What Happens Now: Petrol in a Diesel Car in Griffins Hill
Stop. Engine off. Keep the vehicle like that — no moment on, no shifting it anywhere. Emptied then cleaned, right where it sits: that's normally all an unrun diesel with petrol in it needs. Whether it stays that simple rests on the minutes to come far more than on anything else. From now on, step by step, for anywhere in Griffins Hill:
Motor off: minute one with petrol in a diesel
Work through these first, in this order.
- Pull your keys out. Even your ignition on its own can prime the system, drawing petrol out of your tank to precisely the components it damages, so leave the car alone entirely.
- A fuller tank of the same mix is all adding diesel gives you, since it takes out nothing. So no more diesel.
- Visibility comes first near moving traffic: put your hazards on, and only then think about anything else.
- By hand, not under the engine: that is how it leaves the petrol pump. Get the forecourt staff to help you roll, whatever the distance.
- Hold on to the receipt: the grade and roughly how much are written on it, and they are what our technicians ask about first.
Still on the move when you noticed? Come off the Frankley Services Southbound at the next junction if that is where you are, under 3 miles from Griffins Hill, and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on to the services. Then begin at stage one.
The fork in every Griffins Hill fuel drain: has it run yet?
Everything after this stage rests on one answer.
If your engine has not run at all:
- The petrol sits in the tank, and only there.
- Usually it is emptied and rinsed right where the vehicle stands.
- No spot is better, and it is why the first step counts so much.
If the engine has run, even briefly:
- From your tank, past the fuel filter, into your lines: that is how far that petrol has travelled.
- On a longer run it has reached the high-pressure pump as well as the fuel injectors.
- The farther it went, the larger this job — the lines, the fuel filter, and sometimes more besides.
Diesel keeps the high-pressure pump and your injectors protected as it goes through them. Petrol offers them nothing, and that is why the line is drawn there. Nothing is damaged by petrol that's just resting in a tank. Once it is pumped, petrol begins wearing whatever moves it.
Before you call about petrol in a diesel in Griffins Hill: what our engineers need
A little planning is the difference between a van that finds you and a van that circles.
- The ideal start is a postcode — one starting B30 1 — for where you are.
- A road name helps: Bournville Lane, say, or whatever street you have stopped in. A car park does the trick too.
- Describe a car park by what it serves — the one at The Food Warehouse, for example — and it is far easier to find.
- The vehicle. Make, model, plus that it is a diesel.
- Tell us which went in — petrol or AdBlue — since AdBlue is a separate job, with a page of its own for Griffins Hill.
- The amount: the receipt's litres, or else how long you had the nozzle in.
- If it's run, how far plus how heavily — as well as if it has run at all.
- Whose vehicle it is. Some hire and company contracts want the owner to approve this work, and that's quicker settled before our engineers arrive than after.
Phone 0333 366 0103 then. Email works too if it can wait, with the vehicle parked at home, going nowhere.
Griffins Hill fuel drain on its way? Whilst you wait
Stick to these: kindly meant help does the damage during the wait.
- Stay with the vehicle if it is safe where it is — but if it has stopped somewhere unsafe, you come first: away from the traffic, waiting apart from it.
- Not to roll it a couple of yards, not to check it is all right, not as a passer-by's kindness: no one starts it.
- None of it gets that petrol back out — not two-stroke oil, not injector cleaner, not something from the boot. So no additives.
- A DIY drain misses the fuel that has already gone beyond that tank, and siphoning petrol by the road is risky besides.
- Even the radio or the windows are not worth turning the ignition on for.
When our van gets there: the fuel drain, step by step
- Fuel, quantity, whether it has run: those replies decide this job, and that's why we give a price after them instead of before.
- Your tank is cleared. The polluted blend comes out of that tank.
- Petrol that has shifted beyond the tank sits in the lines if it ran, and the fuel lines are rinsed to clear it.
- Where your car has a workable filter, it's swapped; otherwise, cleared.
- Clean diesel goes in, and the fuel system is primed.
- Our technicians fire it up only after clean diesel has gone in and bled the system, then check that it's running properly.
We wait until it's running on clean diesel. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it has been noticed quickly, so the vehicle can go right back to normal use.
Back on the road around Griffins Hill after your fuel drain
- Nothing unusual is needed after a start with clean diesel — normal driving will do.
- Pull over and ring us back if anything seems wrong early on — a light on your dash, smoke from your exhaust, an idle that runs rough, or a throttle with a dead spot.
- Keep your documents. A hire company, a fleet manager or an insurer may ask what was carried out.
- Read the label on the petrol pump next time, not the colour of the handle.
About Griffins Hill and where it is
Griffins Hill is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city of Birmingham. Griffins Hill has a relatively low elevation of 138 metres and is located approximately 4 miles from Birmingham city centre. Griffins Hill is characterised by a high proportion of flat dwellings and is near to other suburban areas such as Selly Oak and Bournville.
Fuel drains round Griffins Hill and beyond
Petrol in diesel call-outs in Griffins Hill and in Selly Oak, Bournville or Lodge Hill all go to the same teams, which cover most of West Midlands as well. If you are close to a border or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask and not guessing.
Ring, and leave it off — petrol in a diesel across West Midlands
Step one is the whole of that: motor off, keys out, receipt in your pocket. From there Petrol in Diesel carries on, at the forecourt, by the kerbside or on your drive.