--- title: Bonaly: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank? Don't Start canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/bonaly-city-of-edinburgh/ location: Bonaly county: City of Edinburgh latitude: 55.903690 longitude: -3.264010 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-13 --- # AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Bonaly? Keep It Switched Off If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The harm begins once it is sucked through your pump — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits in Bonaly. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103. ## Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bonaly Do these: - Remove the keys, which prevents someone switching the electrics on. - If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on. - So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle. - Call right where you are. Say a EH13 0 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you. Things not to do: - Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine remains off. - The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump. - Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending. - Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Capelaw Road. - Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside. The staff working at any Bonaly filling station — the Tesco among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all. ## What AdBlue does in a diesel tank Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea. Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its fuel from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits beneath your diesel, which is why a car filled in Juniper Green last night and never started stays the straightforward case, provided no one turns your key. Two kinds of damage follow from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle sitting around Bonaly. Only in that tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a separate kind of damage. ## Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault? Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the whole issue. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it. The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your car is in Torphin or the centre of Bonaly, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next tankful. The same good news holds as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest section of the whole system to empty, wherever your car has come to rest around City of Edinburgh. ## How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Bonaly? It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. A container bought when driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route. A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the refill is hurried. A driver tips the container in outside their house, right off Woodfield Park, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Spylaw, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before. It occurs most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever in City of Edinburgh, Bonaly included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it off. ## AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bonaly, and the engine started? If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. The filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector. You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Spylaw Park or halfway across Bonaly. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of that through. If you were on the M8, under 3 miles from Bonaly, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on. How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Bonaly to the car park by Phoebe Traquair Railings is a very different job from a run towards Edinburgh, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come. Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the motor has been started. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it is noticed early. ## Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Bonaly: what it takes Anywhere it has stopped in Bonaly — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside 108th Scout Hall — the van comes to your car. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over. Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through because what remains will not flush away unaided. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your motor hasn't run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night. Last, your system is bled with clean diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Bonaly or in a bay at Wester Hailes. The check before we go is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards. ## About Bonaly, for a moment Bonaly is a suburban area situated on the riverside in the City of Edinburgh, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 3595 residents. Bonaly sits approximately 134 metres above sea level and is located about 4.5 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Bonaly is close to nearby places such as Hailes, Woodhall, and Colinton, and is part of the wider Edinburgh urban area. Bonaly offers a relatively quiet residential environment, with easy access to the city's amenities. ## AdBlue drains across Bonaly and City of Edinburgh AdBlue call-outs in Bonaly go to vans that cover the places near it — Hailes, Woodhall plus Colinton — and much of City of Edinburgh beyond, across EH postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming. No towing is needed. In Bonaly, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is emptied on the spot, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station. ## Bonaly: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix Since the jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be fair. What moves the price is, first of all, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Colinton Tunnel. That is why each call from Bonaly starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. With them, the range narrows to a single firm figure. Before anyone sets off, you are told our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives. ## Bonaly: still next to the vehicle? Not touching your car is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Bonaly or anywhere across City of Edinburgh.