Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in Stannergate? Don't Start It
Don't start your engine. If the petrol is still inside your tank and the motor has not yet run, a fuel drain is almost always all it needs — and that gets decided in the coming few minutes, not by how much went in. Petrol in Diesel drains and cleans wrongly fuelled cars where they are, throughout Stannergate and the rest of Dundee City, on the forecourt, by the roadside or on a driveway. Just one ring to us will be sufficient: our technicians can tell you what follows next. Do this first.
Your next five minutes: petrol in a diesel
- Give a petrol engine diesel and it will usually fail to run at all, and so the motorist stops there and so does the harm. Give a diesel petrol and the thing starts, it idles, it pulls away — fine for a few miles. Most people have that backwards, which is the thing they get wrong about petrol in a diesel in particular. So don't crank it. And once started, never depend on it: your fuel system is wearing while you drive.
- Two jobs, diesel: it burns, and on the way through it keeps the high-pressure pump and injectors oiled. Petrol only handles the one. Which is why your ignition is left off as well — turn it on and you often prime that system, and that is petrol exiting your tank for just those parts.
- Topping up removes nothing. It hands you a fuller tank of the same blend, since a diesel fuel system does not accept petrol by percentage as that advice presumes — so don't put diesel on top to thin it. Octane is beside the point too: super unleaded is petrol.
- Stay where you are if you safely can. A motor that hasn't moved is the quickest one to handle, and our team would sooner get to a difficult place than have it started. If you're parked on the verge on Craigie Place, turn the hazards on then keep it there.
- Check where you are before phoning. A postcode starting DD4 7, and the name of whatever is nearest to you. Otherwise the van circles instead of arriving.
- Phone 0333 366 0103. Tell us what got in, roughly how much, plus whether your car has started. These three replies settle the full job.
Petrol in a diesel Volkswagen Golf, sat at Broughty Ferry since first thing? The wait has lost you nothing — fuel sitting in a tank is dormant. It was the trip in that pulled weakened diesel through your pump. Phone us before you move it.
Car parks like the one outside Aldi are a spot our engineers attend frequently, and the fuel is seldom the awkward part. That bay is: cars either side, a trolley shelter behind, at times a height bar on the way in that determines whether our van can reach you at all. So tell us how penned in you are when you call, and which way the vehicle is facing. Where our technicians cannot work beside your diesel BMW 3 Series we will move the vehicle without starting it — and that is not fuss about a couple of seconds of running. Any start primes your fuel system and pulls more of that mix out of that tank and on to the pump, and so a car moved twice into a roomier bay has gradually become a bigger job than one left exactly where it stopped.
Shift the vehicle out of the gateway and sort it out later — that's what a passer-by will say, and it's wrong. Parked on the zig-zags outside the local primary school, a wrongly fuelled diesel Ford Focus is a hassle and nothing worse. Started three more times for politeness, it is no longer a tank fault but a fuel system one, as priming takes place with every start and more petrol goes through your filter on to the pump. Let everyone grumble. Phone us.
Nothing is getting worse while it sits. Whatever the diesel Dacia Duster did on the way to Monymusk Park, it's doing none of that now: the pump is not turning. So take your time — but don't drive the vehicle home to buy yourself any.
Most of these occur somewhere unfamiliar, and the cause is mechanical rather than sloppy — practically no resistance meets a narrower petrol nozzle entering a current diesel filler neck. Two days into a diesel Kia Sportage, a fill-up near Gardyne Theatre that you didn't think about? Phone us from where you are. Courtesy and hire cars go further before anyone notices it, and the further they go, the more petrol ends up at the injectors.
At the forecourt: draining petrol from the diesel
A fair chunk of this job gets finished at a forecourt, as that is where it usually kicks off. Our technicians work on petrol station forecourts routinely, with the owner's consent, so if you are still at Asda that is typically where this drain happens.
At a garage, it is caught with your motor never fired, and nowhere else does that. We can still deal with it where it sits, even away from the pumps. In a car park, on a driveway or in a lay-by, the car has been started and moved there, and that pulled fuel through the filter and into your high-pressure pump, right from the tank. None of that is a disaster, though the flush then has to go past the tank to your lines and your filter, and the few seconds between reading the receipt and reaching for your key are what determine that.
The attendants will usually help you push the vehicle clear of the pump so the next customer can get by. That is worth doing. Firing the car for four car lengths? Not a chance.
Parts our vans cover near Stannergate
Craigie, Douglas and Angus, West Ferry, Linlathen, Maryfield — each of them on our trips that take us out to Stannergate itself, a residential suburb.
There are dedicated pages for the majority of places across Dundee City, and the ones named above are just the immediate neighbours — so yours being left off this list tells you nothing about if we come. Presuming is the mistake to avoid, especially on the border or somewhere your satnav fails. Contact us and enquire.
The map marks the ground the page covers. Every bit of that is ground we cover: a roadside, a forecourt, a private drive, a car park. You don't move your vehicle anywhere.
Stranded on the kerbside in Stannergate
A chance to pull in somewhere suitable does not fall to everyone. Hazards on in a lay-by somewhere, or pulled onto the verge beside A930 because you worked it out after setting off — we take that call so often that it is the ordinary kind.
Remain by the motor while it's sensible to wait there, and clear of the vehicle if it's not. It will often oblige. A diesel running on petrol limps along quite willingly, and that's the catch: fire it up to reach somewhere handier and the blend goes further into your fuel system with every mile travelled. Driving on does your car far more harm than our van heading out to an awkward spot, and that is no trouble for us.
Already driven it? Petrol in a diesel over a few miles
This is where the local M90 matters, under 25 miles from Stannergate. Some distance along, and onto it in the first place: a misfuelled diesel will often do both before anything seems wrong. What you get then is rarely a tidy stop. Power drains away, the idle turns rough, and there may be smoke.
Take the first exit that's sensible, stop there, and do not start the vehicle to move it. On a longer trip — anything close to the under 3 miles to the nearest city — take it the petrol has been through your filter, your pump and the injectors, and tell us when you ring. It affects what our engineers bring.
A little about Stannergate
Stannergate is a coastal suburban area in Dundee City, situated near the city centre and overlooking the Firth of Tay. Stannergate sits at a low elevation of around 17 metres, with its flat housing stock reflecting the area's relatively flat topography. Stannergate is close to nearby places such as Craigie, Douglas and Angus, and West Ferry, and is just a short distance from Dundee city centre.
What we do when we get to you in Stannergate
- Three things get established before any quote — the fuel that got in, the amount, and whether anything has been run since. Each answer alters the work.
- We drain your tank of the polluted mixture.
- Our technicians rinse the fuel lines and clear the fuel filter, so what is left in your system is not what created the problem.
- We pour new diesel in and bleed your system.
- We start it and check it runs correctly on new diesel.
From that point, you are ready to drive away. There is no need to go to a garage at any stage, since the work is all done where your car is, and when it's spotted soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Stannergate is a different problem
AdBlue rather than petrol? Then the opening instruction is unchanged — your motor stays off — while this fault under it is a separate one altogether. The protection a fuel system depends on is taken away by petrol, which thins the diesel. AdBlue? Urea dissolved in water. Tip that in with your diesel and you get corrosion instead, plus residue.
Both are ours. There is a separate Stannergate page for AdBlue removal, with the detail on it — including the reasons it usually turns out to be the worse of the two.
How much is a petrol-in-diesel drain around Stannergate?
Our engineers cannot put one price on this page truthfully, since the job isn't one job. What moves it:
- Whether your engine has been started or driven. This is the key one.
- How much of the wrong fuel got in, judged against how much that tank takes.
- AdBlue or unleaded, whichever was put in.
- Where your vehicle is, and if a technician can sensibly get to and work on it.
Tell us what the car is, how much went in, and whether your engine has run. A straight answer comes back, not a range. If it isn't urgent — your car is at home and going nowhere — is fine too.
Stannergate motorists ask us these about petrol in diesel
At a petrol station in Stannergate, can you do a fuel drain there?
Plenty of what our technicians do happens nowhere else. So yes. Consent from the site is the condition. Given that, a forecourt like Esso is somewhere we're frequently, along with the rest of them locally — so name yours on the phone and you'll hear if working there's possible.
How much petrol in a diesel is too much?
Litres aren't the measure. Ratio is, and much more than either, it matters if anything has been run. A nearly empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: distinct situations, definitely. Either way, the work required comes down to one thing, which is whether your fuel system has had that blend drawn through it.
I drove it after putting petrol in my diesel. What next?
Turn off somewhere safe, and keep it that way after you stop. Driving is what shifts the issue from the tank into the pump and injectors — but it is salvageable a lot more often than motorists fear, and the single most valuable thing you can do now is not restart the vehicle.
Fuel drains and manufacturer warranties
It is not a change, and so a drain and flush carried out properly does not cancel a manufacturer's warranty. What is 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 workaround for a separate issue and it doesn't restore what petrol has thinned. After that? Still petrol in that tank, and a pump that has to cope with the stuff.
A main dealer for petrol in a diesel — necessary?
Wherever the vehicle 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?
Do not switch your engine back on.
Turn it off somewhere safe then leave it off, if you have already driven it. Cold, stationary, going nowhere: that is the best position to be in. Motorists fear this much more than they need to.
On-site fuel draining in Stannergate and throughout Dundee City — at the roadside, on the forecourt or at home.