Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Addiebrownhill
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes when the pump begins drawing it. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully rinsed where the car sits around Addiebrownhill. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Addiebrownhill: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting EH55 8, or just the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Switching your key to ignition alone sets the pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's pointless.
- Even a short way up Meadowhead Crescent is too far to drive it.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
On a forecourt around Addiebrownhill, whether it's the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the petrol pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Longford Crofts last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through if the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it remains inside. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in Addiebrownhill with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is only inside the tank, it doesn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Shell, and the problem is thinned fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left in that tank, it does nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, so watering it won't help. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning the key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in West Mains Crofts or the centre of Addiebrownhill equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just in the tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever the vehicle has come to rest across West Lothian.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Addiebrownhill: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two can look the same. No one intends it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped in. Near Meadowhead Terrace, someone pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside the pub in the village, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a fleet car, or the other car of a family with both fuels — the vehicles people know least. Wherever you're around Addiebrownhill or the rest of West Lothian, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Addiebrownhill?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been pulled through your filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Addiewell Wee Forest, or part way across Addiebrownhill, your engine may go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Addiebrownhill sits under 3 miles from the M8; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up safely rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Addiebrownhill to the car park by Addiewell Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Dunfermline, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once your engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Addiebrownhill?
A road by Loganlea Miners Club & Addiewell Pitstop, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Addiebrownhill, our technicians come to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those replies settle this work.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned right through because what remains won't flush away by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. At that point we fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Addiewell or a drive around Addiebrownhill. Our technicians confirm it runs properly on fresh diesel before we go. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Addiebrownhill, for a moment
Addiebrownhill is a village situated on the riverside in West Lothian, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 951 residents. Addiebrownhill sits at an elevation of 198 metres, near the communities of Loganlea, Addiewell, and Stoneyburn. Addiebrownhill is located approximately 16.9 miles from Dunfermline, the nearest city, and is part of the wider Scottish landscape. Addiebrownhill's rural setting provides a contrast to the urban areas found in other parts of the country.
AdBlue drains across Addiebrownhill and West Lothian
The vans that answer AdBlue calls around Addiebrownhill also cover the places around it, Loganlea, Addiewell and Stoneyburn among them, and most of West Lothian beyond, across the EH postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
No towing is needed. In Addiebrownhill, a village, a mobile service works: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, be it on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Addiebrownhill
Since the callouts vary, a single price would not be fair. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Addiewell and Loganlea Memorial Garden.
What got in, how much, and whether it ran: every Addiebrownhill enquiry opens by asking exactly those, ahead of a quote, never afterwards. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Next to the vehicle in Addiebrownhill, right now?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best move available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Addiebrownhill or anywhere in West Lothian.