What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Blackburn
One fact counts above all when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is if your engine has been started since. Over in Stoneyburn or right around Blackburn, an unrun motor should stay that way. Leave your motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103; it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Blackburn. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. It is a larger job, yet step one does not change.
Wherever around West Lothian it happened, one of the situations below fits yours.
Blackburn forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
The cap you opened was the wrong one — and you only notice it as you are stood at the petrol pump, bottle or the nozzle in hand. Perhaps you're at the BP, maybe at the Tesco, perhaps somewhere else in Blackburn.
What it means: this is the ideal location to find out. No pump has drawn it through, and so the AdBlue stays only in your tank.
What to do: do not get back in and fire it up to clear the petrol pump. Have the staff to lend a hand rolling it to a space, hold on to the bottle, then ring us from there. Draining it right at the pump is fine when it cannot be moved, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
AdBlue in your diesel tank at home around Blackburn
On your dash, a reminder had been lit all week. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the drive, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look once more at the cap. It takes place on drives just off East Main Street as often as anywhere.
Meaning? As long as your car hasn't moved since, it's close to the pump case. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of the tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
Keep your keys in the house tonight — otherwise someone may take it away at breakfast — and call us. Your driveway is where it gets emptied, whether in Blackburn or Seafield. Even at night, our pumps are quiet enough for a residential street.
On the road around Blackburn with AdBlue in a diesel
Rough running, smoke, lost power or a lit dashboard started a mile or two beyond the fill. Bathgate Road, say, or the way to Dunfermline — a run of under 25 miles.
Meaning? The pump has sucked the AdBlue in. Past the filter, through the lines, and — the further the mileage — deeper into the high-pressure pump and each injector. More driving, more starts: further it goes.
Next: pick a sensible place, stop, and turn your motor off. Service stations further on are too far: from the M8, under a mile out of Blackburn, take the first junction. No test restarts: clearing itself is not something AdBlue does. Ring us and say how far you went.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
It's a car you have had for a week. Your own car either does without AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere, so nothing warned you the AdBlue cap sits just beside your diesel. Anywhere you are in West Lothian, every driver could slip up.
Meaning? Whichever case above applies here — run or unrun — and one further stage. Many rental and company contracts need the owner's approval for work.
Your move: rental firm or fleet manager first, us next, because settling it beforehand saves time. Hanging on for an answer at the car park at Addiewell, or beside Blackburn Miners Memorial Statue? Keep the engine off throughout.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, in Blackburn
At times, "I think so" is the most you can honestly say. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia about the filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. The gates of the local primary school in a hurry, perhaps, or a friend's drive out in Standhill.
The point: the motor isn't harmed by a little AdBlue splashed on the outside. AdBlue inside the diesel tank does. Any AdBlue in the tank will be sucked in by starting the vehicle, and the start would not settle which it is in any case.
What to do: treat it as if it got in. Don't fire it up. Ring us and explain what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
Blackburn: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Whichever situation you are in, this job starts the same way. Three things come once we reach the car — at a filling station, a driveway, a road by Blackburn Bowling Club or the car park outside Turf Bar: the fluid, the quantity, and whether it has run. Over the phone, before anything else, you hear the price, and those answers decide the work too.
AdBlue crystallises and eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, and so it won't rinse out unaided; that is why a full flush, after the drain, counts much more here than with petrol. Last are the fuel filter, flushed or renewed as needed; clean diesel; and a check of the car. Most unrun vehicles are a half-hour visit after the moment our technicians get there.
The final step is starting it. With clean diesel in, it runs while our technicians confirm it is running correctly, and then we go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, and when it's noticed soon, permanent damage is very uncommon. Nothing is paid upfront, settlement is made on the day, and you receive what the insurer asks for: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Blackburn, for a moment
Blackburn is a town situated in a riverside setting in West Lothian, Scotland, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential areas. Blackburn sits at an elevation of around 150 metres, near the towns of Seafield and East Whitburn. Blackburn is located approximately 15 miles from Dunfermline and is part of the wider central Scotland urban landscape. Blackburn has a population of around 5462 people, living in a variety of housing types, predominantly terraced.
AdBlue drains about Blackburn and across West Lothian
Being a riverside town, Blackburn has the same vans as the nearby towns — Guildiehaugh, East Whitburn — all the way across EH postcodes. Telling us a EH47 7 postcode pins you quickest of all.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Foulshiels Bing or in a car park in the middle of Blackburn, it does not need to move. Our van empties it where it stands. Awkward to pin down? Close to New Murrayfield Park or a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
In one line: your scenario
Where it hasn't started, ring and leave it off. Whichever line applies, Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest on 0333 366 0103, throughout West Lothian and within Blackburn — after you pull over, switch off then ring, if it's run.