West Craigs: Put Petrol in a Diesel Car?
If you have not started the engine as yet, do not. A drain and nothing more is nearly always what a vehicle needs while the fuel is still sitting in that tank and your engine has not run, which is why it is the coming few minutes that count, not how much went in. Petrol in Diesel travels to your car wherever it has ended up in West Craigs or the rest of City of Edinburgh, on the forecourt, at the roadside or on a drive, and drains and flushes it there. Contact us before anything else happens, and you will see what follows after that.
What to try first about petrol in a diesel
- While you drive, your pump and your injectors wear down. That's why you don't crank it, and why you don't trust it once it has started. The catch about petrol in a diesel especially — the bit people get wrong — is that it pulls away normally for the first mile or two. Diesel in a petrol engine typically can't run at all, which stops the person and stops the harm with them. This one lets you drive on.
- Two jobs, diesel: it burns, and on the way through it keeps the high-pressure pump and injectors greased. Petrol only does the one. Which is why the ignition stays off as well — switch it on and you frequently prime the system, and that's petrol leaving your tank for exactly those parts.
- Don't add diesel on top to water down it. A diesel fuel system won't handle petrol by percentage as that advice assumes, and topping up takes out nothing — it only gives you a fuller tank of the same mixture. The octane makes no difference either: super unleaded is still petrol.
- We would rather travel to an awkward spot than have it started — so if you safely can, stay still. Nothing is quicker to handle than a car that has never shifted. On the verge on West Craigs Crescent, that means hazards on then keep it.
- Before you call, get your location. Anything next to you with a sign on it, plus a postcode starting EH12 8 — that's what decides whether the van arrives or circles.
- Call 0333 366 0103. Tell us what was put in, roughly how many litres, and also if the engine has run. These three facts shape the whole call-out.
Do not drive it home. The drive in has already pushed a real load of petrol-thinned diesel through the high-pressure fuel pump of your Volkswagen Golf, and the trip back would about double it for no reason at all. Phone us from the platform if that is handier. Our engineers do not need you standing over your car outside Edinburgh Gateway while our engineers get it done, and our team would far rather talk to you tonight than find out on Monday.
The components that should be getting protected are wearing down instead, and the car gives no sign of that: a diesel on a weakened tank starts and drives off quite happily. Chance the journey home from Mid Yoken Pub? Not a chance. Phone us then leave the BMW 3 Series where it is.
Here is the full mechanism. Diesel needs enough body to seal the close clearances it goes through, and petrol takes that away. That's it. Which accounts for the usual Toward Court call — a diesel Mercedes C-Class, out there without complaint and back down on power, rough at idle, maybe a bit of smoke. Injection systems work hydraulically as well as chemically, and so your fuel has to hold pressure and not just burn; weakened, it leaks past those clearances rather than building, and delivery comes weaker, later, less even than your engine was designed round. Not a failing motor, though. Fuel that has stopped behaving like diesel. Put that right and it stops.
Why we are firm about not driving on: the pump sits upstream of the fuel injectors, so whatever a worn pump gives off moves on with your fuel. Leave the Peugeot 3008 near Gyle Shopping Centre and call us.
Turn off where you have stopped, and do not start it to find somewhere better — close to Concrete Tree or anywhere at all. Knocking, a ragged idle, white smoke and a dead throttle are a misfilled diesel Vauxhall Astra telling you what's wrong.
Can petrol be pumped out of your diesel on the forecourt?
Forecourts are where the work mostly kicks off, and where a large chunk of that ends. If you're still on the forecourt at Shell, that's normally where the drain takes place — we work on garage forecourts routinely, with the site's permission.
A forecourt is the one place this gets caught before your motor has started. Anywhere else — a car park, a private drive, a lay-by — the car was switched on and driven to get there, which means fuel was drawn from the tank, through the fuel filter then into your high-pressure pump. That is not a disaster, and we can still sort it out where it sits. It does mean the lines and your filter need flushing as well as the tank, and that is determined by the few seconds between reading your receipt and reaching for your key.
Roll the car out of the way if the attendants volunteer, and they usually will. The next customer gets through the pump, and that's worth doing. Moving it four lengths does not warrant starting the engine.
West Craigs plus the areas next to it
West Craigs is a residential suburb, and so our technicians go out to the town and to the areas near it on those same runs: East Craigs, South Gyle, The Gyle, Gogar and Bughtlin.
Not on that list? It says nothing. The places above are just the nearest few, and the majority of towns in City of Edinburgh have a page of their own elsewhere on the site. Ring us to ask instead of assuming, particularly where you are on the border or anywhere a satnav struggles with.
That map marks the patch this page covers. Kerbside, forecourt, private drive, car park: all of that is territory our technicians serve, and none of that requires the car to come to us.
Stopped on the kerbside somewhere in West Craigs?
Not everybody gets the opportunity to pull in somewhere sensible. A routine call for us and not an odd one: realised after setting off, ended up on the verge of Turnhouse Road or at a lay-by with your hazards on.
Clear of the vehicle while it isn't safe to be inside, beside it if it is. Do not fire it up to get to a better spot. It'll go — a diesel on petrol normally obliges — and each mile of obliging draws that mixture deeper into the system. Pressing on does the vehicle far more harm than a van coming out to an awkward place, and that's no problem for us.
Run it already? Stop, and read below
The M8 is the road that counts now, and runs under a mile from West Craigs. Some distance along, and onto it in the first place: a misfuelled diesel will often manage both before anything seems wrong. What you get then is seldom a clean stop. Power ebbs away, your idle goes uneven, and there may be smoke.
Take the first exit that is safe, pull up there, and do not start the vehicle to reposition. Long run? Anything approaching the under 10 miles to the nearest city and you should presume the lot — filter, pump, injectors, all of it arrived at by the petrol. Say that on the phone, since it alters what goes in the van.
A little about West Craigs
West Craigs is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Edinburgh, situated near the coast at an elevation of 49 metres. West Craigs is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is close to nearby places such as East Craigs, South Gyle, and The Gyle. West Craigs is a relatively small community with a population of approximately 2068 residents, and it is about 5 miles from Edinburgh city centre. West Craigs benefits from its proximity to the city while maintaining a distinct local identity.
What follows when our engineers get to you in West Craigs
- The answers shape the work, which is why we ask before quoting: what was put in, how much of that, and if your engine has run.
- The contaminated fuel is drawn out of your tank.
- Our technicians flush the fuel lines and clear the fuel filter, and so what is left in the fuel system isn't what started the issue.
- We pour new diesel in and prime the system.
- We fire it up and make sure it runs correctly on new diesel.
Your car is then ready for you to pull away. There is no need for a garage at any stage, since the work is all done where your car is, and when it's noticed quickly, long-term damage is very unusual.
West Craigs AdBlue removal is a different matter
If what went in was AdBlue rather than petrol, the opening instruction is the same — do not fire it up — yet the fault isn't. The protection a fuel system relies on is taken away by petrol, which weakens the diesel. AdBlue? Urea dissolved in water. Tip that in with the diesel and you get rust instead, plus deposits.
Usually the more serious of the two, AdBlue — and the detail lives on its own West Craigs page. Both are ours to deal with.
Paying for a petrol-in-diesel drain around West Craigs
What shifts the figure is laid out below, since this job is not one job and our technicians cannot honestly put a single figure on this page.
- Whether the motor has been run or driven. This is the key one.
- How much of the wrong fuel was put in, judged against how much that tank can hold.
- Whether it is petrol or AdBlue.
- Whether our van can safely reach your car and work on it, which depends on where your vehicle is.
Tell us what the vehicle is, how much got in, and if the engine has run. A firm answer comes back, not a range. For the car at home that's going nowhere and isn't urgent, works too.
Things our technicians get about petrol in diesel around West Craigs
I am on a forecourt around West Craigs. Can you drain the car on the spot?
Plenty of what our engineers do takes place nowhere else. So yes. Our technicians work at Morrisons and the other forecourts locally all the time, with the owner's permission — tell us which one you're at when you ring and we'll tell you whether our technicians can work there.
How much petrol is too much for a diesel?
Whether your motor has run counts much more, though the proportion counts too, instead of the litres. A nearly empty tank with five litres in it, against a full one with the same five: different situations, certainly. Either way, the work needed comes down to one thing, which is whether your fuel system has had that mixture sucked through it.
Already driven it with petrol in your diesel? Now what?
Stop sensibly. Off. Nothing after that. Driving is what takes the trouble from the tank into the pump and injectors — but it's salvageable far more regularly than drivers fear, and the single most valuable thing you can do now is not restart it.
Fuel drains and manufacturer warranties
It is not a modification, so a drain and flush carried out correctly does not invalidate a manufacturer's warranty. An argument over a warranty is likelier to come from running a diesel on petrol — so leave it switched off.
Adding two-stroke oil, then driving home
No. Two-stroke oil is an old workaround for a separate problem and it doesn't replace what petrol has thinned. Afterwards? Still petrol in the tank, and a pump that has to live with the stuff.
Main dealers and petrol in a diesel
You do not need one. The car is drained and flushed wherever it is, with no need to bring it to a franchised dealer.
Is the car still with you?
Never turn your engine on again.
Switch it off somewhere sensible and leave it off, if you have already driven it. Cold and stationary, a vehicle is in the best place available — and drivers fear this far more than the recovery rate warrants.
Draining misfuelled cars, West Craigs and the rest of City of Edinburgh, wherever they are. Roadside. Forecourt. Home.