AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Boghall? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition as well. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it is sucked through the pump — it will not burn, and it will not combine with diesel. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Boghall. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Boghall: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so don't throw it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting EH48 1, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Anne Street.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
The attendants working at any Boghall filling station — the JET included — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Paulville last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — though it will be first through once your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a car parked in Boghall. Just in the tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Tesco. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the next fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Boghall or out in Ballencrieff Toll, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in West Lothian the vehicle is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Boghall
Many cars put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and after dark the two can look identical. Nobody means it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up the car. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive near Elizabeth Drive. Or someone new to that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by the pub in the village.
It happens most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Boghall or the rest of West Lothian, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Boghall: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and pipework.
Perhaps coming back from Boghall Wee Forest, or part way across Boghall, the motor might go rough, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or stall. When safe, stop then switch it off — without restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Boghall sits under a mile from the M8; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Hopping across Boghall to the car park by Old Parish Church, Kirkton is one matter; driving for Dunfermline, under 15 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once your engine has been run. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's caught early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Boghall: what it takes
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Boghall: a side street near Whitelaw, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies shape the job, and so first our engineers ask what got in, about the amount, and whether your engine has turned over.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since what remains won't wash away by itself. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of the car. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. Then our technicians start the car and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Bathgate or a driveway in Boghall. Before we leave, our engineers confirm it's running correctly with new diesel in. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Boghall, for a moment
Boghall is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Lothian, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 3878 residents. Boghall sits at an elevation of 172 metres, near the communities of Guildiehaugh and Glenmavis, and is located approximately 13 miles from Dunfermline. Boghall is part of the wider urban area surrounding Bathgate, with the city of Edinburgh also within commuting distance. Boghall's location allows for easy access to the surrounding countryside and the nearby towns.
AdBlue drains around Boghall and across West Lothian
Throughout the EH postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Boghall reach much of West Lothian too, Guildiehaugh, Glenmavis and Bathgate among them. Ring and check rather than guess if you're close to a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Boghall is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Boghall: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. 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, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Pyramids.
What went in, what quantity, and whether it ran: each Boghall call opens with precisely that, ahead of a figure, not afterwards. Once those are answered, a range becomes a single firm figure.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Boghall and still next to the car?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Boghall or wherever in West Lothian, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.