What Happens Now: Petrol in a Diesel Car in Old Shirley
Whatever you do, don't switch your motor on, even for a moment, to shift the car. Stop; leave it off. Cleared and rinsed, right where it sits: that's generally all an unrun diesel with petrol in it takes. Whether it stays that simple depends on the minutes ahead far more than on everything else. Wherever you are around Old Shirley, this is the order things run from now.
Minute one: petrol in a diesel, motor off
Before anything else, the following — in this sequence.
- Pull your keys out. Even the ignition on its own can prime your fuel system, pulling petrol out of the tank to exactly the components it damages, so leave it off entirely.
- Do not top it up with diesel. Adding diesel removes nothing. You end up with a bigger tank of the same mixture.
- Make your car easy to see before anything else — hazards on — if there's traffic going past anywhere near you.
- By hand, never on the motor: that's how it comes off the petrol pump. Get the forecourt staff to help you roll, however short the mileage.
- Hold on to your receipt: the grade and roughly how much are written on it, and they're what our technicians ask about first.
Still on the move when you noticed? Come off the M271 at the next exit if that's where you are, under 3 miles from Old Shirley, and stop somewhere sensible rather than pushing on to the services. Then start at step one.
The fork in each Old Shirley fuel drain: has it run yet?
One answer is what everything after this stage depends on.
Engine never run at all?
- No place but the tank: that is where the petrol still is.
- Usually it is drained and flushed just where your car stands.
- This is the best spot to be in, and the whole reason step one matters.
If the engine has run, even for a moment:
- Petrol has been pulled from that tank, past your filter then into your lines.
- A longer run takes it all the way to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
- Distance is what turns it into a larger job: flushed lines, a filter seen to, and at times more than that.
Petrol does not lubricate. Diesel does, protecting the high-pressure pump and injectors as it flows through, which is why the line falls where it does. A tank of petrol, left still, damages nothing. The parts that move it are grinding the moment petrol is being pumped.
Old Shirley, petrol in a diesel: have these prepared before you call
A technician that circles against a technician that finds you: a little preparation is what separates them.
- Your whereabouts: a postcode beginning SO16 6 works best.
- Give the street — Warren Crescent or wherever you have pulled up — or the car park.
- Or the nearest landmark. A car park is quicker to find by what it serves, such as the one outside Sainsbury's.
- Say what the vehicle is — make, model — and confirm it is diesel.
- Which went in matters: AdBlue is a separate job from petrol, and Old Shirley has a page for it. So say.
- How much. Litres from the receipt, or how long the nozzle was in.
- Has it run? If so, tell us 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.
Phone 0333 366 0103 once you have got that ready — or, if your car is at home, going nowhere, use .
The wait for a Old Shirley fuel drain, and what to do in it
The wait is where well-intended help does the harm. Stick to these.
- Safety before the vehicle. If it has stopped somewhere exposed, get yourself clear of the traffic then wait away from it. If it is safe where it sits, stay with it.
- A kind passer-by does not start it. Nor does anybody checking it still works, or moving it a couple of yards.
- Anything from your boot, oil made for two-strokes or injector cleaner: no additive lifts that petrol.
- No DIY draining. Siphoning petrol into a can by the kerbside is hazardous, and it leaves the fuel that has already gone beyond the tank.
- Even the radio or your windows are not worth switching your ignition on for.
Step by step: the fuel drain when the van arrives
- Fuel, amount, whether it has run: those answers set this job, and that is why you get a price after them instead of before.
- Your tank is drained. The contaminated mixture comes out of the tank.
- Rinsing your lines comes next, since a vehicle that ran has petrol past the tank, in your lines themselves.
- Cleared, or swapped if the vehicle has a usable one: your filter is sorted next.
- The system is primed on clean diesel.
- Our technicians start the engine only after new diesel has gone in and bled the system, then make sure that it's running properly.
Our engineers stay until it is running on clean diesel. The vehicle returns to normal driving at once, and long-term damage is very rare if it has been noticed early.
After your fuel drain is done: driving around Old Shirley once more
- Nothing special is needed after a start with clean diesel — usual driving will do.
- Give the first miles your attention. Smoke appearing, a warning light coming on, the idle going lumpy or the throttle hesitating: pull over and call us back.
- Hold on to the paperwork. A hire firm, a fleet manager or an insurer may ask what was carried out.
- Check the label on the petrol pump next time, not the colour of the handle.
About Old Shirley
Old Shirley is a coastal locality in Hampshire, situated near the city of Southampton and overlooking the Solent Strait. Old Shirley has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Old Shirley is close to nearby places such as Shirley Warren, Coxford, and Maybush, and its residents are approximately 2 miles from Southampton's city centre. Old Shirley's population is around 5207 people, living in a relatively low-lying area with an average elevation of 24 metres.
Fuel drains around Old Shirley and the places nearby
Most of Hampshire gets the same teams as Old Shirley for petrol in diesel call-outs, Shirley Warren, Coxford and Maybush included. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're somewhere hard to explain or near a border.
Ring, and leave the car off — petrol in a diesel around Hampshire
Petrol in Diesel takes it from there — on your drive, by the kerbside, at the forecourt — once you have done stage one: keys out, motor off, receipt in your pocket.