Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in Blackhall? Don't Start It
If you have not started the engine yet, don't. A drain and nothing more is nearly always what a motor needs while the petrol is still inside the tank and the engine has not been started, which is why it is the coming few minutes that matter, not how much was put in. Petrol in Diesel comes to the vehicle wherever it has ended up in Blackhall or the rest of City of Edinburgh, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on a private drive, and drains and cleans it there. Our technicians will explain what your next step will be. Ring us — that goes before everything else.
Petrol in a diesel: what to try first
- While you drive, the pump and the injectors suffer. That is why you don't fire it up, and why you do not depend on it once it has started. The trick about petrol in a diesel specifically — the point drivers get wrong — is that it drives away normally for the first mile or two. Diesel in a petrol engine generally won't run at all, which stops the motorist and stops the damage with them. This one lets you carry on.
- Leave the ignition alone as well. Diesel performs two roles: it ignites, and before it ignites it lubricates your high-pressure fuel pump and its injectors. Petrol manages the first and not the second. Turning the ignition on is frequently enough to prime the system, which carries that petrol out of the tank and into exactly those parts.
- Do not pour diesel on top to thin it. A diesel fuel system will not tolerate petrol by percentage the way that advice implies, and topping up clears nothing — it merely hands you a bigger tank of the same mix. The type makes no difference either: super unleaded is simply petrol.
- Stay still if it's safe to. Hazards on, ignition off, leave it. Wherever you have stopped — the verge on Strachan Road, anywhere — a tricky spot for us trumps a started motor, and nothing is simpler for us to sort out than a car that never shifted.
- Before you phone, have your whereabouts. Anything closest to you with a label on it, plus a postcode beginning EH4 3 — that is what settles whether the technician turns up or circles.
- What got in, about how much, plus if the motor has fired — the three details determine the whole call-out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us.
Removing petrol from your diesel at a forecourt
A big chunk of this job is completed at a forecourt, as that's where it usually kicks off. The drain usually happens there and then. Still on the forecourt at Sainsbury's? Given the station's agreement, that is a place our technicians work, and often.
At a forecourt, it gets spotted with the engine never fired, and nowhere else does it. Everywhere else — a car park, a driveway, a lay-by — your car was switched on and moved to get there, which means fuel was sucked from your tank, through your filter and into the high-pressure pump. That is not a disaster, and our technicians can still deal with it where it stands. It does mean the fuel lines and your filter need cleaning as well as your tank, and that is decided by the few seconds between seeing your receipt and going for the key.
Clear of the petrol pump, the next customer can get through — so yes, let the attendants help you wheel it. Worth it. Firing it for four car lengths? Don't.
Car parks like the one at Lidl are a place our engineers attend regularly, and the fuel is seldom the awkward part. That bay is: cars either side, a trolley shelter behind, at times a height bar on the way in that decides if a technician can reach you at all. So tell us how boxed in you are when you ring, and which way your car is facing. Where we cannot work next to your diesel Renault Megane we will shift the car without firing it — and that is not fussiness about a handful of seconds of running. Any start primes that fuel system and sucks more of the blend out of that tank and towards the pump, so a motor moved twice into a better spot has gradually turned into a worse job than one left just where it stopped.
Shift the vehicle out of the gateway and deal with it later — that is what somebody will say, and it's wrong. Parked on the zig-zags at the local primary school, a misfilled diesel Nissan Qashqai is a hassle and nothing worse. Fired up three more times for good manners, it's no longer a tank fault but a fuel system one, as priming occurs with every start and more petrol goes past the fuel filter towards your pump. Let everyone moan. Call us.
You set off at the end, once our technicians have started the car and made sure it runs correctly on clean diesel, with the fuel system primed. Before that, in the car park at The Norhet, the tainted fuel comes out of your tank, your lines get flushed and the filter comes off where your Ford Focus has a replaceable one. Everything begins with three questions when we reach the car: what went in, how much of it, and whether it has been fired up since.
Clattering, a lumpy idle, white smoke, a throttle gone limp. That's a misfilled diesel Mercedes E-Class telling you what's wrong. Turn off where you have stopped, by Blackhall St. Columba's Church or anywhere else, and do not restart it to find a better place.
Purged, not drained — that is what a diesel Audi A3 which got as far as War Memorial needs. Running a diesel puts that mixture into the filter, the fuel lines, the pump and its rail, none of which empties with your tank, so by now the tank holds the smaller part of the damage.
Parts our team reach around Blackhall
Being a residential suburb, Blackhall has a frequent visit, and the villages nearby go along on that same run: Drylaw and Ravelston, Silverknowes and Murrayfield, Davidsons Mains.
Not on the list? That means nothing. The places above are only the closest few, and most places across City of Edinburgh have a page of their own somewhere on this site. Guessing is the mistake to avoid, above all on the boundary or somewhere a satnav gets lost. Ring us to enquire.
Look at this map for the ground shown on this page. The vehicle doesn't need to come to us. Our technicians work across the lot — roadside, forecourts, driveways, car parks.
Stuck at the roadside in Blackhall
The chance to pull over somewhere safe does not fall to everyone. Hazards going at a lay-by somewhere, or pulled onto the verge beside Carfrae Road as you realised after setting off — our engineers take that call often enough that it's the ordinary kind.
Whether you wait with the car or move clear of it rests on whether sitting nearby looks safe. It will frequently oblige. A diesel running on petrol limps along quite willingly, and that is the problem: start it up to get to somewhere safer and the mix goes further into the system with every mile covered. A technician driving to a difficult place is no trouble for us, and it is a lot better for the vehicle than driving on.
Already driven it? Petrol in a diesel over a few miles
The M8 is the road which counts now, and lies under 5 miles from Blackhall. A misfilled diesel will often take you onto it and some distance along before anything feels wrong, while the symptoms when they appear are normally a loss of power, a lumpy idle and some smoke rather than a clean stop.
Pull off at the next safe exit, switch off, and don't start it to reposition. Assume the worst of it on a long drive. Anything approaching the under 3 miles to the nearest city, and the contamination has been through the fuel filter, through the pump, through the fuel injectors. Say so when you phone. What our engineers bring changes.
A bit about Blackhall
Blackhall is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 2.7 miles northwest of Edinburgh's city centre. Blackhall occupies a coastal setting, with its elevation at around 63 metres above sea level, and is characterised by detached housing. Blackhall is close to nearby places such as Drylaw, Ravelston, and Silverknowes, and has a population of around 4663 residents.
What comes next when we reach you in Blackhall
- Three things get asked before any quote — the fuel that got in, the amount, and if anything has been run since. Each answer shapes the work.
- Out comes the contaminated fuel.
- Our engineers purge the lines and clear the filter, so what is remaining in the fuel system is not what started the trouble.
- We pour clean diesel in and prime the fuel system.
- After it is fired up, our technicians confirm it runs smoothly on new diesel.
That leaves the car ready to set off. We do everything wherever the car has come to a stop, which means it never needs to be taken to a garage, and when it has been caught quickly, it is very unusual for there to be lasting damage.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Blackhall is a separate problem
The fault is not the same, though the opening rule is — don't fire it up — if what went in was AdBlue instead of petrol. The lubrication a fuel system relies on is taken away by petrol, which dilutes your diesel. AdBlue? Urea dissolved in water. Pour that in with your diesel and you get rust instead, plus deposits.
AdBlue removal in Blackhall has a page of its own with the detail on it, including why it is usually the more significant of the two. Our technicians deal with both.
How much is a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain around Blackhall?
Frankly, no single price belongs on a page like this. The job differs. Here's what changes it:
- Has it been run or driven? Nothing else counts for as much.
- How much of the wrong fuel got in, set against how much that tank holds.
- The sort of liquid in the tank, unleaded or AdBlue.
- Where is it? And can a van get to it and work there safely?
Tell us what your car is, how much got in, and if the motor has run. A clear answer comes back, not a range. Not time-critical, with the vehicle at home and going nowhere? Then does this job.
Petrol in diesel queries from Blackhall motorists
I am on a forecourt in Blackhall. Can you drain the car here?
Yes, and it is where a big part of this work gets done. Tell us which one you're at when you ring and we'll tell you if our engineers can work there. With the owner's consent we attend Esso and the other forecourts nearby all the time.
A few litres of petrol in a diesel — too much?
Litres aren't the yardstick. Ratio is, and far more than either, it matters if anything has been run. A nearly empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: separate scenarios, of course. Either way, the work needed comes down to one thing, which is whether the system has had that mix pulled through it.
I drove the vehicle after putting petrol in my diesel. Now what?
Switch off somewhere safe, then keep it that way after you stop. It is salvageable much more frequently than motorists expect, even though driving is what takes the issue from that tank into your pump and injectors — and the single most useful thing you can do now is not restart it.
Will a fuel drain void my warranty?
It isn't a change, and so a drain then flush carried out correctly doesn't void a manufacturer's warranty. A disagreement over a warranty is likelier to come from running a diesel on petrol — so leave it turned off.
Adding two-stroke oil, then driving home
Two-stroke oil solves a different problem, and an old one at that. Nothing it does puts back what petrol diluted. No. That tank still has petrol in it after that, and the pump still has to cope with it.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
Not at all. We drain and clean the vehicle wherever it is, so there's no need to take it to a dealership.
Standing next to it?
The motor stays off.
If you have already driven the car, pull in somewhere safe, turn it off and leave it off. A parked, cold car is the best position to be in, and this is recoverable from a lot more regularly than people assume.
Draining wrongly fuelled vehicles, Blackhall and the rest of City of Edinburgh, wherever they are. Roadside. Forecourt. Home.