Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in Stop-and-Call?
If you have not turned on the motor yet, don't. A fuel drain and nothing more is almost always what a car needs while the petrol is still sitting in your tank and your engine has not yet turned over, which is why it's the coming few minutes that count, not how much went in. Petrol in Diesel comes to the car wherever it has come to rest in Stop-and-Call or the rest of Pembrokeshire, on the forecourt, by the roadside or on a driveway, and drains and cleans it there. Phone and our engineers can show you what happens after that before you do anything else.
What next? Petrol in a diesel, in turn
- Never fire it up. Started regardless? Then do not rely on it. Diesel in a petrol car usually won't run, and so the driver stops and the wear halts with them. Petrol in a diesel? It starts. It idles. It drives off normally, for a couple of miles. Motorists get that backwards. It is not fine — your fuel system is grinding every mile you drive.
- Leave your ignition be too. Diesel has two roles: it combusts, and before it burns it protects the high-pressure pump and its injectors. Petrol does the first but not the second. Turning the car's ignition on is usually sufficient to prime your system, which draws this petrol out of your tank then into exactly those parts.
- Do not thin it. Diesel added on top clears 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? Just petrol. The grade makes no difference.
- Wait where you are if you reasonably can. A motor that has not moved is the simplest one to deal with, and we'd much rather drive to a tricky spot than have it started. If you're pulled up on the verge on Brynawelon, put your hazards on then leave the car there.
- Check where you are before phoning. A postcode starting SA64 0, and the name of whatever is next to you. Otherwise our van circles instead of turning up.
- What was put in, approximately how much, plus whether the engine has fired — the three answers decide the full call-out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us.
The journey in is what pushed diluted diesel through the pump. Standing still has pushed nothing. Petrol in a diesel Renault Clio, parked at Fishguard & Goodwick all day, rests inert in your tank while it waits. Ring us first — before the keys turn.
A diesel Nissan Qashqai parked in the car park by Hope and Anchor holding a tank full of petrol in it is a simple job, right up until someone takes it home. Leave the car overnight then phone next morning. Nothing worsens whilst it sits. What we will ask is whether that trip there was short and cold, since that is where petrol is least able to burn fully — and what doesn't burn can slip past the rings then into the engine oil.
Do not drive it home to buy yourself time. You already have it: nothing gets worse whilst your car stands, as a diesel Mercedes E-Class parked outside The Rec is doing none of what it did on the way there. The pump has stopped turning.
A throttle gone soft, white smoke, a lumpy idle, rattling: that's a wrongly fuelled diesel Ford Kuga telling you what's wrong. Never restart the vehicle to find a better place — turn off where you have stopped, near Garnwnda Burial Chamber or anywhere else.
Someone sure of themselves will tell you to drain the vehicle then put new diesel in. Half true, that. Try it on a diesel Volkswagen Polo close to Ocean Lab and your engine will start — which is exactly why it sounds like sense. Here's the trouble: there's petrol left in the filter and the feed lines, and the first thing the engine does is draw it back through your pump once more. Emptying a tank achieves nothing about fuel that already left the tank. Call us. Your system gets rinsed, the fuel filter comes off where there's one worth removing, and that's what separates a repaired motor from one that just starts.
At a forecourt: draining petrol from the diesel
A big share of the job is done at a forecourt, as that is where it mostly kicks off. The drain usually happens on the spot. Still on the forecourt at Esso? Given the station's agreement, that is somewhere our technicians work, and often.
At a garage, it is halted with the engine never started, and nowhere else manages it. The few seconds between checking your receipt and going for your key settle how much requires flushing. Anywhere other than a forecourt — a car park, a private drive, a lay-by — the vehicle was fired up and moved to get there, so fuel was sucked from that tank, through the filter and into the high-pressure fuel pump. That means your lines and the fuel filter require cleaning as well as your tank. It is not a catastrophe, and our engineers can still sort it out where the vehicle sits.
Roll the car out of the way if the attendants volunteer, and they generally will. The next customer gets by the pump, and that is worth doing. Cranking it just to shift four vehicle lengths is not.
Stop-and-Call and the areas next to it
Being a residential suburb, Stop-and-Call has a regular visit, whilst the villages close by go along on the same round: Goodwick and Harbour Village, Dyffryn and Cilau, Llanwnda.
Not on the list? It says nothing. The names above are just the nearest few, and the majority of towns across Pembrokeshire have a page of their own somewhere on this site. Near the border, or somewhere your satnav can't find? Phone to ask rather than guessing.
This map shows the patch this page spans. Every bit of it is territory our technicians cover: a roadside, a forecourt, a private drive, a car park. You do not bring the vehicle anywhere.
Roadside breakdowns in Stop-and-Call
Not everyone has a chance to pull in somewhere safe. Set off, then twigged? Finished up by the verge of Maesgrug, or sat in some lay-by with the hazard lights flashing? That's a common call here. Not an unusual one.
Whether you stay with the vehicle or keep clear of it turns on if sitting nearby seems wise. It will usually oblige. A diesel running on petrol limps along quite willingly, and that is the catch: restart the vehicle to reach somewhere handier and that mixture goes further into your fuel system with every mile driven. Pressing on causes your car far more harm than a van driving out to an inconvenient place, and that's no bother for us.
So you've driven it? Petrol in a diesel over a few miles
under 50 miles out of Stop-and-Call, your M4 is what counts here. A loss of power, an uneven idle, some smoke: those are the symptoms when they arrive, instead of a tidy stop — and a wrongly fuelled diesel will often take you onto it and some distance along before anything seems wrong at all.
Take the next junction that's sensible, pull up there, and do not start the vehicle to move it. It alters what our technicians bring, so mention it when you call: on a longer trip — anything close to the under 15 miles to the closest city — assume the petrol has been through the filter, the pump and the fuel injectors.
Where is Stop-and-Call?
Stop-and-Call is a suburban area in Pembrokeshire, situated on the coast of Wales with an elevation of 109 metres. Stop-and-Call lies near the towns of Goodwick and Harbour Village, and is close to the city of St Davids, which is 14 miles away. Stop-and-Call has a population of around 1437 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing.
What our technicians do when we get to you in Stop-and-Call
- Our technicians establish what went in, how much, and whether the engine has run. The responses shape the work, which is why we ask before quoting.
- Away flows the tainted fuel.
- What is left in your system shouldn't be what started the issue, so the lines get purged and the fuel filter cleaned.
- The system gets primed, on new diesel.
- The engine is turned on and checked to confirm it runs correctly on new diesel.
Your car is then ready for you to drive away. There is no need for a garage at any point, since the work is all done where your car is, and when it's spotted early, lasting damage is very unusual.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Stop-and-Call is a separate job
AdBlue rather than petrol? Then the opening step is unchanged — the engine stays off — while the fault beneath it's a separate one altogether. Petrol does two things to diesel: thins it, and takes away the lubrication the fuel system relies on. AdBlue? Urea dissolved in water. Tip that in with your diesel and you get corrosion instead, plus deposits.
Usually the more serious of the two, AdBlue — and the details sits on its own Stop-and-Call page. Both are ours to deal with.
Stop-and-Call prices for a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain
Our engineers cannot put one number on this page frankly, because this job isn't one job. What changes it:
- This is the big one: whether the motor has been run, or driven.
- The tank's capacity, set against how much of the wrong fuel went into it.
- Which got in: petrol or AdBlue.
- Access: the vehicle's position, and if working on it there is safe for a van.
Tell us what the car is, how much went in, and whether your engine has run. A straight answer comes back, not a range. For the car at home that's going nowhere and is not pressing, works too.
Stop-and-Call motorists ask us these about petrol in diesel
Fuel drains on a Stop-and-Call petrol station forecourt
Yes — forecourts are where a good portion of this takes place. Our technicians work at another forecourt nearby and the other forecourts around town routinely, with the owner's consent — tell us which one you are at when you ring and we will tell you if our engineers can work there.
How much petrol is too much for a diesel?
It rests on the proportion instead of the litres, and far more on whether your motor has run. Five litres in a nearly empty tank is a different matter from five in a full one — but either way, the thing that settles how much work is required is if that mix has been drawn through the fuel system.
I drove the car after putting petrol in my diesel. What next?
Stop sensibly. Off. Nothing after that. Not restarting it is the single most useful thing available to you now. Driving does shift the issue out of the tank then into the pump and injectors, yes, and it stays salvageable much more frequently than people assume.
Will a fuel drain void my warranty?
It isn't a modification, and so a drain then flush carried out properly does not void a manufacturer's warranty. Running a diesel on petrol is the thing more likely to cause a disagreement with one, which is another good reason to leave the car switched off.
Could I put some two-stroke in and just drive?
What petrol has diluted is not put back by two-stroke oil, which is an old fix for a different fault. So no. After that? Still petrol in that tank, and a pump that has to live with the stuff.
Do I need a main dealer for petrol in a diesel?
There is no need to bring it to a franchised dealer, because our engineers drain and clean your car wherever it is.
Standing next to it?
Never turn your engine back on.
If you have already driven the vehicle, pull over somewhere safe, turn it off then leave it off. Cold, still, going nowhere: that is the best position to be in. People fear this far more than they need to.
Across Pembrokeshire and around Stop-and-Call: call-out fuel draining, at home or on the forecourt or at the roadside.