Here at Pugbitz we’re used to dealing with any and every kind of motoring mishap. Of course, much of the work we do is all about keeping your car on the road and making sure nothing goes wrong in the first place. That’s why we take such time and attention over our MOTs, services and other repairs. No matter what the job involves, we only ever use genuine named parts and the work will be carried out by an expert mechanic with many hundreds of hours of experience.
Some of the time, however, you might have to come to us with a knock, scratch, or mechanical breakdown. One of the problems we deal with on a fairly regular basis involves one of our customers calling our Denton depot in a state of panic, saying “I put petrol in my diesel car.”
Putting petrol in a diesel car is a worryingly easy thing to do. It’s estimated that as many as 150,000 motorists per year make this simple but potentially damaging mistake, putting the wrong fuel in a car and then having to deal with the consequences.
How drastic these consequences will be depends upon how you react once you realise you’ve made the mistake. Here at Pugbitz we clean out the system, leaving it ready to be filled, for just £100, but even before picking up the phone to call us there are a steps you can take to minimise the damage caused by a few litres of unleaded in a diesel car.
First of all, while it is possible to put diesel into a petrol engine it is much less common. This is because most diesel pump nozzles are designed to be too big to fit into a petrol tank. It’s not entirely impossible, of course, since you might have used a can to top up your fuel levels, but in most cases putting the wrong fuel in a car involves putting petrol in a diesel car.
The first and most important piece of advice is not to turn the engine on if you realise you’ve put the wrong fuel in. In fact, don’t even put your keys in the ignition, since keeping the fuel contained in the tank will minimise the damage caused. Once you realise your mistake inform the owners of the petrol station, who may be able to make things safer by shutting down the pump or putting a cordon around your car.
Sometimes, of course, it will only occur to you that you’ve put petrol in a diesel car after you’ve pulled away from the pump itself, in which case you should pull over and take the keys from the ignition as soon as it is safe to do so. It may be that you don’t realise your mistake until it starts to have an effect, and the signs to look out for include:
- A misfiring engine
- ‘Jerky’ acceleration
- A smoky exhaust
Even if you’re not 100% certain you’ve made the mistake it would be best to get in touch with us just in case. The £100 you’ll spend having us clear out the system will be £100 well spent, saving you much more in the event of major engine damage. We like to look after our customers and their cars, and want to make sure that a split second mistake doesn’t keep you off the road any longer than is strictly necessary.