Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in Portishead? Don't Start It
With the tank still carrying the petrol and the engine not yet turned over, almost every job needs only a drain, so leave your engine off. That result is settled in the minutes right after the fill-up, rather than by the amount that got in. Across Portishead and the rest of Somerset, Petrol in Diesel drains your car and cleans it where it stands, whether by a roadside, on a private drive or at a forecourt. Ring us so we can explain what follows from here before you attempt anything else.
What to try first about petrol in a diesel
- Don't crank it — and never depend on it if it runs. That is the bit most people have wrong about petrol in a diesel specifically. A petrol motor filled with diesel typically just won't run, and so the motorist stops and the harm stops with them. A diesel given petrol generally starts, ticks over and drives away quite happily for a couple of miles. It's not fine. It's grinding your fuel system as you drive.
- Diesel burns, and before it burns it lubricates — the high-pressure pump, the injectors. Petrol handles only the burning. So leave the ignition off too: flicking it on is usually sufficient to prime the system, and priming draws petrol from that tank into exactly those parts.
- Never weaken it. Diesel put on top takes out nothing, so all you get is more of what was already there, since percentage isn't how a diesel fuel system copes with petrol. Super unleaded? Still petrol. The octane makes no difference.
- Remain where you are if you safely can. A motor that has never moved is the simplest one to sort, and we would sooner come to an odd spot than have it started. If you're pulled up on the verge on High Street, turn your hazards on then leave the car there.
- Check where you are before phoning. A postcode starting BS20 6, and the name of whatever is closest to you. Otherwise our van circles instead of turning up.
- What went in, approximately how many litres, and whether the motor has fired — these three details determine the entire job. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us.
Can petrol be taken from your diesel on the forecourt?
Most of this job starts at a forecourt, which means a large share of that ends up finished at one. We work on petrol station forecourts regularly, with the site's consent, and so if you are still at Shell that's generally where this drain happens.
Nowhere except a garage can the mistake be stopped with the motor still untouched. Everywhere else — a car park, a private drive, a lay-by — the car was started and driven to get there, which means fuel was drawn from the tank, through your filter and into the high-pressure pump. That's not a calamity, and our technicians can still deal with it where it is. It does mean your lines and the filter need rinsing as well as that tank, and that's settled by the few seconds between seeing the till receipt and reaching for the keys.
The attendants will normally help you move the car clear of the petrol pump so the next driver can get through. That's worth doing. Starting it just to shift four vehicle lengths is not.
Service around Portishead
As a coastal town, Portishead has a regular call, while its neighbours round about come along on that same journey: Dry Hill and Woodhill, West Hill and North Weston, Sheepway.
Our technicians still come. Those names above are merely the nearest neighbours, and a page exists for the majority of places in Somerset, so an absence from the list is not an absence from our coverage. Call us to enquire instead of presuming, particularly where you are on the border or anywhere a satnav can't find.
Look at this map for the ground included here. Every bit of it is ground our engineers work: a roadside, a forecourt, a drive, a car park. You never move the car anywhere.
Move it out of the gateway and sort it out later — that's what a passer-by will say, and it is wrong. Parked on the zig-zags at Portishead Primary School, a wrongly fuelled diesel Skoda Octavia is a nuisance and nothing worse. Restarted three more times for good manners, it is no longer a tank problem but a fuel system one, since priming takes place with every start and more petrol goes through the fuel filter toward your pump. Let them grumble. Phone us.
The parts that should be getting oiled are grinding instead, and the motor gives no sign of it: a diesel on a weakened tank fires up and drives off perfectly well. Chance the drive home from Portishead Working Mens Club? Don't. Ring us then leave the BMW 3 Series where it is.
Diesel has to be thick enough to seal the close-fitting components it runs through, and petrol weakens it. That is the entire mechanism, and it accounts for the ordinary Rodmoor Rose Gardens call: a diesel Audi A4 that travelled out there without complaint and came back down on power, lumpy at idle, possibly smoking a little. A diesel injection system works hydraulically as well as chemically — it requires the fuel to hold pressure, not just to burn — so when your fuel thins, pressure that should build then stay built starts bleeding past gaps instead, and the engine gets a weaker, later, less even delivery than it was designed around. No part of that is the engine failing, which is the part worth hearing: it's your fuel no longer behaving like diesel, and it stops when your fuel is put right.
Pulled off the forecourt, read the receipt, and parked your diesel Ford Focus up by Compass a few hundred yards later? That is about as well as this goes once the engine has turned. Ring us and leave it off. The short distance really assists, but it was still a start and a drive, so weakened fuel has got to the fuel filter and your pump — which is why we clean the lines rather than only emptying that tank.
Drain it and put clean diesel in — that is the suggestion you'll get, usually from a person sure of themselves, and it is half true. Do exactly that to a diesel Citroen C3 close to The Beacon Hub and it would start, which is what makes the tip sound plausible. What happens next is the trouble: the engine immediately draws the petrol still sitting in the filter and the feed lines straight back through your pump, as draining a tank does nothing about fuel that has already left it. Ring us instead. Our technicians flush your system and take your filter off where your vehicle has a serviceable one, which is the difference between your car being put right and your car only starting.
Broken down on the roadside near Portishead
Not everybody gets a safe spot to pull in. A normal call for us rather than an odd one: worked out after setting off, landed along the verge on Wyndham Way or at a lay-by with the hazard lights going.
Whether you sit with the motor or move clear of it hangs on if being nearby seems wise. Every mile a diesel obliges you for on petrol draws that blend further into your fuel system — and oblige it often will, which is why the engine doesn't get restarted to limp somewhere better. We will send our van to an awkward location without any bother, and for the car that's a lot better than carrying on.
So you've driven it? Petrol in a diesel over some miles
under 3 miles from Portishead, the M5 is what counts now. A misfuelled diesel will usually take you onto it and some way along before anything feels wrong, and the signs when they arrive are typically a loss of power, an uneven idle and smoke rather than a clean stop.
Take the first exit that's safe, pull up there, and don't start it to move it. Long drive? Anything close to the under 10 miles to the closest city and you should suppose the lot — filter, pump, injectors, all of it reached by the petrol. Say that on the call, as it changes what goes in our van.
Where is Portishead?
Portishead is a coastal town in Somerset, situated on the Bristol Channel at an elevation of around 10 metres. Portishead lies close to the city of Bristol, approximately 7.5 miles away, and is surrounded by nearby hills such as Dry Hill, Woodhill, and West Hill. Portishead has a population of around 20,121 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Portishead is also located about 113.6 miles west of London.
When our technicians get to you around Portishead: what happens
- Three things get established before any quote — your fuel that got in, the amount, and whether anything has been run since. Each answer changes the work.
- Away flows the polluted fuel.
- Lines purged, filter cleaned. Whatever remains later is not the thing that created the trouble.
- Clean diesel goes in, and then the system gets bled.
- Our engineers start the car and check it runs smoothly on clean diesel.
From that point, you are ready to set off. Permanent damage is very unusual when it has been spotted early, and as all of this is done where the vehicle is, it never has to go to a garage.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Portishead is a different matter
The fault isn't the same, though the opening rule is — don't start it — if what went in was AdBlue instead of petrol. Petrol weakens your diesel and takes away the protection the fuel system depends on. Urea in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that leads to corrosion and build-up.
Both are ours. There is a separate Portishead page for AdBlue removal, with the full story on it — including the reasons it frequently turns out to be the worse of the two.
How much is a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain around Portishead?
One price would not be fair here, as this is not one job. These are the things that shift it:
- This is the key one: whether your motor has been started, or driven.
- Wrong fuel in, against what your tank takes — that proportion.
- AdBlue or unleaded, whichever got in.
- Where your car is, and whether a van can safely reach and work on it.
Tell us your car, the amount and whether it has run, and you will get a clear answer instead of a range. If it isn't time-critical — the car is at home and going nowhere — works too.
Things our technicians hear about petrol in diesel around Portishead
At a petrol station in Portishead, can you do a fuel drain there?
Yes — forecourts are where a large portion of this takes place. Consent from the site is the condition. Given that, a forecourt like Sainsbury's is somewhere we are often enough, along with the rest of them locally — so name yours on the call and you'll hear whether working there's possible.
How much petrol is too much for a diesel?
Proportion settles it instead of litres — and more than either, whether your engine has run. Five litres in an almost empty tank is a distinct matter from five in a full one — but either way, the thing that determines how much work is required is whether that mixture has been sucked through your fuel system.
Already driven it with petrol in your diesel? What then?
Stop sensibly. Off. Nothing after that. Driving is what shifts the trouble from your tank into your pump and injectors — but it's salvageable a lot more regularly than motorists assume, and the single most valuable thing you can do now is not restart the car.
My warranty — does a fuel drain void it?
No. Carried out correctly, draining and purging is no change at all, and the warranty from your manufacturer is unaffected by it. What is likelier to start a dispute is a diesel that has been run on petrol. One more reason for your engine to remain off.
Could I put some two-stroke in and just drive?
What petrol has weakened is not replaced by two-stroke oil, which is an old fix for a distinct problem. So no. Your pump still has to live with it, because the tank still has petrol in it after that.
Does petrol in a diesel have to go to a main dealer?
You don't need one. The vehicle is drained and flushed wherever it is, with no need to take it to a franchised dealer.
Standing next to it?
The motor remains off.
Already driven it? Then pull over somewhere sensible, turn off, and let the car stay that way. Cold, still, going nowhere: that is the best position to be in. Motorists fear this a lot more than they need to.
Across Somerset and around Portishead: call-out fuel draining, at home or on the forecourt or at the roadside.