What Happens Now: Petrol in a Diesel Car in Highfields
Whatever you do, don't switch the motor on, even for a moment, to shift the car. Pause; leave the vehicle off. The next few minutes decide it more than anything else: petrol in a diesel still unrun normally comes down to draining and flushing, right there. From here on, step by step, for anywhere around Highfields:
Minute one: petrol in a diesel, motor off
First, these — following this order.
- Bleeding the system draws petrol from your tank toward the parts it harms, and switching the ignition on can be all it takes to do that. So the keys get taken out, and the ignition stays off completely.
- Do not top it up with diesel. Adding diesel removes nothing. You are left with a fuller tank of the same mix.
- Make the car easy to see before anything else — hazards on — if there is traffic going past anywhere near you.
- The attendants will normally help you roll it clear of the petrol pump. Let them, then roll it by hand — never under the engine, even for a few yards.
- Keep the till receipt: the grade and roughly how much are written on it, and they're what our engineers ask about first.
On the M5, under 3 miles from Highfields, the next exit is the spot to come off; anywhere, the first sensible place to stop. Don't push on to the services. Then go back to stage one.
Highfields fuel drain: has the motor run yet, or not?
What comes after this rests on one answer, and just one.
If your motor hasn't run at all:
- The petrol is still inside that tank and nowhere else.
- A drain and flush, on the spot, is normally the whole job.
- Stage one matters for exactly this reason: it's the best position to be in.
If it's been started, even for a moment:
- Petrol has been pulled out of that tank, through the fuel filter and into your lines.
- A bigger run carries it all the way to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
- Flushing the lines, the fuel filter seen to, and sometimes more: the job grows as the miles does.
The reason the line falls there: diesel protects the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors as it flows through them, and petrol doesn't. Petrol resting in a tank harms nothing. Pump that petrol, though, and it grinds down the very parts that move it.
Calling about petrol in a diesel from Highfields: what to have ready
Prepare a little, and the van finds you instead of circling.
- GL11 4 and the rest of the postcode makes the best way to start telling us where you are.
- Wherever you have parked, the road's name is useful — whether that's Highfields Approach or somewhere else — and so does the name of a car park.
- Or the nearest landmark. A car park is quicker to find by what it serves, such as the one at Sainsbury's.
- That it's a diesel, plus the make and model of your vehicle.
- Say which was put in — petrol or AdBlue — because AdBlue is a separate job, with a page of its own for Highfields.
- How much. Litres from the receipt, or how long the nozzle was in.
- The mileage it did, and how hard, if it has run at all.
- Whose vehicle it is. Some hire and company contracts want the owner to authorise this work, and that's quicker settled before our engineers turn up than after.
Ring 0333 366 0103 next. Writing to is fine too if it can wait, with the vehicle left at home, going nowhere.
Highfields fuel drain on its way? Whilst you wait
The wait is where well-meant help does the harm. Hold to these.
- Your safety comes before the car. Somewhere dangerous? Get away from the traffic then wait away from it. Fine where it is? Stay with it.
- Not to roll it a couple of yards, not to check it is all right, not for a passer-by's kindness: no one starts it.
- Additives remain in the boot. Injector cleaner and two-stroke oil draw none of that petrol out a second time.
- No DIY draining. Siphoning petrol into a can at the roadside is hazardous, and it leaves the fuel that has by now gone beyond your tank.
- Keep your ignition off — your windows and the radio included.
Van arrived? The fuel drain, one stage at a time
- Three questions. What went in, how much, and whether it has run. Those answers set the job, which is why our price comes after them and not before.
- Your tank is drained. The contaminated blend comes out of your tank.
- If it ran, your lines are carrying petrol that has shifted beyond that tank — so they're cleaned.
- Where your car has a workable filter, it is changed; otherwise, cleared.
- Fresh diesel goes in, and the system is primed.
- We start it only after fresh diesel has gone in and bled the fuel system, then check that it is running smoothly.
Our engineers stay until it's running on fresh diesel. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it has been noticed early, so your car can go right back to normal driving.
Highfields, after your fuel drain: back on the road
- Nothing unusual is needed after a start with clean diesel — ordinary driving will do.
- Pull over and ring us back if anything looks wrong early on — a light on your dash, smoke from your exhaust, an idle that runs rough, or a throttle with a dead spot.
- An insurer, a fleet manager or a hire company may ask what was carried out, so hold on to the paperwork.
- Check the label on the pump next time, not the colour of its handle.
About Highfields
Highfields is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated near the River Severn at an elevation of around 69 metres. Highfields lies within commuting distance of Gloucester, approximately 13.5 miles away, and is also within reach of nearby places such as Woodmancote and The Rangers. Highfields has a population of around 4699 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Highfields is located in the South West region, about 95.9 miles west of London.
Fuel drains across Highfields and nearby
The same teams that take petrol in diesel call-outs in Highfields cover Woodmancote, The Rangers and Townsend, and most of Gloucestershire beyond them. If you're close to a border or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Leave it off and ring: petrol in a diesel around Gloucestershire
Keys out, motor off, the receipt in your pocket: that is step one done. The remainder is for Petrol in Diesel, wherever your car is — forecourt, roadside or driveway.