Birkhill: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage just comes when your pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Birkhill, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Birkhill
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting DD2 5, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way along Sidlaw Terrace.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car away from the island if you are on a forecourt in Birkhill, whether it is the Asda Express or elsewhere. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, because it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Gourdie last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
After it is drawn in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; and, since it eats at some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. Overnight, a car parked around Birkhill with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it's just inside your tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Asda's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the main issue. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and left in your tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the next fill won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Birkhill or out in Charleston, costs more than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across Angus your vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Birkhill
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors waits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought when heading home and tipped in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Rosemount Road, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills the car in dim light, parked in the car park by Birkhill Inn.
It occurs most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Birkhill or the rest of Angus.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Birkhill, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Browhead Strip, perhaps, or midway across Birkhill. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M90, under 25 miles from Birkhill, at the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Birkhill to the car park by Muirhead & Birkhill Millenium Hall is a very different job from a run towards Dundee, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. When it is noticed early, permanent damage is very rare.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Birkhill
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Birkhill: a side street close to Muirhead War Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job depends on three answers, which we ask for first — what went in, the quantity, and if the motor has run.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is flushed right through because residue won't wash away by itself. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking space by Invergowrie or a driveway in Birkhill, that is where we start the engine and you set off. It is tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our technicians leave. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Birkhill
Birkhill is a coastal village in Angus, situated near the city of Dundee and overlooking the Tay Estuary. Birkhill sits at an elevation of 152 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting its relatively affluent character. Birkhill is close to nearby places such as Muirhead and Backmuir of Liff, and is within easy reach of Dundee's amenities.
AdBlue drains across Angus, Birkhill included
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs in Birkhill also cover the spots about it, Muirhead, Backmuir of Liff and Dronley among them, and most of Angus beyond, across the DD postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Birkhill is a coastal village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Birkhill
Because the callouts vary, a single price wouldn't be fair. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open drive is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Muirhead Church.
For that in mind, each call from Birkhill begins with the same trio — which fluid was put in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of a quote. Once those are answered, a range becomes one firm figure.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the vehicle in Birkhill?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Birkhill or wherever in Angus.