Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in Portbraddon? Don't Start It
If you have not started your engine yet, don't. A fuel drain and nothing more is almost always what a motor needs while the petrol is still sitting in the tank and the engine has not yet run, which is why it is the coming few minutes that matter, not how much went in. Petrol in Diesel travels to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest in Portbraddon or the rest of County Antrim, on the forecourt, by the roadside or on a driveway, and drains and cleans it there. Contact us and our engineers can tell you what happens after that before you do much else.
What now? Petrol in a diesel, in turn
- Do not start the car. Turned on all the same? Then don't rely on it. Diesel in a petrol motor typically cannot run, so the driver stops and the wear stops with them. Petrol in a diesel? It starts. It idles. It drives off fine, for several miles. Drivers get that reversed. It isn't all right — the fuel system is wearing every mile you cover.
- Switching the car's ignition on usually primes the system, and priming is what pulls petrol out of the tank and into the pump and injectors. Those are the components diesel keeps greased on its way through, before it combusts. Petrol does the burning and none of the oiling. Leave the car's ignition alone.
- Do not put diesel on top to weaken it. A diesel fuel system does not cope with petrol by percentage in the way that advice suggests, and topping up removes nothing — it merely hands you a bigger tank of the same mix. The type makes no difference either: super unleaded is just petrol.
- A motor that hasn't moved is the easiest one to sort, and so stay where you are if you sensibly can. Stopped on the verge on B843? Hazards on, and keep it there. An odd spot works for us better than a started engine.
- A van showing up rather than circling depends on two things: a postcode beginning BT54 6, and whatever is closest to you with a label on it. Keep both prepared before you phone.
- What was put in, about how much, plus whether the motor has fired — the three replies determine the full job. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us.
Quarter past eight. A rushed refuel on the drive in. Around eleven it hits you, and by then the diesel Renault Megane has stood at the nearest station for three hours. Phone and leave the vehicle where it is. What counts is the drive in, because diesel both combusts and — before that — lubricates your pump and the injectors, whereas petrol only ever ignites. Those couple of miles worked your pump on a liquid stripped of much of its protection, and no quantity of sitting in a car park puts any of that back. Hence the thing we ask about miles rather than hours standing, and hence the request to leave your keys be till our technicians turn up.
If you've put petrol in your diesel Volkswagen Passat around Portbraddon and you're now sat outside the local shops with a boot full of shopping, ring us. Don't start it a second time to get out of that bay. We'll head your way, clear that tank, rinse those fuel lines and put clean diesel in so you can head home. A mile or so at gentle throttle uses very little of it, which is why such jobs tend to be the straightforward ones.
You set off at the end, once we have fired it up and made sure it runs correctly on new diesel, with the system primed. Before that, in the car park by the pub in the village, the polluted fuel comes out of your tank, the fuel lines get rinsed and the fuel filter comes off where your BMW 3 Series has a serviceable one. It all starts with three questions when we get to the car: what went in, how much of it, and whether it has been fired up since.
The pump waits ahead of the fuel injectors, so whatever a worn-out one gives off moves onward with your fuel — which is why we're firm about not driving on. Phone us, and leave your diesel Peugeot 3008 where it's close to the centre.
No dashboard light exists for this, which is why motors in that position normally get driven again before anyone calls. Don't be one of them. The throttle went soft and your idle turned ragged after a couple of streets, and your diesel Audi Q5 is now resting close to the far end of the built-up part. Deadness there means fuel that cannot build pressure fully rather than a motor packing up. Switch off. Phone us.
At a forecourt: draining petrol from your diesel
Forecourts are where this work usually begins, and where a large share of it closes. Still at the nearest petrol station? Then that is normally where it takes place. Garage forecourts are everyday for us, with the permission of the owner.
No place except a forecourt can it be stopped with your motor still untouched. Our engineers can still deal with it where it is, even away from the pumps. In a car park, on a drive or in a lay-by, the vehicle has been fired up and moved there, and that drew fuel through the filter and into the high-pressure pump, all the way from the tank. None of that is a disaster, although the flush then has to reach past the tank to the lines and the fuel filter, and the few seconds between reading your receipt and reaching for the key are what settle that.
Staff will usually help out pushing it out from the petrol pump, which lets the next motorist get by. Welcome the assistance. Rolling the car four bays doesn't merit cranking it.
Areas our vans cover in Portbraddon
Being a coastal area, Portbraddon gets a frequent call, whilst the places nearby go along on that same journey: Ballintoy and Ballycastle, Dunseverick and Capecastle, Ballyvoy.
There are dedicated pages for most towns in County Antrim, and the ones listed above are merely the nearest neighbours — so yours being missing from this list means nothing about whether our engineers come. Near the border, or anywhere your phone gets wrong? Ring us and enquire instead of assuming.
This map marks the patch this page covers. Every bit of it is ground our technicians work: a kerbside, a forecourt, a drive, a car park. You don't drive your car anywhere.
Roadside call-outs around Portbraddon
Not everyone gets the chance to stop anywhere sensible. If you noticed after setting off and finished up along the verge on Frederick Crescent, or at a lay-by somewhere with the hazard lights on, that's a common call for us instead of an unusual one.
Whether you wait beside the vehicle or move away from it rests on if being in it looks safe. Every mile a diesel obliges you for on petrol drags the blend further into your fuel system — and oblige it often will, which is why your motor does not get restarted to limp somewhere safer. Carrying on does the car far more harm than our van driving out to a tricky place, and that is no trouble for us.
Petrol in a diesel, but the car has moved
over 50 miles from Portbraddon, the M77 is what matters now. Some way along, and onto it in the first place: a wrongly fuelled diesel will usually manage both before anything seems wrong. What you get then is rarely a clean stop. Power drains away, the idle goes rough, and there may be smoke.
Take the first exit that's safe, pull up there, and never start the vehicle to reposition. It alters what our engineers bring, and so mention it when you ring: on a longer run — anything approaching the under 50 miles to the closest city — assume the contamination has been through your filter, your pump and your injectors.
Where's Portbraddon?
Portbraddon is a small coastal locality in County Antrim, situated near the villages of Ballintoy and Ballycastle. Portbraddon sits at a low elevation of 16 metres, overlooking the sea in a region of rugged coastline. Portbraddon is characterized by its detached housing stock and quiet, rural atmosphere, with the city of Derry located some distance to the west.
What we do when our engineers arrive with you in Portbraddon
- The responses alter the work, which is why our engineers ask before giving a price: what got in, how much of that, and if the engine has run.
- Out comes the tainted mixture.
- Lines flushed, filter cleaned. Whatever is left after that is not the thing that started the problem.
- The system gets bled, on clean diesel.
- The motor is started and tested to confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel.
That leaves your car ready to pull away. Our technicians do all of this wherever the car has ended up, which means it never needs to be taken to a workshop, and if it has been noticed soon, it's very uncommon for there to be long-term damage.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Portbraddon is a distinct problem
AdBlue rather than petrol? Then the opening rule is unchanged — your engine remains off — while this fault under it is a distinct one altogether. Thinned diesel, and no lubrication left for the system that depends on it. That is petrol. AdBlue? Urea dissolved in water. Tip that in with your diesel and you get corrosion instead, plus residue.
Both are ours. There's a separate Portbraddon page for AdBlue removal, with the details on it — including the reasons it usually turns out to be the worse of the two.
Portbraddon costs for a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain
Honestly, no single figure belongs on a page like this. The job differs. Here's what changes it:
- This is the key one: whether the motor has been started, or driven.
- How much of the wrong fuel got in, compared with how much the tank takes.
- Which got in: unleaded or AdBlue.
- Where is it? And can a van reach it and work there safely?
Tell us what your vehicle is, how much got in, and if your motor has run. A straight answer comes back, not a range. Car at home, going nowhere, nothing urgent about it — is good for that.
Portbraddon motorists ask us these about petrol in diesel
Fuel drains on a Portbraddon petrol station forecourt
Yes — forecourts are where a fair part of this gets done. Our engineers visit another forecourt nearby and the other forecourts around town routinely, with the site's agreement — tell us which one you are at when you ring and we'll tell you whether we can work there.
A few litres of petrol in a diesel — too much?
It depends on the proportion rather than the litres, and a lot more on whether the motor has run. Five litres in an almost empty tank is a different case from five in a full one — but either way, the thing that determines how much work is needed is if that mixture has been pulled through your fuel system.
I put petrol in my diesel and drove it. What now?
Switch off somewhere safe, then keep it that way after you stop. It's salvageable far more commonly than people expect, even though driving is what takes the problem from that tank into your pump and injectors — and the single most useful thing you can do now isn't restart it.
Is a fuel drain going to void my warranty?
It is not a modification, so a drain then flush carried out correctly does not void a manufacturer's warranty. What is likelier to start a disagreement is a diesel that has been run on petrol. One more reason for the motor to stay off.
Adding two-stroke oil, then driving home
No. Two-stroke oil is an old remedy for a distinct issue and it does not restore what petrol has weakened. Your pump still has to cope with it, as the tank still has petrol in it after that.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
You don't need one. Your car is drained and flushed wherever it is, with no need to bring it to a dealership.
Still with the car?
Turned off is how the car remains.
Already driven it? Then pull in somewhere sensible, switch off, and let the vehicle remain that way. Cold, still, going nowhere: that's the best position to be in. Drivers fear this a lot more than they need to.
Clearing misfuelled motors, Portbraddon and the rest of County Antrim, wherever they are. Kerbside. Forecourt. Home.