Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in Longstone? Don't Start It
Do not turn on the engine. While the petrol is still sitting in the tank and the motor has not yet been started, a drain is almost always all it takes — and that's decided in the following few minutes, not by how much got in. Petrol in Diesel drains and flushes misfuelled cars where they sit, all over Longstone and the remainder of City of Edinburgh, on the forecourt, by the roadside or on a private drive. One ring our way will be sufficient: our technicians shall tell you what follows next. Try that right away.
Petrol in a diesel: what to try next
- Never crank it. Fired up regardless? Then do not depend on it. Diesel in a petrol vehicle normally will not run, and so the driver stops and the damage halts with them. Petrol in a diesel? It starts. It idles. It drives off fine, for a few miles. Drivers get that muddled. It is not okay — your fuel system is grinding every mile you do.
- Diesel ignites, and before it ignites it lubricates — your high-pressure pump, those injectors. Petrol handles only the burning. So leave the car's ignition be also: switching it on is usually sufficient to prime that system, and priming pulls petrol from that tank into exactly those components.
- That guidance assumes a diesel fuel system handles petrol by percentage. It won't. Pour diesel on top and nothing at all is cleared; what you have is a bigger tank of the same mix. And no, the type makes no difference — super unleaded is just petrol.
- Stay put if it is sensible to. Hazards on, engine off, leave the car. Wherever you have stopped — the verge on Redhall Road, anywhere — a difficult place for us beats a started motor, and nothing is simpler for us to sort than a motor that never shifted.
- A van turning up rather than circling rests on two things: a postcode beginning EH14 2, and whatever is nearest to you with a name on it. Keep both prepared before you phone.
- Phone 0333 366 0103. Prepare for three queries — what went in, approximately how many litres, plus whether the motor has been started. The answers shape all that comes after.
Quarter past eight, a quick fill on the way in, and it dawns on you somewhere around eleven — by that point your diesel Renault Clio has been standing at Kingsknowe for three hours. Phone us then leave the vehicle right where it is. The run in is the part that counts now, as diesel performs two roles on its way through an engine: it combusts, and before it burns it lubricates its high-pressure pump and its injectors. Petrol handles the first and not the second. So those couple of miles were covered with your pump labouring on a liquid that had shed a lot of the protection it is made for — which is why the question we ask is how many miles you drove, not how long the car has been stood.
The difficult part is the bay, not your fuel. Vehicles either side of you, a trolley shelter behind, and from time to time a height bar on the way in that settles whether a van can get to you at all — so when you phone from a car park like the one at Scotmid, mention how much clearance there is about you and which way round the vehicle is. Those we cover frequently. Should there be no room to work next to your diesel BMW 3 Series, it gets rolled with the motor off, and not out of fussiness over a couple of seconds of running: priming occurs at every start, more of that blend leaves the tank for your pump, and two shunts into a nicer spot have gradually made a bigger job of what was merely a vehicle sitting still.
Out there normal, back sluggish. If that was the run to Hailes Quarry Park, look at your tank. Diesel gets weakened by petrol, and thin fuel seeps past the tight clearances supposed to build injection pressure — so every extra mile your diesel Audi A3 covered, the less pressure it held onto. Somewhere sensible, turn off, phone us.
Draining your Ford Kuga, changing the filter where there's a workable one, cleaning the fuel lines, putting fresh fuel through the whole circuit: that's the job, and it is shaped by the worst of it waiting in your lines instead of in the tank by this point. Three things help when you call from near Slateford Longstone Parish Church — which side the filler is on, whether our van can park next to without blocking the road, and whether your engine has run since you filled up. On-street is the usual location our engineers work, and so the place itself is seldom the issue. A tight parking space beats a car driven somewhere more handy.
Drain it and put fresh diesel in — that is the tip you will get, usually from someone certain, and it's only half right. Do precisely that to a diesel Volvo XC60 close to The Party Place and it would start, which is what makes the tip sound sensible. What happens next is the problem: the motor straight away draws the petrol still resting in the filter and the feed lines straight back through your pump, as draining a tank does nothing about fuel that has already left it. Ring us instead. Our technicians flush the system and take the fuel filter off where the vehicle has a workable one, which is the difference between the vehicle being repaired and your car simply starting.
Draining petrol from a diesel at the forecourt
A good share of the job is completed at a pump, because that is where it often begins. We work on garage forecourts regularly, with the owner's consent, so if you're still at Sainsbury's that's usually where the drain takes place.
The forecourt is the only spot the mistake can be halted before your motor has run. Anywhere else — a car park, a driveway, a lay-by — your car was fired up and driven to get there, which means fuel was pulled from your tank, through your filter then into the high-pressure pump. That's not a disaster, and our engineers can still sort it out where it sits. It does mean your lines and the fuel filter need cleaning as well as that tank, and that's settled by the few seconds between seeing the receipt and going for the key.
The attendants will generally offer to wheel the car out from the petrol pump so the next motorist can get past. That's worth doing. Cranking it for four car lengths? Don't.
Service in Longstone
Being a residential suburb, Longstone gets a steady visit, and the villages close by go along on the same run: Parkhead and Kingsknowe, Slateford and Stenhouse, Saughton.
Not on this list? That tells you nothing. The places above are only the nearest few, and most towns around City of Edinburgh have a page of their own elsewhere on this site. Ring us to enquire rather than presuming — borders especially, and wherever your satnav can get wrong.
The ground the page spans sits on our map. We operate at the roadside, on forecourts, on driveways and at car parks over all of that, and your car does not need to come to us.
Longstone: stuck where you stopped
Not everybody has a suitable place to pull over. If you realised after setting off and finished up on the verge of Kingsknowe Road North, or at a lay-by somewhere with the hazards going, that's a normal call for us instead of an odd one.
Whether you sit with your car or stand clear of it hangs on whether sitting there is wise. It will frequently oblige. A diesel running on petrol limps along very willingly, and that's the problem: fire it up to reach somewhere handier and the mixture goes further into the system with every mile driven. We'll send our van to an awkward place without any bother, and for the vehicle that is much better than pressing on.
Driven it already? Pull in, and read this
This is where the local M8 comes into it — under 3 miles away from Longstone. A loss of power, an uneven idle, smoke: those are the symptoms when they appear, instead of a clean stop — and a misfilled diesel will usually get you onto it and some distance along before anything seems wrong at all.
The first sensible junction is the one to take. Switch off there, then leave the restarting alone. On a longer drive — anything close to the under 5 miles to the closest city — take it the contamination has been through the fuel filter, the pump and your injectors, and mention it when you ring. It changes what we bring.
A little about Longstone
Longstone is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the River Almond and close to the city centre. Longstone sits at an elevation of 68 metres, with views of the surrounding landscape. Longstone is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which accommodates a population of around 5458 residents. Longstone is located near other suburban areas, including Parkhead, Kingsknowe, and Slateford, and is approximately 3.6 miles from Edinburgh city centre.
What follows when we reach you in Longstone
- The replies change the work, which is why our engineers ask before pricing: what got in, how much of that, and whether your motor has run.
- We clear your tank of the polluted mixture.
- What is left in the fuel system shouldn't be what caused the trouble, and so the lines get flushed and your filter cleared.
- Bleeding your system follows, once new diesel is in.
- It's run with new diesel in it, and our technicians make sure that it's running properly.
The vehicle is then ready for you to pull away. There is no need to go to a garage at any stage, since the work is all done where the car is, and when it is spotted early, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Longstone AdBlue removal is a distinct job
If what went in was AdBlue instead of petrol, the first instruction is the same — do not crank it — yet the problem is not. Petrol weakens the diesel and removes the lubrication the system depends on. Urea dissolved in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that causes corrosion and deposits.
Often the more serious of the two, AdBlue — and the details lives on its own Longstone page. Both are ours to deal with.
How much is a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain in Longstone?
One price would not be honest here, as this is not one job. These are the things that move it:
- This is the main one: whether your engine has been run, or driven.
- How much of the wrong fuel went in, judged against how much your tank holds.
- Whether it is petrol or AdBlue.
- Access: the vehicle's position, and if working on it there is sensible for a van.
Tell us the vehicle, the quantity and if it has run, and you will get a clear answer rather than a range. For your car at home that is going nowhere and is not pressing, works too.
Longstone drivers ask us these about petrol in diesel
I'm on a forecourt around Longstone. Can you drain it here?
Yes — forecourts are where a fair share of this takes place. Tell us which one you're at when you ring and we will tell you if our technicians can work there. With the owner's agreement our engineers work at Asda and the other forecourts around town all the time.
How much petrol in a diesel is too much?
It rests on the ratio instead of the litres, and far more on whether your motor has run. A nearly empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: separate situations, definitely. Either way, the work needed comes down to one thing, which is if the fuel system has had that mix drawn through it.
Already driven it with petrol in your diesel? What then?
Somewhere sensible, then stop, then switch off and leave it off. It is salvageable a lot more regularly than drivers assume, even though driving is what shifts the trouble from the tank into the pump and injectors — and the single most helpful thing you can do now isn't restart it.
Fuel drains and manufacturer warranties
A drain and flush carried out properly is not a modification and doesn't void a manufacturer's warranty. Another good reason to leave it switched off: running a diesel on petrol is the thing likelier to cause a disagreement with one.
Could I put some two-stroke in and just drive?
No. It belongs to a different problem from a separate era, and petrol has thinned something no oil of that kind puts back. Later on? Still petrol in your tank, and a pump that has to cope with the stuff.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
You do not need one. Your car is drained and cleaned wherever it is, with no need to bring it to a main dealer.
Standing next to it?
Never switch your engine back on.
Already driven it? Then pull over somewhere safe, turn off, then let the vehicle stay that way. A stationary, cold vehicle is the best place to be in, and this is recoverable from a lot more commonly than drivers assume.
Draining misfuelled vehicles, Longstone and the rest of City of Edinburgh, wherever they are. Kerbside. Forecourt. Home.