What Happens Now: Petrol in a Diesel Car in Highfurlong
Not for a moment, and not to move it: the engine stays off. Stop there. The next few minutes determine it far more than anything else: petrol in a diesel still unrun generally amounts to emptying and purging, on the spot. Below is the order from here, wherever in Highfurlong you happen to be.
Motor off: minute one with petrol in a diesel
Go through these in sequence, before you do anything else.
- Priming the fuel system pulls petrol from the tank towards the components it harms, and switching the ignition on can be enough to do that. So your keys get taken out, and the ignition stays off altogether.
- Do not top it up with diesel. Adding diesel removes nothing. You are left with a bigger tank of the same mixture.
- Make the vehicle easy to see first — hazards on — if there's traffic going past anywhere close to you.
- By hand, never under the motor: that is how it comes off the petrol pump. Ask the forecourt attendants to help you roll, whatever the miles.
- Hold on to the till receipt: the grade and roughly how much are printed on it, and they are what our engineers ask for first.
On the M55, under 5 miles from Highfurlong, the next exit is the spot to come off; elsewhere, the first sensible place to stop. Don't press on to the services. Then go back to step one.
Has it run yet? The fork in every Highfurlong fuel drain
From this stage on, everything hinges on a single answer.
Motor not run at all?
- That petrol is still inside the tank and nowhere else.
- Usually it's drained and cleaned just where your car is.
- Step one counts for precisely this reason: it's the best spot to be in.
If the engine has run, even for a moment:
- Some petrol has left the tank by now, passed through the filter, and reached the fuel lines.
- On a longer run it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
- Lines flushed, your filter sorted, occasionally more: the job expands as the mileage does.
Petrol does not lubricate. Diesel does, protecting your high-pressure pump and injectors as it passes through, which is why the line sits where it does. A tank of petrol, left alone, hurts nothing. Move the petrol, though, and it wears the very parts doing the moving.
Calling about petrol in a diesel from Highfurlong: what to have ready
Whether the technician goes round or finds you comes down to a little preparation.
- The ideal start is a postcode — one starting FY3 7 — for where you have stopped.
- A road name is a help: Blackpool Old Road, say, or whatever street you have stopped in. A car park works too.
- Car parks are found more easily by what they serve: say the one at Aldi, and it is straightforward.
- Make and model of the car, and the fact it's a diesel.
- Petrol or AdBlue? Say which. They are different jobs, and AdBlue has a separate Highfurlong page.
- Roughly how much — in litres from the receipt, or by how long the nozzle was in.
- Has it run? If so, say how far it went, and the way it was driven.
- The owner may have to authorise this work under some hire or company agreements — which is why it is quicker to settle whose vehicle it is before we get there.
Next, 0333 366 0103. Not time-critical, the car parked at home with nowhere to be? Then works as well.
The wait for a Highfurlong fuel drain, and what to do in it
Help, however well meant, is what does the harm while you wait. So hold to these.
- Safety before your car. If it has stopped somewhere unsafe, get yourself clear of the traffic then wait away from it. If it is safe where it stands, stay with it.
- No one — however helpful — starts it, whether to see if it runs or to shift your car a short way.
- None of it takes the petrol back out — not two-stroke oil, not injector cleaner, not anything from your boot. So no additives.
- Siphoning petrol into a can by the kerbside is dangerous — and it still leaves whatever fuel has already gone beyond the tank. Don't try a home-made drain.
- Ignition stays off. Even for your radio or your windows.
Van arrived? The fuel drain, one stage at a time
- The price comes after three questions, not before them — what was put in, how much, and if it has run — because those answers set the job.
- Then that tank is emptied, and the tainted fuel is taken out.
- Petrol that has moved beyond your tank travels in the fuel lines once it ran, and the lines are purged to shift it.
- Then the fuel filter: swapped where there's a serviceable one, cleared where there is not.
- Clean diesel goes in, and the system is primed.
- First start on new diesel. When bleeding is done, your engine is fired up and we confirm that it runs correctly.
Till it runs on fresh diesel, our engineers stay with it. Long-term damage is very unusual if it has been caught early, so your car can go straight back to normal driving.
After your fuel drain: back on the road in Highfurlong
- After it's been started on clean fuel, there's nothing special to do: drive normally.
- Give the first miles your attention. Smoke showing, a warning light coming on, the idle going lumpy or the throttle hesitating: pull over and call us back.
- An insurer, a fleet manager or a hire company may ask what was carried out, so keep your documents.
- Next time, check the petrol pump. The label, not the colour of the handle.
About Highfurlong, briefly
Highfurlong is a suburban area located on the coast of Lancashire, with an elevation of 22 metres above sea level. Highfurlong sits near the communities of Little Carleton, Hoohill, and Warbreck, and is approximately 14 miles from Preston. Highfurlong has a population of around 3702 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Highfurlong is also situated about 201 miles northwest of London.
Fuel drains around Highfurlong and beyond
Petrol in diesel call-outs around Highfurlong and in Little Carleton, Hoohill or Warbreck all reach the same vans, which cover most of Lancashire too. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're somewhere hard to describe or near a boundary.
Petrol in a diesel anywhere across Lancashire? Off, then ring
Motor off. Keys out. Receipt in your pocket. That's the whole of stage one, and Petrol in Diesel takes it from there — by the kerbside, on the forecourt or on your drive.