Kerfield: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
With that tank still carrying the fuel and your engine not yet turned over, almost every job needs only a drain, so leave the motor off. That outcome is settled in the minutes right after filling up, rather than by the amount that was put in. Throughout Kerfield and the rest of Scottish Borders, Petrol in Diesel drains your car and flushes it where it is, whether at a roadside, on a drive or at a forecourt. Our engineers shall tell you what the following part is. Contact us — this goes before all else.
Petrol in a diesel: what to do first
- Give a petrol engine diesel and it will typically not run at all, so the driver stops there and so does the damage. Feed a diesel petrol and the thing starts, it idles, it moves off — fine enough for a couple of miles. People have that muddled, which is the bit they get wrong about petrol in a diesel in particular. So don't crank it. And having started, don't rely on it: that fuel system is grinding whenever you drive.
- Diesel burns, and before it combusts it greases — your high-pressure fuel pump, the injectors. Petrol does only the burning. So leave your ignition off also: switching it on is frequently enough to prime the system, and priming pulls petrol from your tank into exactly those parts.
- Topping up gets rid of nothing. It hands you a fuller tank of the same blend, since a diesel fuel system won't handle petrol by percentage as that advice suggests — so don't pour diesel on top to thin it. Grade is beside the point too: super unleaded is petrol.
- Sit tight if it's safe to. Hazards on, engine off, keep it. Wherever you have stopped — the verge on The Bridges, anywhere — a difficult place for us beats a started diesel, and nothing is easier for us to deal with than a motor that never shifted.
- Know where you are before calling. A postcode beginning EH45 8, and the name of whatever is next to you. Otherwise the van circles instead of turning up.
- Ring 0333 366 0103. Tell us what got in, about how much, and also whether the motor has fired. Those three details settle the whole call-out.
Quarter past eight. A rushed refuel on the drive in. Close to eleven it hits you, and by then your diesel Volkswagen Golf has waited outside the nearest station for three hours. Call us and keep it where it is. What is key is the drive in, since diesel both ignites and — before that — greases your pump and your injectors, whereas petrol only ever combusts. Those few miles worked your pump on a fluid stripped of a lot of its protection, and no amount of standing in a car park gives any of it back. Hence the question about miles instead of hours sitting, and hence the instruction to leave your keys alone until our technicians arrive.
Tell us this much and our engineers can work with it: a diesel Renault Clio, some litres of unleaded in it, two miles or so, shut off outside Sainsbury's now. Time gone by is not the thing we need. Fuel drawn by your pump is.
Move the car out of that gateway and sort it out later — that's what a passer-by will say, and it's wrong. Stopped on the zig-zags at the local primary school, a misfilled diesel Audi A4 is a hassle and nothing worse. Fired up three more times for politeness, it's no longer a tank issue but a fuel system one, because priming takes place with every start and more petrol goes through the filter on to the pump. Let them complain. Give us a call.
Why so firm about leaving your keys alone? Since the pump is ahead of the injectors, and a worn-out one sends whatever it sheds downstream with your fuel. Call us. Leave the Dacia Duster by Scott Brash Sculpture.
Hire car? Company car? Phone them before us. Some agreements want the firm to authorise the work, and that's much faster dealt with up front than after that. Then phone us about the Peugeot 3008, the diesel one, by Eastgate Theatre and Arts Centre. Don't worry that you cannot say how full the tank was — nearly nobody can two days into a motor, and it's something we work out on the spot. The reason for asking: harm from petrol in a diesel is a matter of ratio. A couple of litres in an almost empty tank make a far stronger blend than in a full one, and petrol is built to resist the very thing a diesel needs of that, which is igniting when compressed. Stronger mixture, more rattling, more smoke, flatter throttle.
At a forecourt: draining petrol from your diesel
Forecourts are where the job often starts, and where a fair part of it closes. The drain usually takes place on the spot. Still on the forecourt at BP? Given the station's agreement, that's a place we work, and regularly.
Nowhere but a forecourt can this be caught with your engine still unrun. Fuel pulled out of your tank and through the filter, all the way to the high-pressure fuel pump, is what happens when the engine is started and your car is driven to where it is now: the car park, the private drive or the lay-by, anywhere other than the forecourt. So the flush covers the fuel filter and the lines along with the tank. That is still not a catastrophe, and our engineers deal with it where the vehicle sits. What settles it is whether the key was turned in the seconds after your receipt was read.
Wheel the car out of the way if the staff suggest it, and they generally will. The next customer gets past the pump, and that is worth doing. Four car lengths isn't worth a start.
Parts our team cover near Kerfield
Being a small village, Kerfield has a routine visit, while the places round about go with it on that same journey: Peebles and Frankscroft, Craigerne and Kings Meadows, Kings Muir.
If yours isn't on the list it doesn't mean we don't come — there are pages for nearly all places across Scottish Borders, and the ones named above are simply the closest neighbours. Close to a boundary, or somewhere your satnav can't find? Call us and enquire rather than presuming.
This map shows the ground this page covers. Our technicians work roadside, at forecourts, on driveways and in car parks throughout all of it, and your car doesn't need to move to us.
Roadside call-outs in Kerfield
Not everybody has a decent place to pull in. Hazards flashing in a lay-by somewhere, or stopped on the verge on Innerleithen Road as you worked it out after setting off — our engineers take that call often enough that it's the ordinary kind.
Stay by your car while it is sensible to sit in it, and out of the vehicle if it isn't. Don't restart it to get to a better spot. It will go — a diesel on petrol normally obliges — and each mile of obliging drags the blend deeper into the fuel system. We'll take the van to a tricky spot without any trouble, and for the car that's far better than driving on.
A few miles on petrol in a diesel: now what?
This is where the local M8 matters, under 25 miles away from Kerfield. Some distance along, and onto it in the first place: a misfilled diesel will usually do both before anything feels wrong. What you get then is seldom a clean stop. Power drains away, the idle goes uneven, and there may be some smoke.
Never restart it to reposition. Come off at the first safe junction then switch off. Long drive? Anything approaching the under 25 miles to the closest city and you should suppose the lot — filter, pump, injectors, all of it arrived at by the petrol. Say that on the phone, because it alters what goes in the van.
All about Kerfield
Kerfield is a locality situated on the riverside in the Scottish Borders, with an elevation of 169 metres. Kerfield lies near several notable towns, including Peebles and the surrounding areas of Frankscroft and Craigerne. Kerfield is located approximately 20 miles from Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city. Kerfield has a population of around 1268 people, predominantly residing in flats.
What our technicians do when our technicians get to you in Kerfield
- Three things get established before any quote — the fuel that went in, the quantity, and if anything has been run since. Each answer alters the work.
- That tank is drained of it.
- Our engineers rinse your fuel lines and clean your filter, so what's remaining in the system isn't what created the issue.
- The fuel system gets bled, on clean diesel.
- Once it is fired up, we check it runs properly on new diesel.
From there, you are ready to pull away. All of this is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop, and when it has been caught soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Kerfield AdBlue removal is a different matter
Don't start it: that first instruction applies whether what went in was AdBlue or petrol. What changes is this issue itself. The protection a fuel system depends on is stripped away by petrol, which dilutes the diesel. Corrosion and deposits are what a diesel tank gets instead, as AdBlue is urea dissolved in water.
Frequently the more significant of the two, AdBlue — and the full story sits on its own Kerfield page. Both are ours to handle.
What a petrol-in-diesel drain costs in Kerfield
Frankly, no single price belongs on a page like this. The job differs. Here's what moves it:
- This is the big one: whether the motor has been started, or driven.
- Wrong fuel in, against what the tank holds — that proportion.
- Which was put in: unleaded or AdBlue.
- Whether a van can sensibly get to the vehicle and work on it, which hinges on where the vehicle is.
Tell us the car, the quantity and if it has run, and you will get a straight answer rather than a range. If it isn't pressing — the vehicle is at home and going nowhere — is fine too.
Kerfield motorists ask us these about petrol in diesel
Fuel drains on a Kerfield petrol station forecourt
Yes, and it's where a big portion of this work happens. We work at Esso and the other forecourts nearby all the time, with the owner's agreement — tell us which one you are at when you ring and we will tell you whether we can work there.
How much petrol in a diesel is too much?
Proportion decides it instead of litres — and more than either, whether the engine has run. Five litres in a nearly empty tank is a distinct situation from five in a full one — but either way, the thing that settles how much work is needed is whether that mix has been sucked through the fuel system.
Already driven it with petrol in the diesel? What now?
Turn off somewhere safe, and keep it that way after you stop. Driving is what shifts the trouble from that tank into the pump and injectors — but it's recoverable far more regularly than people fear, and the single most valuable thing you can do now isn't restart the car.
Fuel drains and manufacturer warranties
A manufacturer's warranty withstands a drain and flush done to a proper standard, which is no modification at all. Running a diesel on petrol is the thing more likely to cause a disagreement with one, which is another good reason to leave the car switched off.
Adding two-stroke oil, then driving home
No. Two-stroke oil is an old workaround for a separate fault and it doesn't restore what petrol has weakened. Your tank still has petrol in it after that, and your pump still has to live with it.
Do I need a main dealer for petrol in a diesel?
Wherever the car is, we drain and flush it there, so a drive to the main dealer doesn't come into it.
Is your vehicle still with you?
Never switch it back on.
Already driven it? Then pull over somewhere safe, switch off, and let it remain that way. This is recoverable from far more frequently than people fear, and a parked, cold vehicle is the best place to be in.
Draining misfuelled cars, Kerfield and the rest of Scottish Borders, wherever they are. Kerbside. Forecourt. Home.