What to do if you put the wrong fuel in your car, van or bike

What to do if you put the wrong fuel in your car, van or bike.

Whether you’ve put diesel in your petrol car or petrol in your diesel car, putting the wrong type of fuel in your vehicle can be a costly mistake.
Fortunately, most new cars have a system to prevent misfueling but that doesn’t stop it happening, with 150,000 motorists putting the wrong fuel in their car every year.

What should you do if you put the wrong fuel in your car?

It doesn’t matter if its petrol in diesel or vice versa, there are a couple of things you should do immediately when you misfuel:

1. Don’t start your car!

Starting the car will mix both types of fuel and begin to circulate the fuel around your engine. This can damage your engine.

2. Push your car to a safe place

Get help to push your car in neutral to a safe location away from the fuel pumps.

3. Contact us immediately for a rapid response

If you’ve misfueled your best bet is to contact us and we will explain the process of repair and have a technician with you ASAP.
In most cases if you haven’t started your car and driven with two fuels inside your engine, draining the fuel should be enough to solve the problem.

I’ve put petrol in a diesel car?

Putting petrol in a diesel car is worse for your engine than putting diesel in a petrol car.
That’s because diesel cars use the fuel as a lubricant. As petrol is corrosive, it can damage the inside of your engine as it’s not built to withstand petrol.
On top of that, petrol will reduce the lubrication of your car’s fuel pump, meaning different components will rub together, which could cause damage and cause metal particles to form in your fuel.
Once the fuel begins to pump through the engine, these particles spread, potentially causing damage further down your fuel system and the further down the damage, the more expensive the repairs.

Symptoms of petrol in a diesel car

• Your vehicle struggles to start
• Your exhaust emits smoke when driving
• Your engine is noisy
• Your car loses power at high speed after 20 minutes of driving
• Your engine won’t stop once it’s running

How to fix your car if you’ve put petrol in a diesel engine

What needs to be done to fix your problem really depends on the amount of petrol you’ve pumped into your diesel car and whether you’ve turned on the ignition.
More often than not the solution will be a full drain, removing all contaminated fuel from your car and cleaning any other sections of your fuel system that have been affected.
If you’ve driven with contaminated fuel then we can still fix it for you but it’s a little more involved.
In some cases, if you’ve only put a small amount of petrol into your diesel car (usually less than 10 per cent of your fuel tank’s full capacity) filling up with diesel should be enough to solve the problem.
It’s best to leave it to the experts if you’re unsure so give us a call on 07554851721

Help! I’ve put diesel in a petrol car

If you had to pick a way to misfuel, putting diesel into a petrol car is the one to choose because it’s much less serious.
Usually, the worst thing that will happen is a misfiring engine but it’s usually solved by a full fuel tank drain.
Symptoms of diesel in a petrol car

– Your engine misfires
– Your engine won’t start
– Your engine cuts out
– Your exhaust emits smoke when you’re driving
How to fix your car if you’ve put diesel in a petrol engine

Usually there’s little serious damage if you put diesel in a petrol car and it’s just a case of getting rid of the contaminated fuel and carrying on as normal. It’s sometimes advisable to flush your fuel lines with clean petrol as well.
If you’ve put a small amount of diesel in your petrol car (five per cent of your fuel tank’s capacity or less), filling your car up with clean petrol should be enough to solve the issue, however most garages and mechanics will recommend a full drain too.
The only real issues come about if you’ve driven your petrol car with contaminated fuel. In cases like this you may need to change your fuel filter.