Upper Shirley: Petrol in a Diesel Car? Here Is What Happens
Stop, and leave your motor off — not on, and not for a second to move the car. Has not been run? Then petrol in a diesel will usually be a straightforward drain-and-flush job wherever your vehicle has stopped — and nothing settles that as much as the next few minutes do. Here's the sequence of things from now, anywhere you're around Upper Shirley.
Petrol in a diesel? What to do in minute one
Before anything else, these — in this sequence.
- Keys out of the ignition. Switching your ignition on can be enough to prime the fuel system, and priming pulls petrol out of your tank toward the components it harms. Leave the car off altogether.
- Do not top it up with diesel. Adding diesel takes out nothing. You end up with a fuller tank of the same mixture.
- Being seen comes first near moving traffic: switch the hazards on, and only then deal with anything else.
- The attendants will usually help you roll it clear of the petrol pump. Let them, and roll it by hand — never on the engine, even for a couple of yards.
- Keep the till receipt. It says which fuel got in plus roughly how much, which is the first thing we'll ask.
If you were still driving when you realised, pull over somewhere safe instead of pushing on for the services — on the M3, under 3 miles from Upper Shirley, that means the next junction. Step one follows.
Each Upper Shirley fuel drain starts here: has your engine run?
What happens next rests on one answer, and only one.
Not run, not even briefly:
- The petrol sits in the tank, and only there.
- Where the vehicle sits is normally where the work happens: a drain, then a flush.
- No spot is better, and it is why the first stage counts so much.
If the motor has run, even for a moment:
- Out of the tank, past your filter, into the fuel lines: that's how far that petrol has got.
- A bigger run takes it right through to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
- Flushing the lines, your filter sorted, and sometimes more: this job expands as the miles does.
The reason the line falls there: diesel protects your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors as it flows through them, and petrol does not. Nothing is harmed by petrol that is just waiting in a tank. Pump the petrol, though, and it grinds down the very parts that move it.
What to have ready when you call about petrol in a diesel from Upper Shirley
A little planning is the difference between a van that finds you and a van that goes round.
- SO15 7 and the rest of the postcode is the best way to start telling us where you are.
- Wherever you have parked, the road's name helps — whether that's Melrose Road or somewhere else — and so does the name of a car park.
- Or the landmark. A car park is easier to find by what it serves, such as the one outside M&S Simply Food.
- The vehicle. Make, model, and that it is a diesel.
- What got in. Petrol, or AdBlue. AdBlue is a different job with its own page for Upper Shirley, so tell us which.
- How long the nozzle was in, or the litres from your receipt — whichever tells us how much.
- Has it run? If so, tell us how far it got, and how it was driven.
- Sort who owns your car before our engineers get there: some hire or company contracts want the owner to approve the work, and doing it faster first.
Next, 0333 366 0103. Not pressing, the vehicle parked at home with nowhere to be? Then will do too.
Waiting for a fuel drain around Upper Shirley: what to do
The wait is where well-intended help does the damage. Stick to these.
- Where the car has stopped decides where you wait. Exposed: away from it, clear of the traffic. Safe: with it. Either way, safety before your car.
- Not to roll it a couple of yards, not to check it is all right, not for a passer-by's kindness: no one starts it.
- Additives remain in the boot. Injector cleaner and two-stroke oil draw none of that petrol out again.
- A home-made drain leaves the fuel that has already gone beyond your tank, and siphoning petrol by the road is risky too.
- Keep the ignition off — your windows and the radio too.
Van arrived? The fuel drain, one step at a time
- First, three questions: which fuel was put in, the amount, and has it run? Those replies decide the job, and so our quote follows them.
- Draining it is how that blend gets taken out of that tank.
- Petrol that has moved beyond your tank travels in the fuel lines if it ran, and your lines are purged to shift it.
- Where the car has a usable filter, it's swapped; if not, cleared.
- Your system is primed with clean diesel.
- Starting the car. When the system is primed with new diesel, we fire it up and make sure it runs smoothly.
The vehicle has new diesel running through it before our technicians head off. If it has been caught early, permanent damage is very rare, and your car returns to normal driving right away.
Back on the road in Upper Shirley after the fuel drain
- Nothing special is needed after a start with fresh diesel — ordinary driving will do.
- Pull over and ring us back if anything looks wrong early on — a light on the dash, smoke from the exhaust, an idle that runs rough, or a throttle with a dead spot.
- An insurer, a fleet manager or a hire company may ask what was done, so keep your documents.
- Next time, trust the petrol pump's label rather than the colour of its handle.
About Upper Shirley itself
Upper Shirley is a suburban area located near the coast in Hampshire, sitting approximately 41 metres above sea level. Upper Shirley is situated close to the city of Southampton, with Shirley, Aldermoor, and Shirley Warren as nearby places. Upper Shirley has a population of around 5749 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Upper Shirley is also within commuting distance to London, being around 68.6 miles away.
Fuel drains about Upper Shirley and beyond
The same teams that take petrol in diesel call-outs around Upper Shirley cover Shirley, Aldermoor and Shirley Warren, and most of Hampshire beyond them. If you're close to a border or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Petrol in a diesel around Hampshire? Leave it off then ring
Step one is all of it: motor off, keys out, receipt in your pocket. From there Petrol in Diesel carries on, on the forecourt, at the kerbside or on your driveway.