Broomhouse: Petrol in a Diesel Car? Here Is What Happens
Stop. Motor off. Leave the car that way — no moment on, no shifting it anywhere. The next few minutes decide it more than anything else: petrol in a diesel still unrun generally amounts to emptying then rinsing, right there. Wherever you happen to be around Broomhouse, this is how things go from now.
Minute one: petrol in a diesel, engine off
Work through the following in sequence, first.
- Take the keys out. Even the ignition on its own can prime the system, pulling petrol out of the tank to exactly the components it harms, and so keep the car off completely.
- A fuller tank of the same mixture is all topping up leaves you, since it takes out nothing. So no extra diesel.
- Visibility comes before the rest beside moving traffic: switch the hazard lights on, and only then think about anything else.
- Off the petrol pump by hand. At a forecourt, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. Don't fire it up to move it, however short the way.
- The first thing we will ask is which fuel you put in and about how much — and the till receipt says both. Keep it.
If you were still driving when you realised, stop somewhere sensible rather than pushing on for the services — on the M8, under 3 miles from Broomhouse, that means the next junction. Stage one comes next.
Has it run yet? The fork in each Broomhouse fuel drain
What happens next rests on one answer, and only one.
Not run, not even briefly:
- That petrol is still in your tank and nowhere else.
- The job is a drain and a flush, usually done where the car is.
- Step one matters for precisely this reason: it's the best spot to be in.
If the engine has been run, even for a moment:
- Petrol has been pulled from your tank, past your filter then into the fuel lines.
- Run it farther and that petrol reaches the fuel injectors, having passed through the pump first.
- Mileage is what makes it a bigger job: flushed lines, a filter seen to, and at times further work.
Why the line falls there: diesel protects the high-pressure fuel pump as well as your injectors as it passes through them, and petrol doesn't. In your tank, sitting still, petrol harms nothing. Petrol being pumped is grinding down the parts that move the vehicle.
Broomhouse, petrol in a diesel: have these prepared before you call
Prepare a little, and the van finds you instead of circling.
- EH11 3 plus the remainder of the postcode makes the ideal way to start telling us where you are.
- Name the road — Broomhouse Court or wherever you have pulled up — or the car park.
- Or the landmark. A car park is easier to find by what it serves, like the one at Scotmid.
- Tell us what the vehicle is — make, model — and confirm it's diesel.
- Say which was put in — petrol or AdBlue — because AdBlue is a different job, with a page of its own for Broomhouse.
- How long the nozzle was in, or the litres from the receipt — either tells us how much.
- Whether it's run. And if it has, how far and how hard.
- Whose vehicle it is. Some hire and company agreements want the owner to authorise this work, and that's quicker settled before we get there than after.
Next, 0333 366 0103. Not urgent, your car parked at home with nowhere to be? Then works as well.
The wait for a Broomhouse fuel drain, and what to do in it
Stick to these: well-meant help does the damage during the wait.
- Stay with the car if it is safe where it is — but if it has stopped somewhere dangerous, you come first: away from the traffic, waiting apart from it.
- Not to roll it a couple of yards, not to check it is all right, not for a passer-by's kindness: no one starts it.
- No additives. Two-stroke oil, injector cleaner, something from your boot — none of it gets the petrol back out.
- Draining it yourself is out: a can of siphoned petrol on a verge is a danger, and the fuel beyond the tank remains where it is all the same.
- Not for the radio, not for your windows: the ignition remains off.
Van arrived? The fuel drain, one step at a time
- Fuel, quantity, whether it has run: those answers set the job, and that is why you get a quote after them rather than before.
- Then the tank is drained, and the tainted fuel is taken out.
- Rinsing the fuel lines comes next, because a car that ran has petrol past the tank, inside your lines themselves.
- Where the vehicle has a workable filter, it is changed; if not, cleared.
- Clean diesel goes in, then the system is primed.
- The start-up. With fresh diesel in and the system bled, it's fired up and checked to make sure it runs properly.
Until it runs on new diesel, our technicians remain with it. The vehicle returns to normal driving at once, and lasting damage is very unusual if it has been spotted soon.
After the fuel drain: back on the road in Broomhouse
- Drive normally. There's nothing unusual to do once it has been started on clean fuel.
- Pull over and ring us back if anything looks wrong early on — a light on the dash, smoke from the exhaust, an idle that runs rough, or a throttle with a dead spot.
- An insurer, a fleet manager or a hire firm may ask what was carried out, and so hold on to your paperwork.
- Check the label on the petrol pump next time, not the colour of the handle.
About Broomhouse and where it is
Broomhouse is a suburban area located in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 3.7 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Broomhouse sits at an elevation of around 50 metres, in a relatively flat area of the city's western outskirts. Broomhouse is characterised by its predominant housing type, which is mainly flat, and is close to nearby places such as Carrick Knowe and Saughton. Broomhouse has a population of around 8794 people, according to approximate estimates.
Fuel drains around Broomhouse and beyond
Carrick Knowe, Saughton and Parkhead are covered by the same vans that take petrol in diesel call-outs in Broomhouse — and so is most of City of Edinburgh beyond. If you're near a boundary or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask and not assuming.
Petrol in a diesel anywhere around City of Edinburgh? Off, then ring
Motor off. Keys out. Receipt in your pocket. That is the whole of stage one, and Petrol in Diesel carries on from there — by the roadside, on the forecourt or on your driveway.