What To Do If You Put the Wrong Fuel in Your Car?

What To Do If You Put the Wrong Fuel in Your Car?

Putting the wrong fuel in your car is a more common mistake than you might think as it affects around 150,000 motorists every year. Should you be reading this because you have put the wrong fuel in your car, whether it’s putting petrol in a diesel car or diesel into a petrol car, the most important thing to do is to not start the engine as this could be a very costly mistake?

I have put the wrong fuel in my car - What do I do now?

Whether you’ve put petrol in a diesel car or vice versa, do not panic! Here are a few things that you should do:

1. DO NOT START YOUR CAR - If you start the engine, you’ll end up mixing both types of fuels making it difficult for the fuel evacuation process to clean and you could also end up damaging your engine.

2. Take your car to a safe place - Inform the petrol station that you have added the wrong fuel then put your car into neutral and push it to a safe place to wait for help.

3. Call someone for help - The final step is to call a garage, fuel evacuation service or your breakdown serviced to let them know what happened, they should be able to drain the fuel tank and clean the car’s system for you.

What to do if you put diesel in a petrol car

This is the rarer scenario of the two as you will find most diesel pumps don’t fit into a petrol filler neck. However, if you do manage to put diesel into a petrol car’s tank do not start the engine because as we mentioned this will allow the fuel to circulate and contaminate the fuel system. The danger of putting diesel into a petrol car is less serious, diesel is a heavier fuel and isn’t as easy to ignite in the engine of a petrol car. If the diesel can’t circulate then the engine may not even start.

What to do if you put petrol in a diesel car

This scenario is the most common type of mistake motorists make and that’s because the petrol nozzle can easily fit into the filler neck of a diesel car’s fuel tank and it also is the more serious problem. As we have repeatedly said, under no circumstances should you start the engine as this will allow the fuel to circulate around it, wreaking havoc on the entire system. This is because the petrol acts as a solvent damaging parts of the fuel system and it could become a very costly repair if left untreated.

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