AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Adambrae? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Adambrae, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Adambrae: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents someone switching the power on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring right where you are. Say a EH54 9 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Do not do these:
- Moving your vehicle just a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- Switching your key to ignition alone sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's pointless.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way up Gregory Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Moving your car off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Adambrae forecourt you're on, the Morrisons Daily or any other. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Livingston yesterday and not switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as nobody touches your key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a car parked in Adambrae. Only inside that tank, it stays stable. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger fault?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Morrisons, and this problem is thinned fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and left inside your tank, it does none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the following fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Adambrae or out in Almondvale, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside your tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to clear, wherever the vehicle has stopped across West Lothian.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Adambrae
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is never the filling station: someone buys a container heading home and tips it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside the local primary school. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive near Marion Gray Road. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Chain Runner.
Hired motors, new motors, company vehicles, or the second vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Wherever you are around Adambrae or the rest of West Lothian, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Adambrae, and the motor started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been sucked through your filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Wilderness Wood, say, or part way across Adambrae. No restarting to test: stop when safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Adambrae lies under 3 miles from the M8; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Adambrae to park near Crofthead Community Centre and a drive of under 15 miles for Dunfermline are such separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once your engine has been run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it is caught early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Adambrae: what it takes
A road beside Till We Meet Again, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever the car has come to rest in Adambrae, we travel to it. The work rests on three answers, and we get first — which fluid got in, the amount, and if the motor has run.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through because residue won't flush out unaided. A test of the vehicle follows at the end, after fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter gets flushed or, where needed, swapped. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space by Livingston South or a drive in Adambrae, that is where we fire it up and you head off. Our technicians confirm it runs correctly on fresh diesel before leaving. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Adambrae, briefly
Adambrae is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Lothian, with a mix of detached housing and local amenities. Adambrae sits at an elevation of 128 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Adambrae is located near several nearby places, including Kirton Campus, Livingston Village, and Kirkton, and is approximately 13.7 miles from Dunfermline. Adambrae has a population of around 1785 residents.
AdBlue drains across West Lothian, Adambrae included
Kirton Campus, Livingston Village and Kirkton are among the towns near Adambrae that the same vans serve, together with much of West Lothian further out, over the EH postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Wherever the car sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Adambrae, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Adambrae
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Dyke-Swarm.
Ahead of a quote, not afterwards, each call from Adambrae begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if the engine ran. With them, a range narrows to a single firm figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Adambrae: still alongside the vehicle?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Adambrae or anywhere within West Lothian, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.