Bonaly: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
With that tank still holding the petrol and the motor not yet started, almost every job takes only a drain, so keep your engine off. That outcome is determined in the minutes straight after the fill-up, rather than by the amount that got in. All over Bonaly and the rest of City of Edinburgh, Petrol in Diesel drains your car and cleans it where it stands, whether by a roadside, on a drive or at a forecourt. We can show you what the following move will be. Phone — it comes before all else.
The first five steps: petrol in a diesel
- Do not fire it up — and do not trust it when it does start. This is the bit people have wrong about petrol in a diesel especially. A petrol motor fed diesel typically just can't run, and so the person stops and the harm ends with them. A diesel given petrol normally starts, idles and pulls away perfectly well for a few miles. It's not okay. It is eating into the fuel system while you drive.
- Turning the car's ignition on commonly primes the system, and priming is what draws petrol out of the tank and into your pump and injectors. Those are the components diesel keeps protected on its way through, before it combusts. Petrol does the burning and none of the lubricating. Leave your ignition be.
- Don't weaken it. Diesel poured on top takes out nothing, so all you have is more of what was already there, since percentage is not how a diesel fuel system accepts petrol. Super unleaded? Just petrol. The grade makes no difference.
- Our team would sooner travel to a tricky place than have it started — so if you reasonably can, stay put. Nothing is quicker to sort than a motor that has not moved. On the verge on Capelaw Road, that means hazards on then keep the car.
- The van turning up rather than circling turns on two things: a postcode that starts EH13 0, and whatever is nearest to you with a name on it. Get both ready before you ring.
- Three facts decide the entire visit: the fuel you tipped in, the approximate measure of it, plus if it has been going since. Our number is 0333 366 0103.
How far you drove is what we care about, not how long the motor has been sitting — and here's why. Diesel performs two jobs on its way through the engine: it burns, and before burning it lubricates that injection pump and its injectors. Petrol handles the first only. So a quick fill on the way in, the penny dropping around eleven, and a diesel Volkswagen Golf parked at Wester Hailes since quarter past eight means those few miles were driven with the pump working on a fuel drained of a lot of its protection. Ring us then leave the vehicle right where it is.
Simple, these ones, and the reason is the distance: a mile at gentle throttle draws very little diesel. Petrol into a diesel Renault Megane somewhere in Bonaly, a boot full of shopping, and you sat at Lidl — phone us. Exiting the bay isn't worth a restart. Your tank gets emptied where it waits, your fuel lines purged, clean diesel in, and you drive home.
You'll be advised to move it clear of that gateway and deal with it later. Do not. On the zig-zags outside the local primary school, a misfilled Skoda Octavia running on diesel is in the way, and that's all it is. Crank it three more times being helpful and you have turned a tank into a fuel system: every start primes the fuel lines, every prime pulls more petrol beyond the filter on to your pump. Let them moan. Phone.
This is what a job in the car park at The Spylaw typically looks like. Our technicians reach your car, ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run since — those three replies determine much of the work. Then the polluted mixture comes out of your tank, your lines get rinsed, and the fuel filter comes off where your BMW 3 Series has a serviceable one. New diesel goes in and your system is bled. Then our engineers fire it up, check it runs properly, and you drive away.
Clattering, an uneven idle, white smoke, a throttle gone soft. That is a misfilled diesel Mercedes E-Class telling you what is wrong. Switch off where you have stopped, close to 108th Scout Hall or anywhere else, and don't start the vehicle to find a better location.
Can petrol be pumped from a diesel at a forecourt?
It kicks off at a pump, mostly. Often enough it wraps up there as well. Still at Tesco? Then that's usually where it gets done. Petrol station forecourts are normal for us, with the permission of the site.
At a garage, this gets spotted with your engine never run, and nowhere else does it. The few seconds between reading your receipt and reaching for your key settle how much needs rinsing. Anywhere other than the forecourt — a car park, a drive, a lay-by — the vehicle was fired up and moved to get there, so fuel was pulled from the tank, through the fuel filter then into the high-pressure fuel pump. That means your lines and the fuel filter require cleaning as well as that tank. It is not a calamity, and our engineers can still put it right where the vehicle sits.
Out from the petrol pump, the next motorist can get by — so yes, let the attendants help you move the vehicle. Well worth doing. Cranking the car just for four car lengths? Not a chance.
Places we cover near Bonaly
Hailes, Woodhall, Colinton, Juniper Green, Torphin — each of those on the rounds that bring us across to Bonaly itself, a residential suburb.
Not on that list? That means nothing. The names above are just the nearest few, and the majority of towns around City of Edinburgh have a page of their own elsewhere on our site. On a boundary, or somewhere your phone gets wrong? Call us to enquire instead of assuming.
That map shows the patch this page includes. Your car never needs to move to us. Our technicians work across all of that — kerbside, forecourts, driveways, car parks.
Bonaly: stranded where you stopped
Not everybody has a chance to stop somewhere suitable. A normal call for us rather than a rare one: worked out after setting off, finished up by the verge of Woodhall Road or in a lay-by with the hazard lights on.
Clear of your car if it is not safe to sit in it, beside it when it is. Every mile a diesel obliges you for on petrol drags the mixture further into the system — and oblige it frequently will, which is why the motor doesn't get restarted to limp somewhere safer. We will bring our van to an awkward place without any bother, and for the vehicle that is a lot better than pressing on.
Petrol in a diesel, but the car has moved
This is where your M8 counts, under 3 miles from Bonaly. A drop in power, a lumpy idle, smoke: those are the signs when they appear, rather than a clean stop — and a misfilled diesel will usually take you onto it and some distance along before anything feels wrong at all.
Do not start it to reposition. Pull off at the next sensible junction then turn off. Assume the worst of it on a long trip. Anything close to the under 5 miles to the nearest city, and the petrol has been through the filter, through your pump, through your injectors. Say so when you ring. What our technicians bring changes.
Bonaly itself
Bonaly is a suburban area situated on the riverside in the City of Edinburgh, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 3595 residents. Bonaly sits approximately 134 metres above sea level and is located about 4.5 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Bonaly is close to nearby places such as Hailes, Woodhall, and Colinton, and is part of the wider Edinburgh urban area. Bonaly offers a relatively quiet residential environment, with easy access to the city's amenities.
The job in Bonaly, step by step
- The responses shape the work, which is why our technicians ask before giving a price: what was put in, how much of it, and whether your motor has run.
- Our technicians clear that tank of the polluted fuel.
- What is remaining in your system shouldn't be what created the issue, and so the fuel lines get cleaned and the fuel filter cleaned.
- Bleeding your system follows, once new diesel is in.
- Your engine is fired up and checked to confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel.
At that point it is ready to pull away. Our technicians do all of this wherever your car has stopped, which means it never needs to be taken to a garage, and when it has been spotted quickly, it's very unusual for there to be long-term damage.
Bonaly AdBlue removal is a distinct job
Do not start it: that first step holds whether what was put in was AdBlue or petrol. What changes is the problem itself. Petrol thins the diesel and strips the protection the system relies on. AdBlue? Urea dissolved in water. Pour that in with the diesel and you get rust instead, plus build-up.
Both are ours. There is a separate Bonaly page for AdBlue removal, with the details on it — including the reasons it usually turns out to be the worse of the two.
How much is a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain around Bonaly?
We can't put one price on this page truthfully, since the job isn't one job. What changes it:
- This is the big one: whether the motor has been started, or driven.
- Wrong fuel in, against what the tank takes — that proportion.
- Whether it's petrol or AdBlue.
- Access: the car's position, and whether working on it there is sensible for our van.
Tell us your vehicle, the quantity and whether it has run, and you will get a straight answer rather than a range. Not time-critical, with your car at home and going nowhere? Then works.
Petrol in diesel questions from Bonaly motorists
At a petrol station around Bonaly, can you do a fuel drain there?
Plenty of what our engineers do takes place nowhere else. So yes. Our technicians attend Shell and the other forecourts locally all the time, with the station's permission — tell us which one you are at when you ring and we will tell you whether our technicians can work there.
How much petrol is too much for a diesel?
Litres aren't the yardstick. Ratio is, and much more than either, it matters whether anything has been run. What determines how much work is needed is if that mix has been pulled through the system — since though five litres in an almost empty tank is a distinct situation from five in a full one, either way that is the question.
I put petrol in my diesel and drove the car. What next?
Stop sensibly. Off. Nothing after that. It's salvageable a lot more often than motorists expect, even though driving is what takes the trouble from your tank into the pump and injectors — and the single most valuable thing you can do now is not restart it.
My warranty — does a fuel drain void it?
A manufacturer's warranty withstands a drain and flush done to a good standard, which is no change at all. What's likelier to start a disagreement is a diesel that has been run on petrol. One more reason for your engine to stay off.
Could I put some two-stroke in and just drive?
No. It belongs to a different problem from a bygone era, and petrol has weakened something no oil of that kind replaces. Later? Still petrol in your tank, and a pump that has to put up with the stuff.
Do I need a main dealer for petrol in a diesel?
There is no need to take it to a franchised dealer, because we drain and flush the vehicle wherever it is.
Standing next to it?
Shut off is how it remains.
If you have already driven the car, pull over somewhere sensible, switch it off and keep it off. A stationary, cold car is the best position to be in, and this is recoverable from far more frequently than drivers fear.
Throughout City of Edinburgh and around Bonaly: mobile fuel draining, at home or on the forecourt or at the kerbside.