Old Town: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
If you have not fired up your engine as yet, do not. A fuel drain and nothing else is nearly always what a vehicle requires while the fuel is still in that tank and the engine has not been started, which is why it is the coming few minutes that matter, not how much was put in. Petrol in Diesel goes to the car wherever it has ended up in Old Town or the rest of Fife, on the forecourt, by the roadside or on a drive, and drains and flushes it there. Phone and we can explain what happens after that before you do anything else.
Petrol in a diesel: what to do first
- Never fire it up. Turned on all the same? Then do not believe it. Diesel in a petrol car usually can't run, and so the motorist stops and the harm stops with them. Petrol in a diesel? It starts. It ticks over. It pulls away normally, for a few miles. Most people get that muddled. It's not fine — the fuel system is wearing every mile you do.
- Two jobs, diesel: it combusts, and on the way through it keeps the injection pump and injectors greased. Petrol only manages the one. That is why your ignition stays off as well — flick it on and you usually prime your system, and that's petrol leaving that tank for precisely those parts.
- Don't water down it. Diesel added on top clears nothing, and so all you get is more of what was already there, since percentage is not how a diesel fuel system handles petrol. Super unleaded? Simply petrol. The type makes no difference.
- We would sooner come to a tricky location than have it started — so if you safely can, stay still. Nothing is quicker to sort than a car that hasn't moved. On the verge on Monk's Walk, that means hazards on then keep the vehicle.
- Know where you are before phoning. A postcode starting KY6 3, and the name of whatever is nearest to you. Otherwise our van circles rather than turning up.
- Phone 0333 366 0103. Let us know what was put in, about how much, plus whether the motor has started. Those three replies decide the full call-out.
Quarter past eight, a quick fill on the trip in, and you realise somewhere around eleven — by which time the diesel Volkswagen Golf has been standing at Markinch for three hours. Phone and leave it just where it sits. The run in is the thing that counts most, as diesel has two jobs on its way through the engine: it combusts, and before it combusts it lubricates its high-pressure fuel pump and its injectors. Petrol handles the first and not the second. So those few miles were driven with your pump working on a fuel that had given up most of the protection it is designed around — which is why the question our technicians ask is how far you went, not how long the motor has been sitting.
Your diesel BMW 3 Series will have felt completely normal on the way back from the local primary school. They do, and that is the catch with petrol in a diesel instead of the other way round. Put diesel in a petrol vehicle and it mostly will not run, so the driver stops and the damage stops with them. Put petrol in a diesel and it starts, ticks over and drives off as though nothing has happened — all while the high-pressure pump works without the protection your fuel is supposed to be supplying. Nothing warns you, since from the driver's seat there is nothing to alert you about. Phone us with roughly how far you went and how hard you drove it; the second answer counts more than the first.
This is what a job in the car park by The Clansman typically looks like. Our engineers get to your car, ask what got in, approximately how much, and whether your engine has run since — these three answers determine much of the work. Then the contaminated mix comes out of that tank, your lines get flushed, and the fuel filter comes off where your Peugeot 308 has a replaceable one. Fresh diesel goes in and your system is bled. Then we start it, confirm it runs correctly, and you set off.
Nothing is getting worse while it sits. Whatever your diesel Nissan Qashqai did on the way to South Wood, it is doing none of it now: the pump isn't turning. So take your time — but don't drive it home to buy yourself any.
A vehicle you collected two days ago gets driven further before anybody notices anything, which is the hire and courtesy fault in one sentence — and how far it went is what determines the amount of petrol reaching your injectors. Nothing sloppy about the mistake itself: a current diesel filler neck accepts the narrower petrol nozzle with practically no resistance, so new places see most of these. Ring us from wherever you are, by Bull Stone or not, and we will get to the Audi A3.
On a forecourt: draining petrol from the diesel
A big portion of the job gets completed at the pump, since that is where it usually kicks off. We work on station forecourts routinely, with the owner's agreement, and so if you're still at Shell that is generally where this drain takes place.
A forecourt is the single location the mistake can be stopped before the engine has run. Our engineers can still put it right where it sits, even away from the pumps. In a car park, on a drive or in a lay-by, the vehicle has been started and driven there, and that drew fuel through your filter and into your high-pressure pump, all the way from your tank. None of that is a calamity, though the flush then has to go past that tank to the lines and the filter, and the few seconds between checking the receipt and reaching for the keys are what decide that.
The staff will usually offer to wheel the vehicle out from the pump so the next motorist can get by. That's worth doing. Firing it just for four car lengths? No.
Places we reach around Old Town
Croft Outerly, Leslie, Macedonia, Whinnyknowe, Newcastle — each of those on the rounds that carry us out to Old Town itself, a residential suburb.
If yours is not on the list it doesn't mean we don't come — there are pages for the majority of places across Fife, and the ones named above are merely the nearest neighbours. On a boundary, or anywhere the satnav gets wrong? Call us and check rather than presuming.
The ground the page includes is on our map. Your car never needs to come to us. We work across all of it — roadside, forecourts, driveways, car parks.
Roadside call-outs around Old Town
The chance to pull over anywhere sensible does not come to everybody. Hazards on in a lay-by somewhere, or stopped on the verge on Barony Place as you realised after setting off — we take that call so often that it is the normal kind.
Out of the vehicle if it isn't wise to sit inside, beside it if it is. Do not fire up your motor to nurse it somewhere handier — a diesel running on petrol will usually oblige, and every mile it obliges for is dragging the mixture further into the fuel system. A van coming to an awkward place is no problem for us, and it is far better for the vehicle than pressing on.
Some miles on petrol in a diesel: now what?
under 10 miles out of Old Town, the M90 is what matters here. A misfuelled diesel will often take you onto it and some way along before anything seems wrong, and the signs when they appear are normally a loss of power, an uneven idle and some smoke instead of a neat stop.
Get off at the first sensible junction, turn off, and don't start it to reposition. Presume the worst of that on a long run. Anything approaching the under 15 miles to the closest city, and the mixture has been through the fuel filter, through the pump, through the injectors. Tell us when you phone. What we bring alters.
Where's Old Town?
Old Town is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Fife, with a mix of terraced housing and a relatively small population of around 2318 residents. Old Town sits at an elevation of 121 metres, looking out over the surrounding countryside. Old Town is located near several other communities, including Croft Outerly and Leslie, and is within commuting distance of Dunfermline, the nearest city. Old Town is also some 347.8 miles from London, making it a relatively distant suburb from the English capital.
What our engineers do when we arrive with you in Old Town
- Our engineers find out what went in, how much, and whether your engine has run. The answers change the work, which is why our engineers ask before giving a price.
- Out goes the contaminated fuel.
- We clean the lines and clear the fuel filter, and so what is left in the fuel system is not what started the problem.
- Fresh diesel goes in, and then the system gets bled.
- It is fired up with new diesel in it, and we confirm that it's running correctly.
At that point it is ready to pull away. Long-term damage is very uncommon when it has been caught quickly, and as all of it is done where the vehicle is, it never needs to be taken to a workshop.
Old Town AdBlue removal is a separate job
The fault isn't the same, though the first rule is — do not fire it up — if what went in was AdBlue instead of petrol. Petrol does two things to diesel: weakens it, and takes away the protection your fuel system relies on. Urea in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that brings corrosion and build-up.
Both are ours. There's a separate Old Town page for AdBlue removal, with the details on it — including the reasons it often turns out to be the worse of the two.
How much is a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain around Old Town?
One number wouldn't be fair here, because this is not one job. These are the things that move it:
- Has it been run or driven? Nothing else counts for as much.
- How much of the wrong fuel got in, against how much that tank can hold.
- The kind of fluid in the tank, unleaded or AdBlue.
- Access: the car's position, and whether working on it there's sensible for a technician.
The car, the quantity, whether it has run — give us those and the answer comes back straight and not as a range. Not pressing, with the car at home and going nowhere? Then is fine.
Petrol in diesel: everyday questions around Old Town
At a petrol station in Old Town, can you do a fuel drain there?
A good portion of this work happens there, so yes. Our engineers attend Asda and the other forecourts nearby all the time, with the site's consent — tell us which one you are at when you phone and we'll tell you if our technicians can work there.
Is there a sensible quantity of petrol in a diesel?
It depends on the proportion rather than the litres, and much more on whether your engine has run. A nearly empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: distinct situations, of course. Either way, the work needed comes down to one thing, which is whether the fuel system has had that mix drawn through it.
Petrol in my diesel, and I have driven the vehicle
Pull in somewhere sensible, switch off, and leave the car off. Not restarting it is the single most valuable thing available to you now. Driving does shift the issue out of that tank and into your pump and injectors, yes, and it stays salvageable much more regularly than people fear.
My warranty — does a fuel drain void it?
A drain and flush carried out properly isn't a change and doesn't void a manufacturer's warranty. What's likelier to start an argument is a diesel that has been run on petrol. One more good reason for the engine to remain off.
Two-stroke oil in the tank, and then home?
Two-stroke oil solves a distinct fault, and an old one at that. Nothing it does puts back what petrol weakened. No. Your tank still has petrol in it later, and your pump still has to put up with it.
Does petrol in a diesel have to go to a main dealer?
There's no need to bring it to a dealership, since our technicians drain and clean the car wherever it is.
You, and the car, still together?
The motor remains off.
Driven it already? Then somewhere sensible, stop, turn off, and no restarting the vehicle afterwards. This is recoverable from much more frequently than people assume, and a parked, cold motor is the best place to be in.
Throughout Fife and around Old Town: on-site fuel draining, at home or on the forecourt or at the kerbside.