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Important Things to Avoid When You’ve Mistakenly Placed Diesel in a Petrol Engine

After refuelling your vehicle, you are ready to hit the road. You can already estimate how far you can travel with the amount of fuel you have. Unfortunately, just a few minutes in, you realise that there is something wrong. The engine starts to become erratic. You can’t control it well.  

As you start looking in the rear-view mirror, you realise that black smoke is coming out the exhaust. Eventually, you can no longer drive the vehicle, and come to a complete halt. If this happens, you have probably misfuelled. This happens when you place petrol in a diesel engine or the other way around. Immediately you will need a fuel drain.

The results can be very devastating. For some, the engine becomes damaged and they have no choice but to have the engine replaced. In the event that you’ve misfuelled, there are things that you should avoid doing to prevent the problem from escalating. Here are some of them.

Driving even farther

You worry that you are in the middle of nowhere and you can’t get help if you decide to stop. The truth is that if you keep on burning the fuel, the entire fuel system of your vehicle could be ruined. However, if you notice the problem and you decide to stop, the problem can be solved. Diesel in petrol engines won’t work. The engine will most likely be damaged because diesel contains properties that are not suitable for petrol engines. If you notice the problem, pull over and don’t wait until things get worse.

Should you ask a tow company for help?

You don’t have to ask for a tow company to come and pick you up. This would cost you a lot of money. You need a company like Motoserve that will help suck the fuel out of the vehicle. They will see to it that the fuel is fully removed before moving the vehicle out of the area. This ensures that the fuel can do no further damage. Besides, their services are way more affordable.

Have the engine fixed

You need to ask first about the cost of doing any repairs. The problem should be assessed first before action is taken. If the repairs are simple, nothing should stop you from opting for repairs. However, there are instances in which the vehicle is damaged beyond economic repair. At this point, you will probably be advised to just buy a new engine. It would cost you less. Again, when you have misfuelled, the entire system could potentially be damaged and complete replacement could be the best recourse.

There are also various devices you can buy to avoid any possibility of misfuelling in the future.