AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Boreland? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep your engine off then keep the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble starts once it's sucked through the pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. In Boreland, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Boreland
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting KY1 2, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Things not to do:
- Moving the car just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it's wasted.
- Even a short way down Boreland Place is too far to drive the car.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Moving your vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Boreland forecourt you're on, the BP included. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is why a vehicle topped up in Sinclairtown yesterday and never started stays the straightforward one, provided nobody turns your key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. Pipes holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car parked in Boreland. Just in the tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol at the Asda. No damage is done as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Panhall or the middle of Boreland.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around Fife the car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Boreland: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — can appear the same. No one means it; plenty of layouts invite it. It mostly takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside the local primary school, because your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A driver pours the container in outside their house, right off Boreland Road, as the day ends. Another version: dim light, the car park by The Elbow Room, and someone using that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, brand-new motors, company vehicles, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles get it the most. Same slip, an identical first response — keep it off — wherever you happen to be around Boreland or the rest of Fife.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Boreland?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the fuel filter and pipework.
You may see your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Randolph Playing Fields or halfway across Boreland. When safe, stop and turn it off — without turning it on again to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
Boreland lies under 15 miles from the M90; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and pull up safely rather than carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across Boreland to park beside Windmill Library and a drive of under 15 miles towards Edinburgh are very separate jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's spotted early.
Boreland: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Boreland: a side street close to Frances Colliery Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What was put in, about how much, and if your engine has turned over: our technicians ask first, since those decide the job.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, at Glenrothes with Thornton or on a driveway around Boreland. Before leaving, we make sure it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Boreland
Boreland is a small suburban area in Fife, situated on the coast near the towns of Gallatown and Dysart. Boreland has a mix of semi-detached housing and is located approximately 13 miles from Edinburgh. Boreland sits at an elevation of 64 metres, with views out to the Firth of Forth. Boreland is part of the wider urban area surrounding Edinburgh, with a population of around 897 residents.
AdBlue drains across Boreland and Fife
Over the KY postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Boreland serve much of Fife as well, Gallatown, West Gallatown and Dysart among them. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
Boreland is a residential suburb, and an on-site 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 stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Boreland: the cost of fixing it
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Frances Pit headframe.
That is why each call from Boreland starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Once they are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
The price is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
In Boreland and still beside the vehicle?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best step available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Fife, Boreland included.