The Next Steps, in Order: Petrol in a Diesel Car in Brunstane
Not for a moment, and not for moving it: your motor remains off. Stop there. Emptied and purged, right where it sits: that is normally all an unrun diesel with petrol in it takes. Whether it remains that simple rests on the minutes ahead more than on anything else. Here's the order of things from here, wherever you are in Brunstane.
Petrol in a diesel, motor off — the first minute
Work through the following in sequence, first.
- Ignition off, keys out. Switched on, the ignition can prime your system — and priming is what moves petrol out of the tank towards the parts it damages.
- Topping up with diesel seems like it thins the issue. It doesn't: nothing gets out, and the tank simply holds more of the same.
- Hazards on. If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, make your car simple to see before you do anything else.
- By hand, not under the engine: that's how it leaves the petrol pump. Get the forecourt staff to help you push, whatever the miles.
- Hold on to your receipt. It says which fuel was put in and roughly how much, which is the first thing we will ask.
Still on the move when you noticed? Come off the M8 at the next junction if that's where you are, under 10 miles from Brunstane, and stop somewhere safe instead of pushing on to the services. Then start at step one.
Has it run yet? The fork in each Brunstane fuel drain
What comes next turns on one answer, and only one.
If your motor hasn't run at all:
- Just your tank has petrol in it for now.
- A drain and flush, on the spot, is usually the whole job.
- No spot is better, and it's why the first step matters so much.
Run at all, even for a second:
- The lines and the fuel filter now hold petrol pulled out of the tank.
- A longer run carries it right through to the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
- The further it went, the larger this job — your lines, the fuel filter, and now and then more besides.
Diesel keeps the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors protected as it runs through them. Petrol gives them nothing, and that is why the line is drawn there. In your tank, sitting still, petrol does no harm. As soon as it is pumped, petrol starts grinding whatever moves it.
Before you call about petrol in a diesel in Brunstane: what our technicians need
Prepare a little, and the technician finds you instead of circling.
- The best place to start is a postcode — one starting EH15 2 — for where you are.
- The road or the car park. A road name is a help — Gilberstoun Place, or wherever you have pulled up.
- Name a car park by what it serves — the one outside Asda, for example — and it is far quicker to find.
- Make and model of your car, and the fact it is a diesel.
- Tell us which got in — petrol or AdBlue — since AdBlue is a different job, with a page of its own for Brunstane.
- The amount: your receipt's litres, or else how long you had the nozzle in.
- Has it run? If so, say how far it went, and the way it was driven.
- Hire or company car? Some agreements need the owner's go-ahead for the work, and getting it before our technicians turn up is quicker than afterwards.
Phone 0333 366 0103 then. Email works too if it can wait, with your car parked at home, going nowhere.
Whilst you wait for a fuel drain in Brunstane
The wait is where kindly meant help does the harm. Stick to these.
- Stay with the car if it is safe where it is — but if it has stopped somewhere unsafe, you come first: away from the traffic, waiting apart from it.
- No one — however helpful — starts it, whether to see if it runs or to move the vehicle a short way.
- No additives. Two-stroke oil, injector cleaner, something from your boot — none of that gets the petrol back out.
- No DIY emptying. Siphoning petrol into a can at the roadside is hazardous, and it leaves your fuel that has by now gone beyond that tank.
- Leave the ignition off — your windows and your radio included.
The fuel drain, step by step, once our van gets there
- First, three queries: which fuel went in, the volume, and has it run? Those answers shape the job, so the price follows them.
- Then your tank is drained, and the contaminated fuel comes out.
- Cleaning the lines follows, because a car that ran has petrol past your tank, inside the fuel lines themselves.
- The fuel filter is dealt with. Cleared, or changed where the car has a workable one.
- Priming follows once fresh diesel is in.
- We start the car only after new diesel has gone in and primed your system, then check that it's running properly.
Your car has fresh diesel running through it before we head off. It's very rare for a vehicle noticed soon to be left with long-term damage, and normal driving starts again at once.
Once your fuel drain is done: driving around Brunstane a second time
- After it has been started on fresh fuel, there's nothing special to do: drive normally.
- Give the first miles your attention. Smoke appearing, a warning light coming on, your idle going lumpy or your throttle hesitating: pull over and ring us back.
- The documents covers the question a rental company, fleet manager or insurer may ask: what work was carried out. Keep it.
- The handle's colour is not the thing to go by next time — the label on the pump is.
About Brunstane, for a moment
Brunstane is a coastal suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 3.7 miles east of Edinburgh's city centre. Brunstane sits at an elevation of 33 metres, overlooking the Firth of Forth, and is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing. Brunstane is close to nearby places such as Newcraighall, Joppa Pans, and Joppa, and is home to a population of around 3307 residents.
Fuel drains in Brunstane and the spots nearby
Newcraighall, Joppa Pans and Joppa are covered by the same vans that take petrol in diesel calls around Brunstane — and so is most of City of Edinburgh beyond. Somewhere tricky to explain, or close to a boundary? Asking beats guessing — ring.
Ring, and leave it off — petrol in a diesel across City of Edinburgh
Petrol in Diesel takes it from there — on your driveway, at the kerbside, at the forecourt — once you have done step one: keys out, engine off, receipt in your pocket.