Tow & recovery
Wrong pump. Do not turn the key
One thing decides how expensive this becomes, and it is whether the engine has run. If the keys are still in your hand, put them in a pocket and ring — the wrong fuel is sitting in a tank and nowhere else. If it has already been started, switch it off and leave it off. Every further mile pushes it into parts that cost real money to put right.
How this one goes
- Forecourt drains wherever the site will let us stand, which covers most of the ones off the A25 and A21
- A car that has been driven goes on the truck instead, to somewhere it can be looked at properly
- All anybody needs to know is what went into the tank and whether the engine has turned over since
- Nobody here is going to make you feel stupid about it
Ring from where the car is
Open 24 hours. Say what has failed, what you are driving, and the nearest thing you can see from the car.
Asked often enough to write down
I drove a couple of miles before the warning light. Is the engine ruined?
Probably not ruined, but it wants someone with the car up on a ramp, and that is not us. Our part is stopping it getting worse and putting the car where that inspection can happen.
Will the filling station let you work there?
Most will, provided we can do it without blocking a pump lane. Say which station when you ring — the layouts at Riverhead, Tonbridge and the A21 services are all different and we plan around them.
Petrol in a diesel, or diesel in a petrol — is one worse?
Petrol in a diesel does damage faster, because in that system the fuel is what lubricates the pump. Either way the instruction is identical: stop, and do not run it.