North Town: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
With your tank still holding the petrol and your engine not yet run, almost every job needs only a drain, so keep your engine off. That outcome is settled in the minutes immediately after the fill-up, rather than by the amount that was put in. Across North Town and the remainder of Berkshire, Petrol in Diesel drains your car and flushes it where it is, whether at a roadside, on a driveway or at a forecourt. Call us before everything else happens, and you'll see what follows after that.
The next five minutes: petrol in a diesel
- Never fire it up. Fired up anyway? Then do not depend on it. Diesel in a petrol vehicle typically won't run, so the motorist stops and the damage ends with them. Petrol in a diesel? It starts. It ticks over. It drives off fine, for a few miles. Most people get that confused. It is not all right — that fuel system is wearing every mile you cover.
- Flicking the car's ignition on commonly primes that system, and priming is what draws petrol out of that tank then into the pump and injectors. Those are the parts diesel keeps lubricated on its way through, before it burns. Petrol manages the burning and none of the oiling. Leave the ignition alone.
- Don't dilute it. Diesel put on top gets rid of nothing, and so all you have is more of what was already there, because percentage is not how a diesel fuel system accepts petrol. Super unleaded? Still petrol. The type makes no difference.
- We'd much rather get to an odd place than have it started — so if you safely can, stay put. Nothing is simpler to deal with than a car that hasn't shifted. On the verge on School Lane, that means hazards on and keep it.
- Get your whereabouts prepared before you dial. A postcode beginning SL6 7 and whatever is next to you with a label on it is the difference between our van showing up and a van circling.
- What was put in, about how much, plus if the car has fired — those three answers settle the full job. Dial 0333 366 0103 then tell us.
Clearing petrol from the diesel at a forecourt
Plenty of the job starts at a pump, so a large part of it ends up finished on site. If you are still on the forecourt at BP, that is generally where this drain gets done — we operate on petrol station forecourts regularly, with the station's permission.
Before your motor has run — a garage is the single location the mistake ends up stopped. The few seconds between checking the till receipt and reaching for the key determine how much needs cleaning. Anywhere other than the forecourt — a car park, a driveway, a lay-by — the vehicle was started and moved to get there, so fuel was sucked from the tank, through your filter and into the high-pressure fuel pump. That means the fuel lines and the filter require cleaning as well as the tank. It is not a calamity, and our technicians can still deal with it where your car is.
Staff will usually help out pushing it out from the petrol pump, which lets the next motorist get by. Take the offer. Cranking it just to shift four vehicle lengths is not.
The complicated part is the bay, not the fuel. Vehicles either side of you, a trolley shelter behind, and occasionally a height bar on the way in that decides whether a technician can reach you at all — so when you ring from a car park like the one outside Italian Continental Stores, say how much space there is round you and which way round the vehicle is. Those our engineers cover frequently. Should there be no space to work beside your diesel Renault Megane, it gets rolled with your engine off, and not out of pedantry over a few seconds of running: priming happens at every start, more of that mixture departs the tank for the pump, and two shunts into a roomier spot have gradually made a worse job of what was just a motor sitting still.
Three answers determine much of the work: what got in, about how much, and whether the motor has run since. We ask for those answers as soon as we arrive at the vehicle in the car park by Craufurd Arms. After that the contaminated blend comes out of that tank, your lines are cleaned, and where your Peugeot 308 has a replaceable filter, it comes off. After clean diesel is in and the fuel system bled, we start the car and confirm it runs properly before you set off.
None of that is the motor failing. That is the part worth hearing, and it is why the normal N Maidenhead CC call ends better than it sounds: a diesel Nissan Qashqai drives out there without fuss, comes back with the power gone, your idle rough and possibly a little smoke, and the cause is the fuel no longer acting like diesel. Diesel has to be viscous enough to seal the close-fitting components it passes through; petrol dilutes it; and a diesel injection system is hydraulic as much as chemical, needing the fuel to hold pressure rather than only to burn. So pressure that should build then stay built leaks past clearances, delivery shows up weaker and later and less even than built, and all of that stops once your fuel is put right.
Leave the Audi A3 close to St Piran's sports hall and phone us. We are firm about not driving on because a worn pump sheds, and what it loses passes onward with the fuel to the fuel injectors beyond it.
Hire car or company car? Ring them before you ring us — some contracts want the hire firm to approve the work, and sorting that out first is a great deal quicker than sorting it later on. Then phone us about the Citroen C3 near St Luke's Church, and do not worry that you cannot say how full the tank was. Almost no one can, in a car they collected two days ago, and we work it out on site. The reason our engineers ask is that petrol in a diesel does its harm as a share: the same few litres in an almost empty tank is a far stronger mixture than in a full one. Petrol is rated on how well it resists igniting under pressure, which is the opposite of what a diesel needs — so the stronger that mix, the more it rattles, smokes and goes flat.
Places our team cover near North Town
North Town is a residential suburb, and we head out to it and to anywhere around it on those same rounds: Furze Platt, Maidenhead, Boyn Hill, Highway and Maidenhead Court.
If yours isn't on that list it does not mean we don't come — there are dedicated pages for most locations across Berkshire, and the ones listed above are just the closest neighbours. Presuming is the thing to resist, particularly on the border or anywhere your satnav fails. Ring us and ask.
Use our map for the ground covered here. Our technicians work at the roadside, at forecourts, on driveways and in car parks across all of it, and your car never needs to move to us.
Broken down at the kerbside around North Town
Not everybody has a safe place to pull in. A routine call for us instead of an odd one: realised after setting off, finished up along the verge of Cookham Road or in a lay-by with your hazards going.
Sit with the car if it is sensible to sit inside, but clear of it when it is not. It will usually oblige. A diesel running on petrol limps along very willingly, and that's the trouble: restart the car to get to somewhere safer and that mix goes further into the system with every mile covered. However awkward the spot, it is no trouble for us to come to it, and that's much better for the vehicle than pressing on.
So you've driven it? Petrol in a diesel over some miles
under 3 miles out of North Town, the A404(M) is what matters here. It will usually take you onto it, and some way along, before you spot a thing. Then it is smoke, a rough idle and power ebbing away — not a neat stop. Misfilled diesels rarely give you one of those.
Take the next junction that's sensible, stop there, and don't restart the vehicle to move it. On a longer trip — anything approaching the under 25 miles to the closest city — assume the contamination has been through the fuel filter, your pump and the injectors, and tell us when you call. It alters what we bring.
Where is North Town?
North Town is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Berkshire, with an elevation of around 30 metres. North Town lies near the confluence of the Thames and its tributaries, close to nearby places such as Furze Platt and Maidenhead. North Town is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential development of the South East region. North Town is also within commuting distance of London, approximately 25.7 miles away, and the nearest city of St Albans, about 22.4 miles away.
Once our technicians reach you around North Town: what we do
- Our engineers find out what was put in, how much, and if the motor has run. The answers change the work, which is why our engineers ask before giving a price.
- Out comes the tainted mixture.
- Lines cleaned, filter cleaned. Whatever is left later on isn't the thing that started the trouble.
- Clean diesel goes in, and then your system gets primed.
- We fire it up and make sure it runs correctly on new diesel.
That has it ready to set off. All of this is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a garage, and when it has been spotted quickly, lasting damage is very unusual.
AdBlue in your diesel tank instead, in North Town?
The issue is not the same, though the first instruction is — do not fire it up — if what got in was AdBlue instead of petrol. The lubrication a fuel system relies on gets stripped away by petrol, which dilutes the diesel. Corrosion and residue are what a diesel tank gets instead, since AdBlue is urea in water.
Usually the more serious of the two, AdBlue — and the full story lives on its own North Town page. Both are ours to deal with.
Paying for a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain around North Town
We can't put one price on this page honestly, because the job is not one job. What moves it:
- Started? Driven? Either answer counts more than anything else on this list.
- How much of the wrong fuel got in, against how much the tank holds.
- Whether it's petrol or AdBlue.
- Where the car is, and if our van can safely get to and work on it.
Tell us your vehicle, the quantity and whether it has run, and you'll get a firm answer instead of a range. For your car at home that is going nowhere and isn't pressing, works too.
Petrol in diesel: frequent questions in North Town
I'm on a forecourt in North Town. Can you drain it here?
A good portion of this work happens there, so yes. Tell us which one you're at when you phone and we'll tell you if we can work there. With the site's agreement our technicians attend Esso and the other forecourts locally all the time.
A couple of litres of petrol in a diesel — too much?
Litres aren't the yardstick. Ratio is, and much more than either, it matters whether anything has been run. An almost empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: distinct situations, definitely. Either way, the work needed comes down to one thing, which is if your fuel system has had that mix sucked through it.
Petrol in my diesel, and I have driven it
Somewhere safe, then stop, then turn off and keep it off. Not restarting it is the single most useful thing available to you now. Driving does move the trouble out of your tank then into your pump and injectors, yes, and it stays salvageable a lot more frequently than motorists assume.
Fuel drains and manufacturer warranties
No. Carried out properly, clearing and rinsing is no alteration at all, and the warranty from your manufacturer is unaffected by it. Running a diesel on petrol is the thing likelier to cause an argument with one, which is another good reason to leave the vehicle turned off.
Could I put some two-stroke in and just drive?
Two-stroke oil solves a distinct problem, and an old one at that. Nothing it does puts back what petrol diluted. No. Later on? Still petrol in that tank, and a pump that has to put up with the stuff.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
Wherever the car is, our engineers drain and clean it there, so a drive to the main dealer doesn't come into it.
Is the car still with you?
Do not turn it back on.
Driven it already? Then somewhere safe, stop, switch off, and no restarting it after that. Cold, parked, going nowhere: that is the best place to be in. People fear this a lot more than they need to.
Clearing misfilled motors, North Town and the rest of Berkshire, wherever they are. Roadside. Forecourt. Home.