Petrol in a Diesel Car in Ratho
Never turn on your engine. If the fuel is still sitting in the tank and the motor has not yet run, a drain is almost always all it takes — and that gets determined in the following few minutes, not by how much was put in. Petrol in Diesel drains and cleans wrong-fuelled vehicles where they stand, all over Ratho and the rest of City of Edinburgh, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on a drive. One ring our way is plenty: our engineers can show you what comes next. Try that right away.
What to try now about petrol in a diesel
- Never fire it up — and don't believe it when it runs. This is the thing motorists get wrong about petrol in a diesel in particular. A petrol motor given diesel typically just won't run, and so the driver stops and the wear stops with them. A diesel filled with petrol typically starts, idles and pulls away without complaint for several miles. It is not okay. It is grinding your fuel system while you drive.
- Two tasks, diesel: it ignites, and on the way through it keeps that high-pressure pump and injectors protected. Petrol only does the one. That is why the ignition remains off as well — flick it on and you frequently prime your system, and that is petrol leaving that tank for precisely those parts.
- Topping up removes nothing. It leaves you a larger tank of the same blend, since a diesel fuel system will not tolerate petrol by percentage the way that guidance suggests — so don't put diesel on top to weaken it. Grade is irrelevant too: super unleaded is petrol.
- Remain where you are if you reasonably can. A vehicle that hasn't moved is the quickest one to handle, and our team would much rather come to a tricky spot than have it started. If you're parked on the verge on School Wynd, put the hazards on and keep the vehicle there.
- Check where you are before calling. A postcode beginning EH28 8, and the name of whatever is closest to you. Otherwise our van circles instead of turning up.
- What went in, roughly how much, and also whether the car has started — those three replies settle the whole call-out. Dial 0333 366 0103 and tell us.
Quarter past eight. A hurried top-up on the drive in. Close to eleven it dawns on you, and by then your diesel Renault Megane has waited outside Edinburgh Gateway for three hours. Phone us and leave the car where it stands. What matters is the drive in, as diesel both ignites and — before that — lubricates your pump and the injectors, whereas petrol only ever burns. Those couple of miles ran the pump on a fuel stripped of a lot of its protection, and no quantity of standing in a car park gives any of that back. Hence the thing we ask about mileage rather than hours standing, and hence the request to leave the keys alone till our technicians turn up.
What our technicians will want to know is if that drive there was brief and chilly, since that's where petrol is least able to burn fully — and what won't burn can get past the piston rings and into the sump. Right up to the moment somebody takes it home, a diesel Mercedes E-Class sitting in the car park at The Bridge Inn carrying a tank full of petrol in it is a straightforward job. Nothing deteriorates as it stands, so park the car there overnight then ring us next morning.
Your pump isn't turning, so whatever the diesel BMW 5 Series did on the way to Alder Wood, none of that is going on now. Nothing is getting worse whilst it waits. Take your time over this — but never drive the car home to buy any.
Hire car? Company car? Phone them before us. Some contracts want the firm to approve the work, and that is much quicker dealt with up front than afterwards. Then give us a call about the Peugeot 208, the diesel one, close to Ratho Community Centre. Do not worry that you cannot say how full that tank was — nearly no one can two days into a vehicle, and it is something our engineers establish on the spot. The reason for asking: damage from petrol in a diesel is a matter of proportion. A couple of litres in an almost empty tank make a far stronger mixture 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.
Fixed and starting aren't the same thing, and the difference is the circuit: our technicians flush it, and take your filter off where there is a working one. Compare that with the confident advice you will get — drain it, refill with new diesel. Half true. Do exactly that to a diesel Citroen C3 near War Memorial and it'll start, which is exactly why the suggestion sounds reasonable. Then your engine pulls the petrol left behind in the fuel filter, and in the feed lines, straight back through your pump, because draining a tank does nothing whatever about fuel that has already left it. Call us instead.
At a forecourt: draining petrol from your diesel
A good part of this work is completed at the pump, as that is where it often starts. Our technicians work on garage forecourts regularly, with the owner's consent, and so if you're still at BP that is typically where this drain happens.
No place other than a forecourt can this be halted with your motor still unrun. Everywhere else — a car park, a driveway, a lay-by — the vehicle was started and driven to get there, which means fuel was drawn from the tank, through your filter then into your high-pressure pump. That's not a calamity, and our engineers can still put it right where it stands. It does mean the fuel lines and the filter need cleaning as well as that tank, and that is decided by the few seconds between reading the till receipt and going for the keys.
The attendants will usually happily push the car clear of the petrol pump so the next motorist can get through. It is worth doing. Starting it just for four car lengths? No.
Ratho and the towns beside it
Ratho is a village, and our vans get out to it and to the areas by it on the usual trips: Ratho Station, Bonnington, Burnwynd, Newbridge and Ingliston.
Our engineers still come. The names above are merely the nearest neighbours, and a page exists for most places across City of Edinburgh, so an absence from the list is not an absence from our coverage. Call us to ask rather than assuming — county lines above all, and anywhere a satnav can struggle with.
That map outlines the area the page covers. Roadside, forecourt, drive, car park: every bit of it is territory our technicians cover, and none of it needs the car to come to us.
Stopped by the kerb anywhere in Ratho?
Not everyone finds a decent place to stop. A routine call for us and not an unusual one: realised after setting off, landed by the verge of Dalmahoy Road or in a lay-by with your hazards flashing.
Out of the car while it's not sensible to wait there, with it when it is. Do not start it up to reach a safer location. It'll go — a diesel on petrol usually obliges — and each mile of obliging drags the mixture deeper into the fuel system. Carrying on causes the vehicle far more harm than a van heading out to an awkward place, and that's no problem for us.
A couple of miles on petrol in a diesel: what next?
under a mile from Ratho, your M8 is what matters here. It will often get you onto it, and some way along, before you spot a thing. Then it's smoke, an uneven idle and power draining away — not a tidy stop. Misfilled diesels seldom give you one of those.
The first sensible exit is the one to take. Turn off there, then leave the restarting alone. It alters what our technicians bring, so mention it when you ring: on a longer run — anything near the under 10 miles to the nearest city — take it the petrol has been through the fuel filter, your pump and your injectors.
Ratho itself
Ratho is a village situated on the Union Canal, near the Water of Leith, in the City of Edinburgh, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Ratho sits at an elevation of 89 metres, close to the Pentland Hills and the nearby villages of Bonnington and Burnwynd. Ratho has a population of around 1489 people and is located near Ratho Station, providing transport links to Edinburgh and other surrounding areas. Ratho is also close to the city of Edinburgh, which is approximately 7.7 miles away.
Our job around Ratho, step by step
- Our engineers check what went in, how much, and if your motor has run. The answers change the work, which is why we ask before giving a price.
- Out goes the contaminated fuel.
- Fuel lines are flushed through and the filter cleared, leaving nothing in the system that created any of this.
- Fresh diesel goes in, and then the fuel system gets bled.
- It is fired up with fresh diesel in it, and our technicians check that it's running properly.
That has the car ready to pull away. We do all of this wherever the vehicle has come to a stop, which means it never needs to go to a garage, and when it has been noticed quickly, it is very rare for there to be long-term damage.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Ratho is a separate matter
If what got in was AdBlue rather than petrol, the first rule is the same — do not crank it — but this issue is not. The protection a fuel system depends on is stripped away by petrol, which dilutes the diesel. Urea in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that brings corrosion and deposits.
We handle both, and AdBlue removal in Ratho has its own page with the detail — including why it's usually the more serious of the two.
How much is a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain around Ratho?
Truthfully, no single number fits on a page like this. This job changes. Here is what moves it:
- Started? Driven? Either answer matters more than anything else on this list.
- How much of the wrong fuel went in, against how much your tank holds.
- The kind of liquid in the tank, unleaded or AdBlue.
- Access: the car's position, and whether working on it there's safe for a technician.
A clear answer rather than a range is what you get for telling us three things: your car, the amount, and whether it has run. Not pressing, with the car at home and going nowhere? Then does this job.
Petrol in diesel queries from Ratho motorists
At a petrol station in Ratho, can you do a fuel drain there?
Yes, and it is where a large share of this work happens. Regularly, provided the site agrees: another forecourt nearby, plus every other forecourt nearby. Say on the phone where exactly you have stopped. Whether our engineers can work in that location is something our technicians answer on the spot.
How much petrol is too much for a diesel?
Whether your motor has run matters a lot more, though the proportion counts too, rather than the litres. Five litres into an almost dry tank isn't five into a full one, no. But both land on the same question in the end: has that mix been drawn right through, or has it not?
I put petrol in my diesel and drove the vehicle. Now what?
Stop somewhere safe, switch off, and keep the vehicle off. Driving is what moves the trouble from that tank into the pump and injectors — but it's recoverable far more commonly than motorists fear, and the single most helpful thing you can do now is not restart the vehicle.
Fuel drains and manufacturer warranties
It is not a modification, and so a drain then flush carried out correctly does not void a manufacturer's warranty. What's likelier to start a disagreement is a diesel that has been run on petrol. One more reason for the engine to remain off.
Could I put some two-stroke in and just drive?
No. Two-stroke oil is an old fix for a distinct problem and it does not put back what petrol has weakened. Petrol stays in that tank later on, whatever else goes in, and the pump gets no reprieve from it.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
You do not need one. Your car is drained and flushed wherever it is, with no need to bring it to a franchised dealer.
You, and the car, still together?
Keep the engine shut off.
Driven it already? Then somewhere sensible, stop, switch off, and no restarting the vehicle after that. Cold, stationary, going nowhere: that's the best place to be in. Drivers fear this a lot more than they need to.
At the kerbside, on the forecourt or at home — on-site fuel draining in Ratho and across City of Edinburgh.