--- title: What Now? Petrol in a Diesel Car Old Shoreham canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/petrol-in-diesel/old-shoreham-west-sussex/ location: Old Shoreham county: West Sussex latitude: 50.838870 longitude: -0.289720 service: Petrol in a Diesel Car updated: 2026-10-07 --- # What Happens Now: Petrol in a Diesel Car in Old Shoreham Stop. Motor off. Leave the car that way — no second on, no moving it anywhere. Hasn't been run? Then petrol in a diesel tends to be a simple drain-and-flush job wherever your car has stopped — and nothing decides that as much as these next few minutes do. Anywhere you are in Old Shoreham, here is how things go from now. ## Motor off: minute one with petrol in a diesel Work through these before anything else, in this sequence. - Bleeding the fuel system draws petrol from your tank towards the parts it harms, and switching the ignition on can be enough to do that. So the keys come out, and your ignition stays off altogether. - A fuller tank of the same mix is all adding diesel gives you, since it takes out nothing. So no more diesel. - Hazard lights on. If you're at all near moving traffic, make the car easy to see before you do anything else. - The attendants will usually help you push it clear of the pump. Let them, and move it by hand — not on the engine, even for a couple of yards. - Which fuel, and about how much? Your receipt replies that, and that's where our questions start. Do not throw it away. Still driving when you noticed? Come off the M23 at the next junction if that is where you are, under 25 miles from Old Shoreham, and stop somewhere safe rather than pushing on to the services. Then begin at stage one. ## Old Shoreham fuel drain: has your motor run yet, or not? One answer is what everything after this stage rests on. If your motor has not run at all: - No place but the tank: that is where that petrol still is. - Where the car stands is normally where this work happens: a drain, then a flush. - This is the best position to be in, and the whole reason step one counts. Run at all, however briefly: - From the tank, past the fuel filter, into your lines: that is how far that petrol has got. - The high-pressure pump as well as your injectors get it on a bigger run. - Flushing the lines, the fuel filter dealt with, occasionally more: the job expands as the mileage does. Petrol doesn't lubricate. Diesel does, oiling your high-pressure pump and injectors as it passes through, which is why the line sits where it does. Petrol sitting in a tank damages nothing. The parts that move it are grinding the moment petrol is being pumped. ## Old Shoreham, petrol in a diesel: have these ready before you call A little preparation is the difference between a technician that finds you and a technician that goes round. - Where you are. A postcode starting BN43 5 is the best start. - The street or the car park. A road name is a help — Almond Avenue, or wherever you have pulled up. - What a car park serves is the easiest way to find it, so say the landmark — like the one outside Co-op Food. - The vehicle. Make, model, and that it's a diesel. - What was put in. Petrol, or AdBlue. AdBlue is a separate job with its own page for Old Shoreham, so say which. - How long the nozzle was in, or the litres on your receipt — either gives us how much. - Has it run? If so, tell us how far it got, and the way it was driven. - Whose vehicle it is. Some hire and company contracts want the owner to approve the work, and that's easier settled before our engineers arrive than after. Then phone 0333 366 0103. If it can wait — your car is at home and going nowhere — works too. ## Waiting for a fuel drain around Old Shoreham: what to do Help, however well meant, is what does the damage while you wait. So hold to these. - Where your car has stopped decides where you wait. Somewhere exposed: away from it, away from the traffic. Sensible: with it. Either way, safety before your car. - No one — however helpful — starts it, whether to see if it runs or to move the vehicle a short way. - No additives. Two-stroke oil, injector cleaner, something from your boot — none of that takes the petrol back out. - A home-made drain leaves the fuel that has already gone beyond your tank, and siphoning petrol by the road is dangerous too. - Not for the radio, not for the windows: your ignition remains off. ## When the van arrives: your fuel drain, step by step - Our quote comes after three queries, not before them — what went in, how much, and if it has run — because the answers decide this job. - Draining it is how the blend gets taken from that tank. - Your lines are cleaned. If it ran, that petrol has shifted beyond your tank, and your lines are carrying it. - Cleared, or swapped if the vehicle has a workable one: the fuel filter is sorted next. - Bleeding your system comes once clean diesel is in. - We fire it up only after new diesel has gone in and primed the system, then make sure that it is running correctly. The vehicle has clean diesel running through it before our engineers head off. When it has been spotted quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon, and the car returns to normal use at once. ## Back on the road around Old Shoreham after the fuel drain - Once it's been started on fresh fuel, there's nothing special to do: drive normally. - Watch the first miles. A warning light, smoke, a rough idle or a flat spot under the throttle tells you to pull over then call us back. - Keep your documents. A hire firm, a fleet manager or an insurer may ask what was carried out. - Next time, trust the pump's label rather than the colour of its handle. ## About Old Shoreham itself Old Shoreham is a coastal locality in West Sussex, situated near the mouth of the River Adur and adjacent to Shoreham-by-Sea. Old Shoreham lies at a low elevation, with parts of the area below sea level, and is close to the nearby settlements of Shoreham Beach and Kingston by Sea. Old Shoreham is characterised by its detached housing stock and is located within commuting distance of Brighton and Hove. Old Shoreham is also relatively close to London, being around 46.7 miles away. ## Fuel drains round Old Shoreham and beyond Most of West Sussex gets the same vans as Old Shoreham for petrol in diesel jobs, Shoreham-by-Sea, Shoreham Beach and Kingston by Sea included. If you're close to a border or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing. ## Petrol in a diesel anywhere around West Sussex? Off, then ring Stage one is all of it: motor off, keys out, receipt in your pocket. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, on the forecourt, by the kerbside or on your driveway.