequence from this point, wherever around Godalming you happen to be.
Engine off: minute one with petrol in a diesel
Go through the following in order, before you do anything else.
- The ignition off, keys out. Turned on, the ignition can prime the system — and priming is what draws petrol out of the tank towards the components it harms.
- Do not top it up with diesel. Adding diesel takes out nothing. You are left with a fuller tank of the same mixture.
- Hazards on. If you're at all near moving traffic, make your car easy to see before you do anything else.
- By hand, not on the motor: that's how it leaves the petrol pump. Get the forecourt attendants to help you push, whatever the distance.
- Hold on to the till receipt: the grade and roughly how much are written on it, and they are what we ask for first.
On the M3, under 15 miles from Godalming, the next exit is the place to come off; anywhere, the first safe spot to stop. Don't press on to the services. Then go back to stage one.
Each Godalming fuel drain starts here: has the engine run?
What happens after this rests on one answer, and only one.
Motor never run at all?
- The petrol remains in your tank, and only there.
- A drain and flush, on the spot, is usually the whole job.
- Stage one counts for precisely this reason: it is the best position to be in.
If your motor has run, even briefly:
- Petrol has been drawn out of your tank, through the fuel filter and into your lines.
- A longer run takes it all the way to your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
- Lines flushed, your filter seen to, occasionally more: this job expands as the distance does.
Diesel keeps the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors oiled as it goes through them. Petrol offers them nothing, and that is why the line is drawn there. Petrol sitting in a tank damages nothing. Move the petrol, though, and it wears the very parts doing the moving.
What to have prepared when you call about petrol in a diesel from Godalming
A little preparation is the difference between a van that finds you and a van that circles.
- The best start is a postcode — one starting GU7 1 — for where you are.
- Wherever you have parked, the road's name is useful — whether that's High Street or somewhere else — and so does the name of a car park.
- Or the nearest landmark. A car park is easier to find by what it serves, such as the one at Waitrose.
- Say what the car is — make, model — and confirm it is diesel.
- Say which was put in — petrol or AdBlue — because AdBlue is a different job, with a page of its own for Godalming.
- How much. Litres from your receipt, or how long the nozzle was in.
- If it's run, how far and how hard — and if it has 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.
Then call 0333 366 0103. If it can wait — the car is at home with going nowhere — works too.
Waiting for a fuel drain around Godalming: what to do
During the wait, the damage comes from well-meant help — which is why these matter.
- Stay with your 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.
- No one starts it. Not a passer-by being helpful, not to check it is all right, not to roll the vehicle a couple of yards.
- None of it takes the petrol back out — not two-stroke oil, not injector cleaner, not anything from the boot. So no additives.
- No home-made draining. Siphoning petrol into a can by the kerbside is hazardous, and it leaves the fuel that has already gone beyond that tank.
- Not for your radio, not for the windows: the ignition remains off.
Step by step: the fuel drain when the van gets there
- Our quote comes after three questions, not before them — what went in, how much, and if it's run — since the replies decide the job.
- Next the tank is emptied, so the polluted fuel is taken out.
- The lines are rinsed. If it ran, that petrol has shifted beyond your tank, and the fuel lines are carrying it.
- Your filter is seen to. Cleared, or replaced where the car has a workable one.
- Your system is primed with clean diesel.
- Our engineers fire it up only after new diesel has gone in and bled the fuel system, then make sure that it is running correctly.
Until it runs on clean diesel, our technicians remain with it. Your car returns to normal use at once, and lasting damage is very rare if it has been noticed early.
Godalming, after your fuel drain: back on the road
- Drive normally. There's nothing unusual to do once it's been started on fresh fuel.
- Pull over and ring us back if anything looks wrong early on — a light on the dash, smoke from your exhaust, an idle that is lumpy, or a throttle with a dead spot.
- An insurer, a fleet manager or a hire company may ask what was carried out, and so hold on to the paperwork.
- Next time, trust the petrol pump's label instead of the colour of its handle.
About Godalming and where it is
Godalming is a town situated on the banks of the River Wey in Surrey, with a mix of old and new buildings reflecting its long history. Godalming sits at an elevation of around 48 metres, in a valley setting that has made it an attractive place to live. Godalming has a range of nearby neighbourhoods, including Crownpits, Westbrook, and Holloway Hill, and is located approximately 30 miles south-west of London. Godalming is predominantly composed of detached housing, which is typical of many towns in the South East of England.
Fuel drains around Godalming and the spots nearby
The same vans that take petrol in diesel call-outs around Godalming serve Crownpits, Westbrook and Holloway Hill, and most of Surrey beyond them. Somewhere tricky to explain, or close to a boundary? Asking is better than assuming — ring.
Petrol in a diesel anywhere around Surrey? Off, then ring
Engine off. Keys out. Receipt in your pocket. That's the whole of stage one, and Petrol in Diesel carries on from there — at the kerbside, at the forecourt or on your driveway.