Lower Wear: Petrol in a Diesel Car? Here Is What Happens
Whatever you do, never switch the engine on, even briefly, to move the car. Stop; leave it off. Emptied and rinsed, just where it sits: that's generally all an unrun diesel with petrol in it needs. Whether it stays that straightforward depends on the minutes to come more than on everything else. Anywhere you are around Lower Wear, this is the order things run from now.
Petrol in a diesel? What to do in minute one
First, these — in this order.
- Priming the fuel system pulls petrol from your tank towards the components it harms, and switching your ignition on can be all it takes to do that. So the keys get taken out, and your ignition stays off completely.
- Do not top it up with diesel. Adding diesel takes out nothing. You are left with a fuller tank of the same mix.
- Get the vehicle easy to see first — hazards on — if there is moving traffic anywhere near you.
- By hand, never under the engine: that is how it comes off the petrol pump. Get the forecourt staff to help you push, whatever the mileage.
- Keep the receipt: the fuel and roughly how much are printed on it, and they're what our engineers ask about first.
On the M5, under a mile from Lower Wear, the next exit is the location to leave it; elsewhere, the first safe spot to stop. Don't push on to the services. Then go back to stage one.
Has it run yet? The fork in every Lower Wear fuel drain
Everything after this point depends on one answer.
Not run, not even briefly:
- Nowhere but your tank: that is where that petrol still is.
- Normally it is emptied and cleaned just where the vehicle is.
- This is the best case — which is the entire point of stage one.
If it's been started, even for a second:
- Some petrol has left that tank by now, gone through your filter, and reached the fuel lines.
- On a bigger run it has got to your high-pressure pump as well as the injectors.
- Lines flushed, the fuel filter sorted, occasionally more: the job expands as the miles does.
The reason the line falls there: diesel protects your high-pressure pump as well as the injectors as it passes through them, and petrol doesn't. A tank of petrol, left alone, damages nothing. Petrol being pumped is grinding down the components that shift the car.
Calling about petrol in a diesel from Lower Wear: what to have prepared
Prepare a little, and the technician finds you instead of circling.
- Your location: a postcode beginning EX2 7 serves best.
- Wherever you have parked, the road's name is useful — whether that is Lower Wear Road 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 outside Aldi.
- Tell us what your vehicle is — make, model — and confirm it's diesel.
- What was put in. Petrol, or AdBlue. AdBlue is a different job with its own page for Lower Wear, so say which.
- The amount: your receipt's litres, or else how long you had the nozzle in.
- Whether it has run. Then if it has, how far and how hard.
- Sort who owns your car ahead of when our technicians turn up: some hire or company agreements want the owner to approve this work, and that is faster first.
Then phone 0333 366 0103. If it can wait — your car is at home with going nowhere — does the trick as well.
Lower Wear fuel drain on its way? While you wait
Stick to these: well-meant help does the damage during the wait.
- Your safety comes before the car. Somewhere dangerous? Get clear of the traffic then wait away from it. Fine where it sits? Stay with it.
- A kind passer-by doesn't fire it up. Nor does anybody checking it still works, or rolling it 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.
- Draining it yourself is out: a can of siphoned petrol on a verge is a danger, and your fuel beyond your tank remains where it is all the same.
- Not for the radio, not for your windows: the ignition stays off.
The fuel drain, step by step, once the van arrives
- Three queries. What was put in, how much, and if it has run. The replies decide this job, which is why the price comes after them but not before.
- Emptying it's how the mixture gets taken from the tank.
- The lines are purged. If it ran, the petrol has shifted beyond your tank, and your lines are holding it.
- Cleared, or changed if the vehicle has a serviceable one: your filter is seen to next.
- Fresh diesel in, and your system primed.
- Our technicians fire it up only after new diesel has gone in and primed your system, then confirm that it's running smoothly.
Our technicians remain until it's running on new diesel. It's very uncommon for a vehicle caught quickly to be left with permanent damage, and normal driving starts again at once.
Lower Wear, after your fuel drain: back on the road
- Drive normally. There is nothing unusual to do once it has been started on clean fuel.
- Pull over and ring us back if anything seems wrong early on — a light on the dash, smoke from the exhaust, an idle that is lumpy, or a throttle with a dead spot.
- Your paperwork covers the question a rental company, fleet manager or insurer may ask: what work was carried out. File it.
- Read the label on the petrol pump next time, not the colour of the handle.
About Lower Wear itself
Lower Wear is a coastal locality in Devon, situated near the city of Exeter and close to the neighbouring areas of Countess Wear and Exminster. Lower Wear lies at a low elevation of around 7 metres, reflecting its proximity to the sea. Lower Wear has a population of approximately 1470 people, residing primarily in semi-detached housing.
Lower Wear and nearby: fuel drains across the area
Countess Wear, Exminster and St Loyes are covered by the same teams that take petrol in diesel jobs in Lower Wear — and so is most of Devon beyond. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're somewhere hard to explain or close to a border.
Leave it off and ring: petrol in a diesel around Devon
Motor 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, on the forecourt or on your driveway.