AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Bridge of Don? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm starts once it is sucked through the lines — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. In Bridge of Don, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Bridge of Don, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Take your keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting AB23 8, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so keep the car off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Silverburn Place.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
On a forecourt in Bridge of Don, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its supply from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Hayton yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What remains when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it's flushed out. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car parked around Bridge of Don. Only in the tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water part harms them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. No harm is done while it sits put, blended into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits back out — and the next fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Bridge of Don or out in Old Aberdeen, costs more than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside that tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, wherever your car has stopped around Aberdeen City.
Bridge of Don: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside the local primary school, after the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Cloverhill Road. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Black Dog, the vehicle is topped up by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Bridge of Don or the remainder of Aberdeen City, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bridge of Don, and the engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may appear, maybe part way across Bridge of Don or coming back from Gordon Road Park. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M90, over 50 miles from Bridge of Don, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Bridge of Don to the car park by Strikers Indoor Football is a very different job from a run towards Aberdeen, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. When it's spotted soon, permanent damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Bridge of Don?
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Bridge of Don: a side street near King's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has been run, since those replies settle the work.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes last. You set off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway in Bridge of Don or in a bay at Aberdeen. It is checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we leave. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bridge of Don and where it is
Bridge of Don is a coastal suburban area in Aberdeen City, situated approximately 2.5 miles north of Aberdeen's city centre. Bridge of Don has a population of around 2097 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Bridge of Don is close to nearby places such as Denmore, Tillydrone, and Middleton Park, and sits at an elevation of 37 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains across Bridge of Don and Aberdeen City
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs in Bridge of Don also cover the places about it, Denmore, Tillydrone and Middleton Park among them, and most of Aberdeen City beyond, across the AB postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
Anywhere your vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Bridge of Don, a residential suburb, well.
Bridge of Don: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Bridge of Don Library.
For that reason, every enquiry from Bridge of Don begins by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of a figure. Once those are answered, a range turns into one firm number.
Before a van sets off, you hear the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Bridge of Don and still beside the vehicle?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Bridge of Don or anywhere within Aberdeen City, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.