Put Petrol in a Diesel Car in Tollcross? Don't Start It
Petrol in Diesel drains and cleans wrongly fuelled vehicles where they sit, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on a private drive, across Tollcross and the rest of City of Edinburgh. The very first thing to do is not to start the engine. While the engine has not run and the fuel is still sitting in that tank, a fuel drain is almost always all it requires, and the next few minutes settle that, not how much was put in. Phone and our technicians shall show you what comes from here before you try anything else.
What now? Petrol in a diesel, step by step
- Don't crank it. Fired up anyway? Then don't believe it. Diesel in a petrol motor normally can't run, so the driver stops and the damage stops with them. Petrol in a diesel? It starts. It ticks over. It pulls away normally, for a few miles. People get that muddled. It's not all right — that fuel system is wearing every mile you do.
- Diesel ignites, and before it ignites it lubricates — that high-pressure fuel pump, the injectors. Petrol does only the burning. So leave the car's ignition be also: turning it on is usually enough to prime the system, and priming carries petrol from that tank into precisely those components.
- Never pour diesel on top to water down it. A diesel fuel system will not handle petrol by percentage as that advice assumes, and topping up clears nothing — it simply hands you a larger tank of the same mix. The octane makes no difference either: super unleaded is still petrol.
- Stay still if it's wise to. Hazards on, engine off, keep the car. Wherever you have stopped — the verge on Ponton Street, anywhere — an awkward location for us is better than a started motor, and nothing is quicker for us to handle than a vehicle that never shifted.
- The van turning up instead of circling rests on two things: a postcode beginning EH3 9, and whatever is closest to you with a name on it. Keep both prepared before you ring.
- Call 0333 366 0103. Expect three queries — what was put in, about how many litres, and if the motor has been turned over. Your answers decide everything that happens next.
The trip back would close to double it, for no purpose at all. One commute has already forced a real load of petrol-thinned diesel through your high-pressure pump of your Volkswagen Golf. So keep it where it is. Phone us from the platform if that's easier — nobody needs you standing over the vehicle at Haymarket while our technicians get on, and tonight beats finding out on Monday.
We're in car parks like the one outside Zam Zam all the time, and it is hardly ever the fuel that complicates them. It is the bay. Vehicles both sides. Trolleys stacked up behind. Sometimes a height limit at the way in, which settles if a technician gets to you at all. So tell us how penned in you are when you ring, and which way the vehicle is pointing. If there is no space to work beside that Renault Megane, our technicians roll it without the motor. That isn't pedantry over a handful of seconds: starts prime things, blend comes out of that tank toward the pump, and a vehicle shifted twice for a nicer bay is silently a bigger job than one no one touched.
Twenty to nine. By the local primary school. Late already, and your receipt in your hand says unleaded. Switch the hazards on, leave the motor alone, then call us. You might think three miles is nothing, in the BMW 3 Series or anything else — except that fuel is metered to demand, and a drive taken in a hurry asks for a great deal of it.
A vehicle you collected two days ago gets driven further before anybody sees anything, which is the hire and courtesy problem in one sentence — and how far it went is what decides the volume of petrol arriving at the fuel injectors. Nothing sloppy about the mistake itself: a modern diesel filler neck takes the smaller petrol nozzle with practically no resistance, so unfamiliar spots see most of these. Call us from wherever you are, near Tollcross Community Centre or not, and we will come to the Kia Sportage.
Repaired and starting are not the same thing, and the difference is the system: our technicians flush it, and take the fuel filter off where there's a working one. Compare that with the sure of themselves advice you will get — drain the car, refill with new diesel. Only half right. Do exactly that to a diesel Mercedes GLC close to Edinburgh Meat Market Archway and it will start, which is precisely why the suggestion sounds sensible. Then the motor pulls the petrol left behind in the filter, and in the feed lines, straight back through the pump, as emptying a tank does nothing whatever about fuel that has already left it. Ring us instead.
Draining petrol from a diesel on the forecourt
The work starts at the pump, usually. Quite often it finishes there as well. The drain normally happens right there. Still on the forecourt at JET? Given the station's permission, that is a spot our engineers work, and often.
At the forecourt, the mistake is stopped with your engine never fired, and no place else manages it. Fuel drawn out of that tank and through the fuel filter, all the way to the high-pressure pump, is what occurs when the engine is switched on and your car is moved to where it is now: the car park, the private drive or the lay-by, anywhere other than the forecourt. So the flush includes the filter and the lines as well as your tank. That is still not a disaster, and we put it right where your car stands. What determines it is whether the ignition was reached for in the seconds after your receipt was read.
Staff will generally help out pushing it clear of the pump, which lets the next motorist get through. Accept the assistance. Four car lengths isn't worth the risk.
Coverage in Tollcross
Fountainbridge, West End, Old Town, Marchmont, Churchhill — every one of them on the runs that carry us out to Tollcross itself, a residential suburb.
Not on the list? That tells you nothing. The names above are simply the nearest few, and the majority of locations across City of Edinburgh have a page of their own somewhere on this site. Phone to check rather than assuming, particularly where you are on the boundary or anywhere your phone struggles with.
Use this map for the ground shown here. Your car does not need to travel to us. We work across all of it — kerbside, forecourts, driveways, car parks.
Roadside breakdowns across Tollcross
Not everyone gets the opportunity to pull in anywhere safe. Hazards flashing in a lay-by somewhere, or stopped on the verge beside West Tollcross since you worked it out after setting off — we take that call often enough that it's the usual kind.
Safe right there? Stay by it. Not safe? Move out and away from it. Don't restart your engine to nurse it somewhere better — a diesel running on petrol will often oblige, and every mile it obliges for is drawing the mixture further into the system. Pressing on does your car far more harm than our van heading out to an inconvenient location, and that's no trouble for us.
So you've run it? Petrol in a diesel over a couple of miles
The local M8 is the road that matters now, and it lies under 5 miles from Tollcross. Lost power, a lumpy idle, smoke: those are the signs when they arrive, instead of a tidy stop — and a misfilled diesel will often take you onto it and some distance along before anything feels wrong at all.
The first safe junction is the one to take. Switch off there, then leave the restarting alone. It changes what our engineers bring, so say so when you call: on a longer trip — anything approaching the under a mile to the nearest city — assume the mixture has been through your filter, your pump and your injectors.
About Tollcross
Tollcross is a densely populated suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the coast and approximately 0.9 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Tollcross sits at an elevation of around 77 metres, with its predominantly flat-type housing reflecting the area's urban character. Tollcross is close to other nearby places such as Fountainbridge, West End, and Old Town, and is home to a population of around 18845 people.
Our visit around Tollcross, step by step
- We find out what got in, how much, and whether the engine has run. The replies change the work, which is why our technicians ask before quoting.
- The tainted fuel is pulled from the tank.
- Our technicians rinse the lines and clear the filter, and so what's left in the system is not what started the problem.
- Priming follows, once new diesel is in.
- After it's started, our engineers check it runs smoothly on clean diesel.
The vehicle is then ready for you to drive away. Everything is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a garage, and when it has been spotted soon, permanent damage is very rare.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Tollcross is a distinct problem
The problem isn't the same, though the opening instruction is — never fire it up — if what got in was AdBlue rather than petrol. Weakened diesel, and no lubrication left for the fuel system that relies on it. That's petrol. AdBlue? Urea dissolved in water. Tip that in with your diesel and you get corrosion instead, plus residue.
AdBlue removal in Tollcross has a page of its own with the detail on it, including why it is frequently the more serious of the two. Our engineers cover both.
How much is a petrol-in-diesel fuel drain in Tollcross?
Truthfully, no single figure belongs on a page like this. The job changes. Here is what changes it:
- Started? Driven? Either answer matters more than anything else on this list.
- How much of the wrong fuel got in, set against how much the tank takes.
- Which was put in: unleaded or AdBlue.
- Where the vehicle is, and whether a van can sensibly get to and work on it.
Tell us what your vehicle is, how much went in, and whether the engine has run. A firm answer comes back, not a range. For the vehicle at home that is going nowhere and isn't urgent, works too.
Petrol in diesel questions from Tollcross drivers
Can you do a fuel drain at a petrol station in Tollcross?
Yes, and it is where a large share of this work happens. Regularly, provided the site agrees: BP, plus every other forecourt nearby. Say on the phone where precisely you have stopped. Whether our technicians can work in that location is something we answer there and then.
A couple of litres of petrol in a diesel — too much?
Litres are not the yardstick. Ratio is, and a lot more than either, it matters whether anything has been run. Five litres into a nearly dry tank is not five into a full one, no. But both land on the same query in the end: has that mix been sucked right through, or has it not?
I drove the car after putting petrol in my diesel. Now what?
Stop safely. Off. Nothing after that. It is recoverable a lot more regularly than drivers expect, even though driving is what moves the trouble from the tank into the pump and injectors — and the single most helpful thing you can do now is not restart it.
My warranty — does a fuel drain void it?
It's not a change, so a drain then flush carried out properly doesn't invalidate a manufacturer's warranty. What's likelier to start a dispute is a diesel that has been run on petrol. One more reason for the motor to stay off.
Could I put some two-stroke in and just drive?
No. Two-stroke oil is an old workaround for a different fault and it doesn't replace what petrol has diluted. Petrol remains in that tank afterwards, whatever else goes in, and your pump gets no break from it.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
Wherever your car is, we drain and clean it there, so a drive to the main dealer doesn't come into it.
Standing next to it?
Don't turn the car on again.
Already driven it? Then pull in somewhere safe, switch off, and let the car stay that way. Cold, parked, going nowhere: that is the best place to be in. Motorists fear this far more than they need to.
Across City of Edinburgh and around Tollcross: mobile fuel draining, at home or on the forecourt or at the roadside.