AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Achlonan? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then leave your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your pump — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully purged where the vehicle stands in Achlonan. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Achlonan: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops anyone switching the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting PA35 1, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the car.
Never do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: your motor remains off.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not thin it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Achnafearna.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any Achlonan forecourt — the BP included — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and no part of that was intended to go through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the same place the intake sucks from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Corfhouse yesterday and never started remains the simple one, as long as no one turns your key.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is flushed out. A car left standing around Achlonan with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in that tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. Whether your vehicle sits in Airds Bay or the centre of Achlonan, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever across Argyll and Bute the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Achlonan?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts invite it. Usually it's not the filling station: someone buys a container driving home and pours it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive near Aldersyde. Or your car is topped up in the car park at the pub in the village, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the spare car of a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use least. Wherever you are in Achlonan or the remainder of Argyll and Bute, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Achlonan?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from A' Choille Bheag, or midway across Achlonan, the engine might go lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep it off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M8, under 50 miles from Achlonan, by the first junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Mileage counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, so heading for Stirling, over 50 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Achlonan to the car park by Church of the Visitation. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has stopped, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Achlonan: what it takes
A street beside Taynuilt Village Hall, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the car has come to rest around Achlonan, our engineers come to it. Three answers decide the work, and so first our technicians ask which fluid went in, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then the tank is drained where your car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Testing the vehicle comes last, once clean diesel goes in and the filter gets flushed or, if needed, swapped. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The final step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, at Taynuilt or on a drive around Achlonan. The test before our technicians head off is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Achlonan, for a moment
Achlonan is a small coastal suburban area in Argyll and Bute, situated near the villages of Brochroy and Taynuilt. Achlonan has a low elevation of around 7 metres, reflecting its proximity to the sea. Achlonan is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, which is typical of many Scottish coastal communities. Achlonan is located some distance from major cities, with Stirling being the nearest at around 54 miles away.
Achlonan and Argyll and Bute: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the PA postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Achlonan reach much of Argyll and Bute too, Brochroy, Taynuilt and Ichrachan included. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians empty it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Achlonan, a residential suburb, well.
Achlonan: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, so no fixed price would be fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Nelson's Monument.
Ahead of a quote, not after, each enquiry from Achlonan opens with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. Their answers shrink a range right down to a single number.
The quote is given during the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, check your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Alongside the car in Achlonan, still?
Then, do nothing — that's the best step there is. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Achlonan or anywhere within Argyll and Bute.