AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Bridge of Earn? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage only comes once your pump begins pulling it. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Bridge of Earn. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bridge of Earn: the first few minutes
To do:
- Remove your keys, which stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PH2 9, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's wasted.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance down Main Street.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any Bridge of Earn filling station — the Shell included — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays apart rather than mixing — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A car filled on a driveway in Tarsappie overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your engine turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of damage come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning in Bridge of Earn makes things worse. Inside your tank alone, time does nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Morrisons. Blended through the diesel and left unused, it's no threat at that stage; running your engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following fill, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, and so watering it won't work. That is why the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Scoonieburn or the centre of Bridge of Earn alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere across Perth and Kinross the vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Bridge of Earn: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many designs invite it. Mostly it is not the filling station: a driver picks up a container driving home and pours it in at home.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to A912. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the car after dark, parked in the car park by The Earn Hotel.
It takes place most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever across Perth and Kinross, Bridge of Earn included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bridge of Earn?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps part way across Bridge of Earn or returning from Victory Park. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M90, under a mile from Bridge of Earn, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Bridge of Earn to the car park by Bridge of Earn Tennis Club is a very different job from a run towards Perth, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it's spotted quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Bridge of Earn: what it takes
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Bridge of Earn: a side street close to Bridge of Earn Bowling Club, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three answers, and we ask for before all else — what went in, the amount, and whether your engine has turned over.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not wash away by itself. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced if it must be. After that clean diesel, then a check of the car. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, by Perth or on a driveway in Bridge of Earn. It is checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians leave. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bridge of Earn itself
Bridge of Earn is a small village situated on the banks of the River Earn in Perth and Kinross, with a low elevation of around 12 metres. Bridge of Earn has a mix of old and new housing, but predominantly features detached homes. Bridge of Earn is located near several other small communities, including Kintillo, Dron, and Craigend, and is close to the city of Perth, which is about 3.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Perth and Kinross, Bridge of Earn included
Kintillo, Dron and Craigend are among the towns around Bridge of Earn that the same vans serve, along with much of Perth and Kinross further out, throughout the PH postcode area. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
No towing is needed. In Bridge of Earn, a village, a van that comes to you fits: your vehicle is drained on the spot, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Bridge of Earn
Because the jobs vary, a single figure would not be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Bridge of Earn Institute.
That's why each call from Bridge of Earn starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Bridge of Earn and still alongside your car?
Then, do nothing — that is the best move there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Bridge of Earn or wherever within Perth and Kinross, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.