Rotten Row: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
With your tank still holding the fuel and the motor not yet started, nearly every job requires only a drain, so leave your engine off. That outcome is settled in the minutes immediately after the fill-up, and not by the amount that was put in. All over Rotten Row and the remainder of West Midlands, Petrol in Diesel drains the car and flushes it where it stands, whether by a roadside, on a driveway or at a forecourt. Ring us before anything else begins, and you'll know what happens next.
The first five steps: petrol in a diesel
- Never crank it. Started all the same? Then do not trust it. Diesel in a petrol vehicle typically can't run, so the motorist stops and the wear ends with them. Petrol in a diesel? It starts. It ticks over. It drives off fine, for a few miles. Motorists get that muddled. It isn't fine — the fuel system is wearing down every mile you cover.
- Two tasks, diesel: it ignites, and on the way through it keeps your high-pressure pump and injectors protected. Petrol only handles the one. Which is why the ignition stays off too — switch it on and you commonly prime your system, and that is petrol leaving your tank for just those components.
- Don't pour diesel on top to dilute it. A diesel fuel system won't handle petrol by percentage the way that advice implies, and topping up removes nothing — it merely leaves you a bigger tank of the same mixture. The grade makes no difference either: super unleaded is simply petrol.
- Stay put if it's safe to. Hazards on, ignition off, leave the vehicle. Wherever you have stopped — the verge on Grove Road, anywhere — a difficult location for us beats a started engine, and nothing is quicker for us to handle than a vehicle that never moved.
- A van arriving instead of circling turns on two things: a postcode that starts B93 0, and whatever is closest to you with a name on it. Keep both prepared before you phone.
- What got in, roughly how many litres, plus whether the car has fired — the three answers settle the entire visit. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us.
How far you travelled is what we query, not how long the vehicle has been sitting — and here is why. Diesel has two jobs on its way through the engine: it combusts, and before burning it protects its injection pump and those injectors. Petrol manages the first only. So a quick refuel on the trip in, it dawning on you around eleven, and a diesel Volkswagen Golf standing outside Dorridge since quarter past eight means those few miles were done with the pump working on a fluid drained of a great deal of its protection. Phone us and keep the car right where it stands.
Tell us this much and we can work with it: a diesel Renault Clio, a couple of litres of unleaded in it, two miles or so, turned off outside Tesco now. Time elapsed is not the thing we need. Fuel drawn by the pump is.
Move it out of that gateway and sort it out later — that's what somebody will say, and it's wrong. Sitting on the zig-zags outside St George and St Teresa Catholic Primary School, a wrongly fuelled diesel Skoda Octavia is an inconvenience and nothing worse. Started three more times for courtesy, it's no longer a tank problem but a fuel system one, as priming occurs with every start and more petrol goes through the filter toward your pump. Let everyone grumble. Give us a call.
It will start. It will move off just fine. That is the trouble, because a diesel on a thinned tank runs typically while wearing down the components its fuel should be lubricating. So no, never chance the drive home from The King's Arms — leave the Peugeot 308 and ring us.
Calling from near Knowle United Reformed Church? Three things help us. The filler — which side of the vehicle it's on. Room for a technician alongside you, without the road being blocked. And whether anything has run since the fill-up. The place itself barely counts: on-street is where our technicians work most, and we would far rather have a cramped bay than a vehicle somebody has driven somewhere simpler. Then it's a drain for the Audi A3, a filter change where there is one worth changing, lines purged, clean fuel put round the entire system. By now the worst of that is in the fuel lines and not your tank.
Clearing petrol from your diesel on the forecourt
Pumps are where the work often kicks off, and where a large portion of that finishes. If you are still on the forecourt at Esso, that is usually where this drain happens — we operate on garage forecourts regularly, with the owner's consent.
Before your engine has run — the forecourt is the single spot the mistake is caught. Everywhere else — a car park, a drive, a lay-by — your car was fired up and driven to get there, which means fuel was drawn from your tank, through your filter then into the high-pressure pump. That is not a catastrophe, and our engineers can still sort it out where it stands. It does mean the lines and the filter need rinsing as well as the tank, and that's decided by the few seconds between seeing the receipt and going for the keys.
Move it out of the way if the attendants suggest it, and they generally will. The next customer gets through the petrol pump, and that's worth doing. Firing the car to roll four vehicle lengths is not.
Do our engineers serve your side of Rotten Row?
Knowle Grove, Tilehouse Green, Norton Green, Knowle, Darley Green — all of those on our trips that bring us over to Rotten Row too, a rural hamlet.
Not on that list? That means nothing. The places above are simply the nearest few, and the majority of locations in West Midlands have a page of their own somewhere on the site. Near a boundary, or somewhere your satnav gets wrong? Ring us and enquire instead of guessing.
The area this page covers appears on the map. Every bit of it is territory our engineers work: a roadside, a forecourt, a private drive, a car park. You don't move your car anywhere.
Roadside breakdowns around Rotten Row
A chance to pull in anywhere suitable does not fall to everyone. A routine call for us rather than a rare one: noticed after setting off, landed along the verge of Warwick Road or at a lay-by with the hazard lights flashing.
Safe right there? Wait by it. Not okay? Step out and clear of it. Never fire it up to get to a safer spot. It will go — a diesel on petrol generally obliges — and each mile of obliging pulls that mixture deeper into the system. However tricky the place, it's no bother for us to come to it, and that is a lot better for the vehicle than carrying on.
Already driven it? Petrol in a diesel after a few miles
This is where your M42 matters, under 3 miles from Rotten Row. It will frequently take you onto it, and some way along, before you spot a thing. Then it is smoke, a rough idle and power draining away — not a clean stop. Wrongly fuelled diesels rarely give you one of those.
The first sensible exit is the one to take. Switch off there, then leave the restarting alone. Long trip? Anything approaching the under 10 miles to the nearest city and you should suppose the lot — filter, pump, injectors, all of it arrived at by the contamination. Say that on the call, because it alters what goes in our van.
About Rotten Row
Rotten Row is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in the West Midlands, with a relatively low elevation of 114 metres. Rotten Row lies near several other small settlements, including Knowle Grove, Tilehouse Green, and Norton Green, and is located approximately 9.7 miles from Coventry. Rotten Row is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Rotten Row is also within commuting distance of larger cities, being around 91 miles from London.
When we get to you around Rotten Row: what we do
- Our technicians ask first, price after. What was put in? How much? Has your motor run? Those responses change what the work really is.
- Our engineers drain that tank of all the tainted mixture.
- Our technicians flush your fuel lines and clear your filter, so what's left in your system isn't what created the problem.
- Our engineers put new diesel in and prime the fuel system.
- Your engine is fired up and tested to be sure it runs correctly on new diesel.
From that point, you are ready to set off. We do everything wherever your car has come to a stop, which means it never has to be taken to a garage, and if it has been caught soon, it's very unusual for there to be permanent damage.
A different problem: AdBlue in a diesel tank in Rotten Row
Do not start it: that opening step holds whether what went in was AdBlue or petrol. What changes is this issue itself. Petrol does two things to diesel: thins it, and removes the protection the system relies on. Urea in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that leads to rust and residue.
AdBlue removal in Rotten Row has a page of its own with the details on it, including why it's frequently the more significant of the two. Our engineers deal with both.
What a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain costs in Rotten Row
What changes the price is listed below, because this job is not one job and we cannot truthfully put a single figure on this page.
- Started? Driven? Either answer counts more than anything else on this list.
- How much of the wrong fuel was put in, compared with how much that tank can hold.
- AdBlue or unleaded, whichever was put in.
- Access: the vehicle's position, and whether working on it there's safe for our van.
Tell us what the vehicle is, how much went in, and whether the engine has run. A firm answer comes back, not a range. If it is not urgent — your car is at home and going nowhere — is fine too.
Questions our engineers hear about petrol in diesel around Rotten Row
Fuel drains on a Rotten Row petrol station forecourt
Yes — forecourts are where a big portion of this takes place. Our technicians work at Sainsbury's and the other forecourts nearby routinely, with the owner's permission — tell us which one you are at when you ring and we'll tell you if we can work there.
A few litres of petrol in a diesel — too much?
It rests on the ratio instead of the litres, and far more on whether your engine has run. A nearly empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: distinct situations, certainly. Either way, the work needed comes down to one thing, which is if the system has had that mix drawn through it.
I drove it after putting petrol in my diesel. What now?
Stop sensibly. Off. Nothing after that. Not restarting it is the single most valuable thing available to you now. Driving does move the trouble out of the tank and into your pump and injectors, yes, and it remains salvageable far more often than drivers fear.
Is a fuel drain going to void my warranty?
No. Carried out correctly, emptying and rinsing is no modification at all, and the warranty from your manufacturer is untouched by it. A dispute over a warranty is likelier to come from running a diesel on petrol — so leave it turned off.
Two-stroke oil in that tank, and then home?
What petrol has diluted is not restored by two-stroke oil, which is an old fix for a different fault. So no. Petrol remains in that tank later on, whatever else goes in, and the pump gets no break from it.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
There is no need to bring it to a franchised dealer, since we drain and flush the vehicle wherever it is.
Still with your vehicle?
Do not turn your engine back on.
Already driven it? Then pull over somewhere sensible, switch off, then let the vehicle remain that way. A stationary, cold car is the best position to be in, and this is recoverable from much more commonly than motorists expect.
Emptying misfilled motors, Rotten Row and the rest of West Midlands, wherever they are. Kerbside. Forecourt. Home.