Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in St Philips Marsh? Don't Start It
Petrol in Diesel drains and cleans misfuelled vehicles where they are, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on a drive, across St Philips Marsh and the remainder of Bristol. The very first thing to do is not to turn on the engine. When your engine has not turned over and the fuel is still inside the tank, a tank drain is almost always all it needs, and the next few minutes decide that, not how much got in. Our technicians can tell you what the next stage is. Phone — this happens before anything else.
The next five steps: petrol in a diesel
- Feed a petrol motor diesel and it will normally not run at all, and so the motorist stops there and so does the wear. Give a diesel petrol and the thing starts, it ticks over, it drives off — fine for several miles. Motorists have that reversed, which is the part they get wrong about petrol in a diesel specifically. So never start it. And having started, don't depend on it: that fuel system is wearing down while you drive.
- Leave the car's ignition be too. Diesel does two tasks: it ignites, and before it ignites it lubricates your high-pressure pump and those injectors. Petrol does the first and not the second. Switching the ignition on is usually sufficient to prime the system, which moves the petrol out of that tank and into just those parts.
- Do not pour diesel on top to water down it. A diesel fuel system won't tolerate petrol by percentage in the way that guidance assumes, and topping up gets rid of nothing — it simply leaves you a fuller tank of the same mix. The type makes no difference either: super unleaded is just petrol.
- Remain where you are if you reasonably can. A car that has never moved is the simplest one to sort out, and we would sooner travel to a tricky place than have it started. If you're parked on the verge on A4320, turn the hazards on and keep it there.
- Find out where you are before phoning. A postcode beginning BS2 0, and the name of whatever is nearest to you. Otherwise the van circles instead of arriving.
- Phone 0333 366 0103. Expect three points — what went in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has been turned over. Those replies determine whatever comes after.
How far you drove is what our engineers query, not how long the car has been sitting — and this is why. Diesel does two roles on its way through a motor: it combusts, and before burning it greases that injection pump and those injectors. Petrol does the first only. So a fast fill on the trip in, the realisation coming around eleven, and a diesel Volkswagen Tiguan standing at Bristol Temple Meads since quarter past eight means those few miles were done with the pump labouring on a fluid stripped of a lot of its protection. Phone us then keep the car right where it stands.
The tricky part is the bay, not your fuel. Vehicles either side of you, a trolley shelter behind, and from time to time a height barrier on the way in that decides if our van can reach you at all — so when you ring from a car park like the one at M&S Foodhall, mention how much room there is around you and which way round your car is. Those our engineers visit often. Should there be no space to work beside the diesel Skoda Octavia, it gets shifted with the motor off, and not out of pedantry over a couple of seconds of running: priming takes place at every start, more of the mixture exits the tank for the pump, and two shunts into a roomier bay have silently made a harder job of what was simply a vehicle sitting still.
None of that is the engine failing. That's the part worth hearing, and it's why the ordinary Sparke Evans Park call ends better than it sounds: a diesel Mercedes C-Class drives out there without complaint, comes back with the power gone, the idle lumpy and perhaps a little smoke, and the cause is the fuel no longer acting like diesel. Diesel has to be heavy enough to seal the precision parts it passes through; petrol dilutes it; and a diesel injection system is hydraulic as much as chemical, needing your fuel to hold pressure instead of only to burn. So pressure that should build then stay built escapes past tolerances, delivery turns up poorer and later and less even than engineered, and all of that stops once the fuel is sorted.
Hire car? Company car? Call them before us. Some contracts want the firm to approve the work, and that is much quicker dealt with up front than after that. Then phone us about the Ford Fiesta, the diesel one, by Wake The Tiger. Don't worry that you can't say how full that tank was — nearly nobody can two days into a vehicle, and it's something our engineers establish there. The reason for asking: harm from petrol in a diesel is a matter of proportion. A couple of litres in a nearly empty tank make a far stronger mixture than in a full one, and petrol is built to resist the very thing a diesel needs of that, which is igniting when compressed. Stronger mixture, more knocking, more smoke, flatter throttle.
A couple of streets, then it stopped. Throttle limp, idle lumpy, and the diesel Citroen C4 is parked up close to Martin Parr Foundation. Your engine is not failing — that deadness is fuel that won't build pressure. There's no light on the dash for it, so cars like yours usually get driven once more before somebody picks up the phone. Don't. Off, and phone us.
On the forecourt: clearing petrol from a diesel
Much of this job begins at the pump, meaning a large chunk of that is done on site. The drain usually happens on the spot. Still on the forecourt at Sainsbury's? Given the site's consent, that is a spot our engineers work, and often.
Before the engine has run — the forecourt is the one spot it is caught. Everywhere else — a car park, a private drive, a lay-by — your car was fired up and moved to get there, which means fuel was pulled from your tank, through the fuel filter then into the high-pressure fuel pump. That's not a calamity, and our technicians can still deal with it where it stands. It does mean the lines and the filter need flushing as well as your tank, and that's determined by the few seconds between reading the till receipt and reaching for your key.
Wheel it out of the way if the attendants suggest it, and they normally will. The next driver gets by the petrol pump, and that is worth doing. Four vehicle lengths isn't worth a restart.
St Philips Marsh plus the villages beside it
St Philips Marsh is a residential suburb, and so we go out to the town and to the villages near it on those same runs: Arnos Vale, St Annes, Barton Hill, The Dings and Netham.
Not on the list? That tells you nothing. The places above are simply the closest few, and nearly all places in Bristol have a page of their own somewhere on this site. Guessing is the habit to avoid, particularly on the border or somewhere your phone struggles. Contact us to enquire.
That map outlines the area this page covers. Roadside, forecourt, drive, car park: all of it is ground our engineers work on, and none of it needs the car to travel to us.
Broken down at the roadside in St Philips Marsh
The opportunity to stop somewhere sensible doesn't come to everybody. If you realised after setting off and ended up on the verge on Saint Philips Causeway, or in a lay-by somewhere with the hazard lights going, that's a routine call for us and not an odd one.
Fine where you are? Wait beside it. Not safe? Step out and away from it. Don't restart your motor to nurse it somewhere better — a diesel running on petrol will usually oblige, and every mile it obliges for is drawing the blend further into your fuel system. However inconvenient the place, it's no bother for us to get to it, and that's a lot better for your car than pressing on.
Run it already? Pull over, then read below
Your M32 is the road which counts now, and it sits under 3 miles from St Philips Marsh. It will frequently get you onto it, and some way along, before you notice a thing. Then it is smoke, a rough idle and power draining away — not a tidy stop. Misfuelled diesels seldom give you one of those.
The next safe junction is the one to take. Switch off there, then leave the restarting alone. Presume the worst of it on a long run. Anything approaching the under 3 miles to the closest city, and the petrol has been through the filter, through the pump, through the fuel injectors. Tell us when you ring. What our engineers bring differs.
Where's St Philips Marsh?
St Philips Marsh is a suburban area in Bristol, situated on the riverside with views of the city and surrounding landscape. St Philips Marsh has a mix of terraced housing and local amenities, and is located close to nearby places such as Arnos Vale and St Annes. St Philips Marsh is also near to Barton Hill, and is just 1.7 miles from the centre of Bristol.
When we reach you around St Philips Marsh: what follows
- Three things get asked before any quote — your fuel that went in, the quantity, and if anything has been run since. Each answer changes the work.
- Out goes the polluted fuel.
- Lines cleaned, filter cleaned. Whatever is left later isn't the thing that caused the problem.
- Priming follows, once clean diesel is in.
- It is started with fresh diesel in it, and our technicians check that it is running smoothly.
That leaves it ready to drive away. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it has been caught early, and as all of it is done where the car is, it never has to go to a garage.
St Philips Marsh AdBlue removal is a separate matter
AdBlue rather than petrol? Then the opening step is unchanged — your motor remains off — while this issue under it is a different one altogether. Petrol does two things to diesel: thins it, and strips out the lubrication the fuel system depends on. Urea in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that brings rust and build-up.
Our technicians deal with both, and AdBlue removal around St Philips Marsh has its own page with the detail — including why it's often the more serious of the two.
St Philips Marsh pricing for a petrol-in-diesel drain
What moves the figure is set out below, as the job is not one job and our technicians can't frankly put a single figure on this page.
- Started? Driven? Either answer matters more than anything else on this list.
- The tank's capacity, set against how much of the wrong fuel got into it.
- Whether it's unleaded or AdBlue.
- Where is it? And can a van reach it and work there sensibly?
A firm answer instead of a range is what you get for telling us three things: your car, the amount, and whether it has run. For your car at home that's going nowhere and isn't time-critical, works too.
St Philips Marsh drivers ask us these about petrol in diesel
Fuel drains on a St Philips Marsh petrol station forecourt
Plenty of what we do takes place nowhere else. So yes. We work at Shell and the other forecourts around town regularly, with the station's consent — tell us which one you are at when you ring and we will tell you if our technicians can work there.
Is there a sensible quantity of petrol in a diesel?
Proportion decides it instead of litres — and more than either, whether your motor has run. Five litres into a nearly dry tank isn't five into a full one, no. But both land on the same query in the end: has that blend been sucked right through, or has it not?
Petrol in my diesel, and I have driven the vehicle
Turn off somewhere sensible, and keep it that way after you stop. Not restarting it is the single most valuable thing available to you now. Driving does move the issue out of your tank and into the pump and injectors, yes, and it stays fixable far more regularly than motorists fear.
Fuel drains and manufacturer warranties
No. Carried out correctly, clearing and cleaning is no change at all, and the warranty from your manufacturer is unaffected by it. Another good reason to leave it switched off: running a diesel on petrol is the thing more likely to cause a disagreement with one.
Can I just add two-stroke oil and drive home?
No. Two-stroke oil is an old workaround for a different problem and it does not put back what petrol has weakened. Your pump still has to put up with it, since the tank still has petrol in it after that.
A main dealer for petrol in a diesel — needed?
There is no need to take it to a franchised dealer, since we drain and flush your car wherever it is.
Is your vehicle still with you?
Leave the car shut off.
Already driven it? Then pull over somewhere safe, switch off, then let the vehicle stay that way. This is recoverable from much more regularly than drivers expect, and a still, cold motor is the best position to be in.
At the roadside, on the forecourt or at home — mobile fuel draining around St Philips Marsh and throughout Bristol.