Ok, so you have just been to the petrol station and in your usual mad rush between seeing to the kids, running errands or fighting the rush hour traffic in your daily commute, your car starts to do funny things and you're not quite sure about it. First thing, don't panic, get yourself to the side of the road and then think about the next 5 warning signs of wrong fuel or fuel contamination in your vehicle.

If you have just left the forecourt and got down the road and your vehicle begins to jump suddenly, this is the number 1 warning sign you have just put the wrong fuel in your tank, this could be petrol in your diesel car or vice versa, but you will know if this happens.

Every time you accelerate it will feel like the car loses power and jolts backwards and forwards as the petrol sticks to the pistons and then acts as a solvent causing damage to the pumps and corroding the lubrication which in turn means you have metal on metal, this can cause long term damage, but not if you get it drained quickly. There are many parts of a diesel engine that is not compatible with petrol, these parts can also be damaged too.

One tell tale sign of a common mis-fuel is the smokey exhaust. If you notice your exhaust smoking heavily then stop the car right away and turn off the ignition. This can be the petrol heating with the diesel causing extreme heat and burning on the exhaust and you don't want to be forking out for a new exhaust!

Sometimes you will hear a big bang or maybe a few splutters depending on the type of vehicle you have. Most cars will misfire, so too will vans and bikes. Lorries and larger vehicles may jolt too as the pistons struggle to cope without lubricant. Again, stop the engine and seek emergency roadside help.

1 - Car Hire 
When you go on holiday you might hire a car, we all like to go those sunny places but sometimes we forget to think about if the car is unleaded or diesel. If you have a diesel car at home and then suddenly you now have a petrol car, it's very easy to fill your diesel car with petrol and then realise your mistake before it's too late. We do have many contracts with many of the UK's biggest car hire companies so you may already be covered in the wrong fuel policy, however, if you are not or have not taken out this kind of policy for whatever reason, we are on call with our 1 hour call out service.

2 - Rushing - (Everyone Rushes!)
It goes without saying, when the sun is out we all tend to head to the coast or places of interest here in the UK, this can often cause panics at fuel stations and many of the feedback we get from customers is that they were rushing and not thinking straight. We get that, too much sun maybe? We are only after all human!

3 - After Buying A New Car
Many of our customers report putting the wrong fuel in their cars shortly after purchasing their new car, so many times (and we have done this ourselves) after moving from petrol to diesel or vice versa, we have gone to the pumps and reached for the wrong fuel pump and then began to fill. Here at Fuel Doctor we know this only too well, but fear not, if you have a nice new shiny car, your engine won't be ruined, the wrong fuel can be flushed out ensuring that your engine is kept in tip top condition at all times.

We know adding the wrong fuel to your car may seem the like worst mistake of your life at the time, but don't let your anxiety hit the 100 mark, it's not hard to fix, simply call our Fuel Doctor on our mobile friendly number 0333 444 9000 and one of our fuel doctors will be out to get you by the roadside, all you have to do is read our reviews and feedback to see why we are the number 1 wrong fuel recovery company in the UK

When reading articles on the internet about this, there are many many scare stories about how putting petrol in your diesel engine can ruin your car, how your engine will blow, how it will erode! Ignore them all and just read our article below to get the full low down on what to do when you have just mixed your petrol and diesel cars.
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A motor vehicle is a finely tuned and handy machine. Many of us would be entirely lost without our vehicles, and it is easy to see why. Each and every car can transport at least two people from one place to the next without any issues at all. ​

Late night trouble as Mercedes owner puts wrong fuel into car, luckily they called the right people for the job and we were on the scene within the hour to save the blushes of this customer. We extracted the wrong fuel and cleaned the tank before injecting the correct stuff and the Mercedes and its owner were swiftly on their way.

If your Car, Van, Bike or even lawnmower gets into wrong fuel territory don't delay in calling the wrong fuel experts, Fuel Doctor.

​We asked one of our customers to share their experience of putting the wrong fuel in their vehicle and how they found the whole experience, sometimes when you're stuck in the middle of nowhere in your vehicle and need help, it's not so bad when you're in a camper van. Here's a story about one family that needed our help and thanks to Alex and family for writing this article for us.

"Many people say that it won't happen to them until it happens to them, we laugh at others that accidentally put the wrong fuel in their cars but when it's you, you realise how much you need help and that feeling of helplessness and the punch in the stomach when you realise you've done something stupid!

We set off for our Scotland adventure and hired a campervan for the first time and we were all excited about hitting the highlands and the lowlands for 10 days to get out their in the countryside. We set off early morning from Manchester and headed up the M6 towards Glasgow with a full tank of diesel, according to our guy we were told that we could expect to get 300 miles on the tank which was more than enough to get us to our destination up to Fort William on the east coast of Scotland. 

We stopped off at Loch Lomond on the way and then set off the next morning further north to where the lowlands met the highlands and got as far as Lochbroom Filling Station when we decided that we should fill the camper back up ready for the next leg of our journey touring the islands off the east coast. It was a complete blonde moment when my husband asked me to fill up while he sorted the bike racks and took the children into the cafe nearby and being so used to putting petrol in my car, I picked up the green nozzle and just began filling. I didn't even notice, I filled the tank up completely and even went in and paid still unknowing as to what I had done!

We moved the camper van to the other side of the forecourt while we had some dinner in the restaurant and it turned over fine, there were no issues whatsoever and we still hadn't realised my error. Then, when we set off again we began to notice weird signs that we had put the wrong fuel in the tank, the acceleration felt jumpy and the camper van didn't feel responsive, after 30 seconds it began to jump and my husband decided to rev the engine a little which seemed to make things worse and so decided to pull over, right there in the middle of nowhere around 9pm.

I remember the sinking feeling when my husband asked me what fuel I put in, it was that moment that I realised I had filled up the tank - and a very big tank at that with petrol!  We sat there for a moment and thought about what we could do when I remembered a friend of mine back in Manchester had mentioned Fuel Doctor when she had also filled her car up with wrong fuel so I googled (with very poor reception) and managed to get the phone number and called them and that's when we knew were going to be ok. The lady on the phone assured me that they had a fuel doctor in the area that could be with us in 2 hours, which is amazing considering where we were so in true British style we put the kettle on and played cards with the kids while we awaited our knight in shining armour.

We received a call from an amazing man called Gerry and that he would be with us within 20 minutes which was great news and ahead of time too, he parked up the van next to the camper, then he found the petrol tank and placed his nozzle thing in the tank and began to drain, it was so quick, we offered a quick cup of tea and thanked him profusely and within 20 minutes he had drained the fuel from our camper and added £10 worth of diesel which was enough to get us back to the filling station where we had come from so we can fill it back up again.

We thought we might have ruined the engine but Gerry was great, he assured us that by turning the engine on without turning it over it would flush out the wrong fuel and let the diesel run through and even added some lubricant. He then began to turn the engine over and after around 4-5 times of trying it sparked into life with a lot of smoke but this died down after a minute or two and we knew we would be ok. 

Gerry didn't stop there though, he then followed us back to the filling station to make sure we got there safely! Sometimes people are amazing and go beyond and we are so made up with Gerry for this.

When we got back to the filling station, it was closed until the morning so we parked up at the side, setup the beds and made hey until the morning. We spent the night at a filling station in the middle of the highlands but it was all part of the adventure, we laughed it off and got on with our holiday. 

Every time I fill up now, I make a point of thinking about what I am putting in my car!

Fuel Doctor Birmingham was called out to an A Class Mercedes recovery in Tipton Birmingham. The driver had put a full tank of petrol in his diesel car. No need to panic though, once the driver called us we were able to drain the fuel, clean his tank and system and have him back on the road within the hour.

Once again Fuel Doctor saves the day and yet another motorist back on the road in no time!

Welcome to Daniel who is covering Staffordshire including Wolverhampton, Walsall, Birmingham and all the smaller towns up and down the areas.

Daniel is on call 24hrs a day 7 days a week to help people that put the wrong fuel in their cars, trucks, bikes and even lawn mowers! 

Dan is a professionally trained fuel drain technician and a real asset to the Fuel Doctor name. We regularly get great feedback from our customers on how quickly and professionally he can drain the wrong fuel from a customer's vehicle and get them back on the road. 

As you can see from the imagews

OK, so we are not technically and emergency service, but to those that stick the wrong fuel in their cars, we are. However, this time, we were not the ones being called out, we wanted to help out the fellow fire service, police and ambulances that had been tackling a huge fire in Littleborough Rochdale earlier this week and we were on hand to help keep them "refuel" with 30 bags of chips.

We thought we would ask some of our customers what it was like for them when you used our fuel drain service and asked them to write some words on their experience. Many customers already write their reviews and experiences of our national fuel drain service on our customer review page and you can go ahead and visit that link to see what people think day in day out when using our wrong fuel recovery service.

In this instance, Mrs Dyson wrote in to us to explain her situation and how our service literally helped her life!

"We were rushing about as usual getting the kids ready for school and I noticed I was low on fuel, I knew I had enough to get the kids to school and to the garage so I decided to do the school run first so they wouldn't be late then head over to the garage to fill up. I was due to tender for a new contract we had been working on in Derby as we work in a local mental health charity.

Well, I was rushing thinking of my pitches and what we were going to be discussing in the meeting when I realised after already adding over 30 litres of petrol in my diesel car. I was day dreaming and realised it was the green hose and not the black hose! I panicked and got my phone out to call the AA but a friend of mine said to try Fuel Doctor as they would be a lot cheaper and get the job done. I called and a lovely person on the end of the phone assured me my car will be fine as I worried about the engine now, which was nice.

I got help to push the car off the forecourt and sat in the car feeling a bit daft. Without a lie, 30 minutes flashed by and Dan turned up, my knight in a shiny van and straight away began to hook up the drain system to my car and began emptying the fuel. He was very friendly, prompt and knew I was in a rush so just got on with the job in hand which was great. Literally 20 minutes later, the car started, he ran the fuel through the engine and I paid on my card right there and then - job done"

Best thing, I was spending the half hour going through my notes for the impending meeting and made a few changes - the tender was eventually accepted so I guess Fuel Doctor helped us out in more than one way!

However, honestly, really professional, friendly, calm and relaxed service - speedy but without compromise to service. If you ever have a brunette moment like I did, give them a call"

We provide hundreds and hundreds of fuel drains a month, most put petrol in diesel and vice versa, but each one is the same. We get called out to a location, we find you and then we make the situation safe for other road users and perform our mobile fuel drain so that you can get on with your day.

One aspect that holds up the speed of how quickly we can attend is the location. Many customers put wrong fuel in their car and then manage to drive a few miles from the forecourt and realise their error and then begin to pull over to the side of the road. This is where time is of the essence, we need to get to the stranded customer by the roadside as soon as possible and this is where it gets good.

We have introduced our mobile app integrated to our mobile site so that we can geolocate you from anywhere in the UK. Setup with Google Maps technology when you call us, as long as you have location services turned on in privacy settings we can send you an SMS text to ask for permission to geolocate your phone right to the very spot of where you are. Then with GPS systems in every Fuel Doctor van, we can then see the closest Fuel Doctor to your location and assign that job to them so you get the fastest service delivered all round.

If you check out the mobile version of our site, you will see it's different from the desktop version, this is because we know that when you have put wrong fuel in your car and are stranded you need to call straight away, it's aimed at ease of use.

If you put the wrong fuel in your car anywhere in the UK, check out mobile site and click to call our national call centre so we can get to you in no time. Call 0333 444 9000 today cheap on mobile.