Petrol in a Diesel Car in Elie: What Happens Now
Whatever you do, never switch your motor on, even briefly, to shift the vehicle. Pause; leave it off. The coming few minutes settle it far more than anything else: petrol in a diesel still unrun usually amounts to clearing then rinsing, right there. Anywhere you are in Elie, here is the order things go from now.
Petrol in a diesel, motor off — the first minute
Go through the following in order, first.
- Pull the keys out. Even your ignition by itself can prime the system, drawing petrol out of your tank to precisely the parts it damages, so keep it off wholly.
- Topping up with diesel seems like it dilutes the problem. It does not: nothing gets out, and the tank just holds more of the same.
- Near moving traffic? Then your hazards come on before everything else, and so the car is easy to spot.
- The attendants will normally help you push it clear of the petrol pump. Ask, and roll it by hand — never under the engine, even for a couple of yards.
- The first thing you will be asked is which fuel you put in and about how much — and the till receipt shows both. Keep it.
Realised on the move? Get off at the next exit if you're on the M90, under 25 miles from Elie, and pull over somewhere safe — not at the services farther on. Step one starts after that.
The fork in every Elie fuel drain: has it run yet?
One answer is what everything after this point rests on.
If it has not once been started:
- Only your tank has petrol in it so far.
- The job is a simple drain and a flush, usually done where your car stands.
- Stage one counts for exactly this reason: it is the best position to be in.
If it has been started, even for a second:
- From the tank, through your filter, into your lines: that is how far the petrol has got.
- On a longer run it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
- Lines flushed, the fuel filter sorted, occasionally more: the job grows as the distance does.
Petrol doesn't lubricate. Diesel does, protecting the pump and injectors as it flows through, which is why the line sits where it does. Petrol resting in a tank harms nothing. Petrol being pumped is grinding down the parts that shift the car.
Calling about petrol in a diesel from Elie: what to have ready
Prepare a little, and the van finds you instead of circling.
- Your location: a postcode beginning KY9 1 serves best.
- A road name is a help: School Wynd, say, or whatever street you've stopped in. A car park does the trick too.
- Name a car park by what it serves — the one at elie deli, for example — and it's much easier to find.
- Make and model of the vehicle, and the fact it is a diesel.
- Petrol or AdBlue? Say which. They are different jobs, and AdBlue has a separate Elie page.
- The amount: your receipt's litres, or otherwise how long you held the nozzle in.
- Whether it's run. Then if it has, how far and how hard.
- Hire or company car? Some agreements want the owner's authorisation for the work, and getting it before we get there is faster than afterwards.
Call 0333 366 0103 once you have got that ready — or, if your car is at home, going nowhere, use .
Waiting for a fuel drain in Elie: what to do
Help, however well meant, is what does the harm whilst you wait. So hold to these.
- Where the car has stopped settles where you wait. Exposed: away from it, clear of the traffic. Safe: with it. Either way, safety ahead of your car.
- Nobody starts it. Not a passer-by being kind, not to check it is all right, not to roll the car a few yards.
- Additives stay in the boot. Injector cleaner and two-stroke oil draw none of the petrol out a second time.
- No DIY clearing. Siphoning petrol into a can at the kerbside is hazardous, and it leaves the fuel that has already gone beyond the tank.
- Even your radio or the windows aren't worth switching your ignition on for.
Step by step: the fuel drain when the van arrives
- First, three queries: which fuel got in, the quantity, and has it run? Those answers set the job, so our price follows them.
- Clearing it is how that mixture gets taken from the tank.
- Petrol that has moved beyond the tank sits in the fuel lines once it ran, and the fuel lines are rinsed to clear it.
- Where the car has a workable filter, it's changed; otherwise, cleared.
- Fresh diesel goes in, and the fuel system is primed.
- Starting the car. When the system is primed with fresh diesel, our engineers start the car and check it runs properly.
Only once it is running on new diesel do we head off. Permanent damage is very rare when it has been caught quickly, so your car can go straight back to normal use.
After the fuel drain: back on the road around Elie
- Started on fresh diesel, it needs nothing special of you. Simply drive normally.
- Give the first miles your attention. Smoke showing, a warning light coming on, your idle going lumpy or the throttle stumbling: pull over then ring us back.
- The work may come up later with a hire firm, an insurer or a fleet manager. Keep your paperwork.
- Read the label on the petrol pump next time, not the colour of its handle.
About Elie
Elie is a small coastal village in Fife, situated on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, with Earlsferry and Kilconquhar nearby. Elie has a population of around 592 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing, and is located close to the larger settlements of Dundee and St Andrews. Elie sits at a low elevation of 15 metres above sea level, looking out across the Firth of Forth. Elie is part of a network of small communities along this stretch of Fife coastline, including Barnyards and other rural areas.
Elie and nearby: fuel drains across the area
Most of Fife has the same vans as Elie for petrol in diesel jobs, Earlsferry, Kilconquhar and Barnyards among them. If you're close to a boundary or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask and not assuming.
Petrol in a diesel across Fife? Leave it off and ring
Step one is all of that: engine off, keys out, receipt in your pocket. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on your driveway.