Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in Maxton? Don't Start It

Quarter past eight, a rushed fill on the way in, and the penny drops somewhere around eleven — by that point your diesel Renault Megane has been left outside Dover Priory for three hours. Phone us then leave the car exactly where it sits. The trip in is the bit that counts now, since diesel does two tasks on its way through the engine: it ignites, and before it combusts it protects the injection pump and the injectors. Petrol does the first and not the second. So those couple of miles were done with your pump running on a fluid that had given up a lot of the protection it is built around — which is why the thing our engineers ask is how many miles you drove, not how long the vehicle has been sitting.

We'll head your way, drain the tank, rinse those fuel lines and put new diesel in so you can get home. So if petrol went into your diesel Volkswagen Passat around Maxton and you are sat outside ATM (West Street Premier) with a boot full of shopping, call us — and do not crank it a second time to get out of that space. A mile or so at gentle throttle draws little diesel, which is why such jobs tend to be the simple cases.

Nothing tells you, as from behind the wheel there is nothing to be warned about. Your diesel Skoda Octavia will have felt entirely usual on the way back from St Martin's School, and they all do — which is the trap with petrol in a diesel instead of the reverse. Diesel in a petrol vehicle mostly refuses to run, stopping the driver and stopping the harm with them. Petrol in a diesel fires up, ticks over, moves off as though nothing had happened, and all the while the pump works without the lubrication its fuel is supposed to supply. Tell us approximately how far, and how hard. The harder matters more.

Three answers settle most of the work: what was put in, approximately how much, and whether the motor has run since. We ask for those answers when we get to your car in the car park outside Crown & Sceptre. Next the polluted mix comes out of your tank, the lines are cleaned, and where your Nissan Qashqai has a serviceable filter, it comes off. After clean diesel is in and the fuel system bled, we start the engine and confirm it runs smoothly before you pull away.

Draining your Mercedes C-Class, changing your filter where there's a serviceable one, rinsing the lines, putting clean fuel through the full circuit: that is the job, and it's shaped by the worst of that waiting in the lines rather than in the tank by this point. Three things help when you ring from near St Martin's Church — which side the filler is on, whether a technician can stand beside without blocking the road, and whether the engine has run since you filled up. On-street is the commonest place we work, so the place itself is seldom the problem. A tight parking bay is better than a vehicle driven somewhere more handy.

Maxton: stranded where you pulled up

Not everyone has a suitable spot to stop. If you worked it out after setting off and finished up along the verge of Manor Road, or in a lay-by somewhere with the hazard lights on, that's a common call for us instead of an unusual one.

Fine right there? Sit beside it. Not safe? Get out and away from it. Don't start up your motor to nurse the car somewhere safer — a diesel running on petrol will often oblige, and every mile it obliges for is drawing that mixture further into the system. A technician heading to an inconvenient place is no trouble for us, and it's a lot better for the car than driving on.

Maxton itself

Maxton is a suburban area situated on the coast of Kent, with an elevation of 37 metres above sea level. Maxton lies approximately 14 miles from Canterbury and 67 miles from London, making it a commuter hub for those working in the nearby cities. Maxton is surrounded by other suburban areas, including Elms Vale, Aycliff, and Farthingloe, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Maxton has a population of around 5043 residents, according to recent estimates.

How much is a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain in Maxton?

What moves the price is listed below, since this job is not one job and we can't truthfully put a single number on this page.

• Started? Driven? Either answer matters more than anything else on this list.
• The tank's capacity, set against how much of the wrong fuel got into it.
• Whether it was unleaded or AdBlue.
• Whether a technician can safely get to the car and work on it, which hinges on where the vehicle is.

Tell us your vehicle, the amount and if it has run, and you'll get a straight answer instead of a range. Not time-critical, with the vehicle at home and going nowhere? Then works.

A couple of litres of petrol in a diesel — too much?

Litres are not the measure. Ratio is, and much more than either, it counts whether anything has been run. An almost empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: different situations, certainly. Either way, the work needed comes down to one thing, which is whether your fuel system has had that mixture pulled through it.

Is a fuel drain going to void my warranty?

No. Carried out properly, clearing and rinsing is no alteration at all, and the warranty from your manufacturer is unaffected by it. An argument over a warranty is likelier to come from running a diesel on petrol — so leave it switched off.