--- title: Rake Common: Petrol in a Diesel Car? Next Steps canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/petrol-in-diesel/rake-common-hampshire/ location: Rake Common county: Hampshire latitude: 51.032510 longitude: -0.881890 service: Petrol in a Diesel Car updated: 2026-10-08 --- # What Happens Now: Petrol in a Diesel Car in Rake Common Stop. Motor off. Leave the vehicle like that — no second on, no shifting it at all. Cleared then rinsed, just where it is: that is normally all an unrun diesel with petrol in it needs. Whether it stays that simple depends on the minutes ahead far more than on everything else. Below is the sequence from here, anywhere in Rake Common you happen to be. ## Petrol in a diesel? What to do in minute one Go through these in order, first. - The ignition off, keys out. Turned on, your ignition can prime your system — and priming is what draws petrol out of your tank towards the parts it damages. - Topping up with diesel sounds like it thins the problem. It does not: nothing comes out, and that tank just carries more of the same. - Get the car simple to see before anything else — hazards on — if there's traffic going past anywhere close to you. - Off the petrol pump by hand. At a forecourt, get the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. Don't crank it to move it, however short the distance. - The first question you will be asked is which fuel you put in and roughly how much — and the till receipt says both. Hold on to it. If you were still driving when you realised, stop somewhere sensible instead of pushing on for the services — on the Waterlooville Bypass, under 10 miles from Rake Common, that means the next exit. Stage one follows. ## The fork in every Rake Common fuel drain: has it run yet? One answer is what everything after this stage depends on. If it has never been started: - Only that tank has petrol in it for now. - Usually it's emptied and cleaned right where your car is. - No place is better, and it's why the first step counts so much. Run at all, even for a second: - Your lines and the fuel filter now hold petrol pulled out of that tank. - On a bigger run it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump as well as the fuel injectors. - Miles is what makes it a bigger job: flushed lines, a filter seen to, and at times more than that. Why the line falls there: diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors as it flows through them, and petrol does not. In that tank, sitting still, petrol harms nothing. As soon as it is pumped, petrol starts grinding whatever moves it. ## Rake Common, petrol in a diesel: have these prepared before you call A technician that circles against a van that finds you: a little preparation is the difference. - GU33 7 plus the rest of the postcode is the best way to begin telling us where you are. - Name the road — Plantation Road or wherever you have stopped — or the car park. - Or the landmark. A car park is quicker to find by what it serves, like the one at M&S Foodhall. - The car. Make, model, and that it's a diesel. - Petrol or AdBlue? Tell us which. They are different jobs, and AdBlue has its own Rake Common page. - About how much — in litres from the receipt, or by how long the nozzle was in. - The miles it covered, and how hard, if it ran at all. - The owner may have to approve the work under some hire and company contracts — so it is quicker to settle whose car it is before our technicians get there. Then call 0333 366 0103. If it can wait — the car is at home with going nowhere — does the trick as well. ## Waiting for a fuel drain around Rake Common: what to do The wait is where well-intended help does the damage. Hold to these. - Your safety comes before the car. Somewhere unsafe? Get away from the traffic and wait away from it. Safe where it is? Wait with it. - Not to roll it a few yards, not to check it is all right, not for a passer-by's favour: no one starts it. - None of it takes the petrol back out — not two-stroke oil, not injector cleaner, not anything from your boot. So no additives. - No home-made draining. Siphoning petrol into a can at the roadside is dangerous, and it leaves the fuel that has already gone beyond that tank. - Not for the radio, not for your windows: your ignition remains off. ## The fuel drain, step by step, after the van arrives - Three queries. What went in, how much, and if it's run. Those answers decide the job, which is why the quote comes after them and not before. - Your tank is cleared. The contaminated mixture comes out of your tank. - If it ran, your lines are holding petrol that has moved beyond that tank — so they're cleaned. - Cleared, or changed if the vehicle has a serviceable one: the fuel filter is sorted next. - Clean diesel in, and your system primed. - Starting the car. After the fuel system is bled with new diesel, our technicians start the engine and check it runs correctly. Only once it is running on clean diesel do we leave. If it has been spotted quickly, permanent damage is very unusual, and your car returns to normal driving at once. ## Once your fuel drain is done: driving around Rake Common once more - Started on clean diesel, it asks nothing unusual of you. Just drive normally. - Give the first miles your attention. Smoke showing, a warning light coming on, your idle going lumpy or your throttle hesitating: pull over and call us back. - Keep your paperwork. A hire company, a fleet manager or an insurer may ask what was done. - Next time, check the petrol pump. The label, not the colour of the handle. ## About Rake Common, for a moment Rake Common is a lakeside locality in Hampshire, situated near the borders of several other small communities, including Hill Brow and Lower Green. Rake Common sits at an elevation of 131 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Rake Common is located approximately 46 miles from London and 14 miles from the city of Chichester, making it a relatively rural locality with some nearby urban influences. ## Fuel drains across Rake Common and nearby Most of Hampshire has the same vans as Rake Common for petrol in diesel jobs, Hill Brow, East Hill and Lower Green among them. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're somewhere hard to explain or near a boundary. ## Ring, and leave it off — petrol in a diesel in Hampshire Motor off. Keys out. Receipt in your pocket. That is the whole of step one, and Petrol in Diesel takes it from there — at the kerbside, at the forecourt or on your driveway.