Slateford: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
Petrol in Diesel drains and flushes wrongly fuelled cars where they are, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on a driveway, throughout Slateford and the rest of City of Edinburgh. The first thing to do is not to fire up the engine. When the engine has not turned over and the fuel is still sitting in your tank, a fuel drain is nearly always all it requires, and the following few minutes settle that, not how much was put in. Contact us so our engineers will explain what happens from here before you attempt anything else.
The next five steps: petrol in a diesel
- Whenever you drive, your pump and the injectors suffer. That's why you don't crank it, and why you never believe it once it has started. The catch about petrol in a diesel especially — the point people get wrong — is that it pulls away normally for the first mile or two. Diesel in a petrol motor typically will not run at all, which stops the driver and stops the harm with them. This one lets you keep going.
- Flicking the car's ignition on often primes the system, and priming is what pulls petrol out of your tank and into the pump and injectors. Those are the components diesel keeps lubricated on its way through, before it ignites. Petrol manages the burning and none of the lubricating. Leave the car's ignition be.
- Do not pour diesel on top to weaken it. A diesel fuel system doesn't accept petrol by percentage in the way that advice assumes, and topping up takes out nothing — it only leaves you a bigger tank of the same mixture. The octane makes no difference either: super unleaded is just petrol.
- Wait where you are if you reasonably can. A vehicle that hasn't moved is the quickest one to handle, and our team would sooner get to an awkward place than have it started. If you are stopped on the verge on Inglis Green Road, put the hazards on then leave it there.
- Have your whereabouts prepared before you call. A postcode beginning EH14 1 and whatever is nearest to you with a label on it is the difference between our van arriving and the van circling.
- Three facts settle the full job: the liquid you put in, the approximate quantity of it, and whether anything has been running since. The line is 0333 366 0103.
Quarter past eight, a rushed refuel on the way in, and you realise close to eleven — by that point your diesel Volkswagen Tiguan has been sitting at the nearest station for three hours. Ring us then keep the car just where it sits. The drive in is the thing that is key now, as diesel does two tasks on its way through the engine: it combusts, and before it combusts it greases that high-pressure pump and those injectors. Petrol handles the first and not the second. So those few miles were done with the pump working on a fuel that had lost much of the protection it is made for — which is why the question our technicians ask is how many miles you drove, not how long your car has been parked.
Put diesel in a petrol motor and generally it will not run, so the driver stops there and the wear stops with them. Swap it — petrol into a diesel — and the thing starts, ticks over and pulls away as though nothing had happened, whilst the high-pressure pump works without the protection the fuel is supposed to be supplying. That is the catch, and it's why the diesel Vauxhall Astra will have seemed completely normal coming back from the local primary school. They all do. From behind the wheel there's nothing to alert you about, so nothing warns you. Phone us with about how far you drove, and how hard; the second one counts more than the first.
You set off at the end, once our engineers have started the car and checked it runs properly on new diesel, with the fuel system primed. Before that, in the car park at Village Inn, the tainted fuel comes out of that tank, the fuel lines get cleaned and the fuel filter comes off where your Citroen C3 has a serviceable one. Everything begins with three questions when we get to your car: what got in, how much of it, and whether it has been started since.
None of that is the engine failing. That's the part worth hearing, and it's why the normal Redhall Walled Garden call ends better than it sounds: a diesel Kia Sportage drives out there without a murmur, comes back with the power gone, the idle uneven and maybe a little smoke, and the cause is your fuel no longer behaving like diesel. Diesel has to be heavy enough to seal the close-fitting components it passes through; petrol weakens it; and a diesel injection system is hydraulic as much as chemical, needing the fuel to hold pressure rather than only to burn. So pressure that should build and stay built escapes past tolerances, delivery turns up weaker and later and less even than designed, and all of that stops once your fuel is put right.
Fixed and starting aren't the same thing, and the difference is your circuit: our technicians flush it, and take your filter off where there's a workable one. Compare that with the sure of themselves tip you will get — drain the car, refill with new diesel. Half right. Do exactly that to a diesel Peugeot 2008 close to Slateford Aqueduc and it will start, which is precisely why the tip sounds reasonable. Then your engine pulls the petrol left behind in your 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.
Clearing petrol from the diesel at the forecourt
Much of this work begins at a forecourt, which means a large chunk of it is completed on site. We work on station forecourts all the time, with the station's agreement, so if you're still at Sainsbury's that's usually where this drain gets done.
At a garage, this is caught with your motor never fired, and nowhere else manages it. Anywhere else — a car park, a drive, a lay-by — the car was started and driven to get there, which means fuel was sucked from your tank, through your filter then into the high-pressure fuel pump. That's not a calamity, and our engineers can still sort it out where it is. It does mean your lines and the filter need cleaning as well as the tank, and that's decided by the few seconds between seeing the receipt and reaching for the key.
Clear of the pump, the next driver can get through — so yes, let the staff help you wheel the car. Worth doing. Rolling the car four spaces does not merit starting the motor.
Service around Slateford
Being a residential suburb, Slateford sees a steady call, whilst the places close by come with it on that same trip: Craiglockhart and Longstone, Stenhouse and Kingsknowe, Parkhead.
There are dedicated pages for most places around City of Edinburgh, and the ones listed above are just the immediate neighbours — so yours being absent from this list tells you nothing at all about whether our technicians come. Call us to check rather than presuming, particularly where you are on a border or somewhere a satnav gets wrong.
The ground this page covers appears on the map. All of that is territory our technicians cover: a kerbside, a forecourt, a private drive, a car park. You don't drive the car anywhere.
Kerbside breakdowns in Slateford
A chance to stop somewhere suitable does not fall to everybody. Hazards flashing in a lay-by somewhere, or pulled onto the verge on Lanark Road since you noticed after setting off — we take that call so often that it's the ordinary kind.
Whether you remain by the vehicle or step clear of it depends on whether sitting in it looks wise. Every mile a diesel obliges you for on petrol pulls that mix further into the system — and oblige it frequently will, which is why your engine doesn't get restarted to limp somewhere handier. We will take the van to a tricky spot without any trouble, and for the car that's far better than carrying on.
Run it already? Stop, and read this
This is where your M8 comes in, under 3 miles away from Slateford. A misfilled diesel will usually get you onto it and some distance along before anything feels wrong, and the signs when they arrive are usually a loss of power, an uneven idle and smoke rather than a clean stop.
Pull off at the next sensible junction, switch off, and do not start it to reposition. On a longer run — anything approaching the under 5 miles to the nearest city — take it the contamination has been through the filter, the pump and the injectors, and say so when you ring. It affects what our technicians bring.
A little about Slateford
Slateford is a suburban area located on the riverside in the City of Edinburgh, sitting at an elevation of 67 metres and approximately 3.2 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Slateford is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is situated near other local areas such as Craiglockhart, Longstone, and Stenhouse. Slateford has a population of around 5106 residents and is part of the wider Edinburgh urban area.
The job in Slateford, step by step
- We establish what went in, how much, and whether the engine has run. The answers alter the work, which is why we ask before giving a price.
- Our technicians drain the tank of all the contaminated mixture.
- Lines flushed, filter cleared. Whatever remains after that isn't the thing that caused the issue.
- Your system gets bled, on fresh diesel.
- After it's fired up, our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on fresh diesel.
The vehicle is then ready for you to pull away. There's no need to go to a garage at any point, as the work is all done where the car is, and when it is caught early, long-term damage is very uncommon.
AdBlue in your diesel tank instead, around Slateford?
Never crank it: that first rule stands whether what went in was AdBlue or petrol. What differs is this problem itself. The protection a fuel system depends on is taken away by petrol, which thins your diesel. Urea dissolved in water, AdBlue, and in a diesel tank that brings corrosion and residue.
Both are ours. There is a separate Slateford page for AdBlue removal, with the full story on it — including the reasons it frequently turns out to be the worse of the two.
Slateford costs for a petrol-in-diesel drain
Frankly, no single figure belongs on a page like this. The job differs. Here is what varies it:
- Has it been started or driven? Nothing else counts for as much.
- The tank's capacity, set against how much of the wrong fuel went into it.
- AdBlue or petrol, whichever was put in.
- Where is it? And can a technician get to it and work there safely?
Tell us what the car is, how much got in, and whether the motor has run. A straight answer comes back, not a range. If it is not time-critical — the car is at home and going nowhere — is fine too.
Things our engineers get about petrol in diesel around Slateford
Can you do a fuel drain at a petrol station in Slateford?
A good portion of this work gets done there, so yes. Regularly, provided the site consents: Asda, plus every other forecourt nearby. Say on the phone where exactly you have stopped. Whether we can work in that spot is something our engineers answer there and then.
Is there a safe amount of petrol in a diesel?
Litres aren't the measure. Proportion is, and far more than either, it counts whether anything has been run. An almost empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: different scenarios, of course. Either way, the work required comes down to one thing, which is if the system has had that mixture drawn through it.
I drove it after putting petrol in my diesel. What next?
Somewhere sensible, then stop, then switch off and leave it off. It is recoverable far more commonly than motorists assume, even though driving is what moves the issue from that tank into the pump and injectors — and the single most valuable thing you can do now is not restart it.
My warranty — does a fuel drain void it?
A manufacturer's warranty outlasts a drain and flush done to a correct standard, which is no modification at all. What is likelier to start a disagreement is a diesel that has been run on petrol. One more reason for your engine to remain off.
Could I put some two-stroke in and just drive?
No. Two-stroke oil is an old fix for a different issue and it does not replace what petrol has weakened. Petrol remains in that tank later on, whatever else goes in, and your pump gets no respite from it.
Does petrol in a diesel have to go to a main dealer?
You don't need one. The car is drained and cleaned wherever it is, with no need to take it to a main dealer.
Standing next to it?
Shut off is the way it remains.
Driven it already? Then somewhere sensible, stop, switch off, and no restarting the car later on. This is recoverable from far more commonly than drivers assume, and a stationary, cold motor is the best position to be in.
At the roadside, on the forecourt or at home — on-site fuel draining in Slateford and throughout City of Edinburgh.