Juniper Green: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
Never turn on the engine. While the petrol is still inside the tank and the engine has not turned over, a fuel drain is almost always all it requires — and that's determined in the next few minutes, not by how much got in. Petrol in Diesel drains and flushes wrongly fuelled vehicles where they stand, all over Juniper Green and the remainder of City of Edinburgh, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on a drive. Contact us and then we shall explain what happens from here before you attempt any more.
Your first five minutes: petrol in a diesel
- Feed a petrol engine diesel and it will normally fail to run at all, and so the person stops there and so does the damage. Feed a diesel petrol and the engine starts, it ticks over, it drives off — fine enough for a few miles. People have that reversed, which is the bit they get wrong about petrol in a diesel specifically. So don't crank it. And once started, do not trust it: your fuel system is wearing down while you drive.
- Two tasks, diesel: it burns, and on the way through it keeps the high-pressure pump and injectors protected. Petrol only manages the one. Which is why the car's ignition remains off also — flick it on and you frequently prime that system, and that's petrol leaving the tank for exactly those components.
- Topping up clears nothing. It leaves you a fuller tank of the same mixture, because a diesel fuel system won't tolerate petrol by percentage the way that guidance implies — so don't pour diesel on top to thin it. Octane is immaterial too: super unleaded is petrol.
- A motor that has not shifted is the easiest one to deal with, so remain where you are if you sensibly can. Pulled up on the verge on Viewfield Road? Hazards on, and leave the car there. A tricky location works for us better than a started engine.
- Before you ring, gather your location. Anything closest to you with a label on it, plus a postcode beginning EH14 5 — that's what decides whether the technician turns up or circles.
- Ring 0333 366 0103. Let us know what got in, roughly how many litres, and if the car has started. These three replies shape the whole job.
Draining petrol from the diesel at a forecourt
A good chunk of this job ends up completed at a forecourt, since that's where it usually kicks off. Still at BP? Then that's generally where it takes place. Garage forecourts are everyday for us, with the agreement of the station.
Before your engine has fired — the forecourt is the only place it is halted. Anywhere else — a car park, a private drive, a lay-by — your car was started and driven to get there, which means fuel was sucked from your tank, through the filter then into the high-pressure fuel pump. That's not a calamity, and our technicians can still sort it out where it stands. It does mean the fuel lines and the fuel filter need cleaning as well as your tank, and that is decided by the few seconds between seeing the receipt and reaching for the keys.
Attendants will usually pitch in pushing it away from the petrol pump, which lets the next driver get through. Welcome the assistance. Four vehicle lengths isn't worth the risk.
Service in Juniper Green
As a residential suburb, Juniper Green sees a steady visit, while the villages close by go along on the same round: Hailes and Woodhall, Baberton and Bonaly, Kingsknowe.
Not on the list? That means nothing. The places above are only the nearest few, and the majority of towns across City of Edinburgh have a page of their own elsewhere on this site. Contact us and enquire instead of assuming, above all when you're on the border or anywhere your satnav gets wrong.
That map shows the area this page includes. The lot is territory we cover: a kerbside, a forecourt, a driveway, a car park. You don't move your vehicle anywhere.
Stranded at the roadside near Juniper Green
The opportunity to pull over anywhere safe does not fall to everyone. If you worked it out after setting off and ended up on the verge of Gillespie Road, or in a lay-by somewhere with the hazards on, that is a common call for us rather than an odd one.
Whether you wait beside the car or move away from it depends on if being there feels wise. It will usually oblige. A diesel running on petrol limps along perfectly willingly, and that's the problem: start it up to reach somewhere handier and the mix goes further into the fuel system with every mile driven. A van coming to an inconvenient place is no trouble for us, and it is a lot better for your car than carrying on.
Leave it there overnight. Phone first thing. Nothing about a diesel Peugeot 308 sitting in the parking area at Tanners worsens whilst it waits, tank of petrol or not, and this job stays an easy one right up till the moment it gets taken home. The question our engineers arrive with is about that drive there: a cold engine over a short hop is where petrol combusts least well, and whatever fails to burn can find its way past the piston rings into the engine oil.
Sitting still, it gets no worse. Your pump isn't turning, so whatever occurred on the way to Clovenstone Community Woodland in that diesel Audi A4 is finished happening. Time is yours. Just don't take it home on your engine to find more of it.
About as well as this goes, once your engine has turned: away from the pumps, receipt read, and the diesel Mercedes C-Class parked close to Wester Hailes Baptist Church hardly two streets on. Ring us, then leave the vehicle off. A short distance does genuinely help. It was still a start and still a drive, though, so the fuel filter and your pump have had diluted fuel through them — hence flushing the lines rather than only clearing the tank.
A motor you collected two days ago gets driven further before anyone spots anything, which is the hire and courtesy fault in one sentence — and how far it went is what settles the quantity of petrol arriving at your injectors. Nothing careless about the mistake itself: a modern diesel filler neck accepts the narrower petrol nozzle with almost no resistance, and so unfamiliar spots see most of these. Phone us from wherever you are, near Juniper Green Parish Church or not, and we'll get to the BMW 5 Series.
A few streets, then it stopped. Throttle limp, idle uneven, and the diesel Vauxhall Astra is parked up near Colinton Tunnel. The motor is not packing up — that sluggishness is fuel that will not build pressure. There is no light on the dash for it, so cars like yours typically get driven once more before anyone picks up the phone. Don't. Off, and call us.
Petrol in a diesel, and the motor has travelled
under 3 miles out of Juniper Green, your M8 is what counts here. A misfilled diesel will frequently get you onto it and some distance along before anything seems wrong, and the signs when they appear are typically a loss of power, a rough idle and smoke instead of a tidy stop.
Do not restart it to reposition. Pull off at the first safe junction and switch off. On a longer run — anything close to the under 5 miles to the closest city — assume the mixture has been through the filter, the pump and your injectors, and say so when you call. It affects what our engineers bring.
About Juniper Green
Juniper Green is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Edinburgh, sitting near the Water of Leith at an elevation of around 126 metres. Juniper Green is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is situated close to nearby places such as Hailes, Woodhall, and Baberton. Juniper Green is a relatively small community with a population of approximately 5212 residents, and is about 4.5 miles from Edinburgh city centre.
What comes next when our technicians reach you around Juniper Green
- We ask first, quote after. What was put in? How much? Has the motor run? Those responses alter what the work really is.
- Out goes the tainted fuel.
- What is remaining in the fuel system shouldn't be what started the trouble, and so the fuel lines get rinsed and the fuel filter cleaned.
- Your system gets bled, on clean diesel.
- Once it's fired up, we confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel.
That has your car ready to drive away. Lasting damage is very rare when it has been caught quickly, and since all of it is done where your car is, it never has to go to a workshop.
AdBlue in the diesel tank instead, in Juniper Green?
AdBlue instead of petrol? Then the first instruction is unchanged — the engine remains off — whereas this problem underneath it's a different one altogether. Petrol does two things to diesel: weakens it, and takes away the protection the fuel system depends on. Urea in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that causes corrosion and deposits.
AdBlue removal around Juniper Green has a page of its own with the details on it, including why it is usually the more significant of the two. Our engineers cover both.
Juniper Green costs for a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain
Truthfully, no single figure fits on a page like this. This job differs. Here is what changes it:
- Started? Driven? Either answer matters more than anything else on this list.
- How much of the wrong fuel went in, measured against how much your tank can hold.
- Which went in: unleaded or AdBlue.
- Whether a van can sensibly reach the car and work on it, which rests on where your car is.
A clear answer rather than a range is what you get for telling us three things: the car, the quantity, and whether it has run. For your car at home that's going nowhere and isn't time-critical, works too.
Things our technicians get about petrol in diesel in Juniper Green
Can you do a fuel drain at a petrol station around Juniper Green?
Yes, and it's where a large portion of this work gets done. Tell us which one you are at when you ring and we'll tell you whether our technicians can work there. With the site's consent our technicians attend Sainsbury's and the other forecourts nearby regularly.
How much petrol in a diesel is too much?
Whether your engine has run matters far more, though the proportion counts too, rather than the litres. Five litres in a nearly empty tank is a separate matter from five in a full one — but either way, the thing that settles how much work is needed is whether that mix has been drawn through the system.
Petrol in my diesel, and I have driven it
Turn off somewhere sensible, and keep it that way after you stop. Driving moves the trouble along — out of that tank, into the pump and injectors. Drivers fear it a good deal more than the recovery rate warrants, mind. The one really helpful thing left to you is not restarting it.
My warranty — does a fuel drain void it?
It's not an alteration, and so a drain then flush carried out correctly does not invalidate a manufacturer's warranty. A disagreement over a warranty is likelier to come from running a diesel on petrol — so leave it switched off.
Two-stroke oil in the tank, and then home?
What petrol has thinned isn't put back by two-stroke oil, which is an old remedy for a distinct problem. So no. The pump still has to put up with it, as that tank still has petrol in it later.
Does petrol in a diesel have to go to a main dealer?
Wherever your car is, our engineers drain and flush it there, so a visit to the main dealer doesn't come into it.
Is your car still with you?
Your engine stays off.
Driven it already? Then somewhere sensible, stop, turn off, and no restarting the car later. A still, cold motor is the best position to be in, and this is recoverable from much more frequently than motorists expect.
At the kerbside, on the forecourt or at home — on-site fuel draining around Juniper Green and throughout City of Edinburgh.