Burdiehouse: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your motor. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens till the engine sucks it through. In Burdiehouse, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Burdiehouse: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting EH17 8, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Don't:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't thin it.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along Burdiehouse Square.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
On a forecourt in Burdiehouse, whether it's the Sainsbury's or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A car filled on a driveway in Mortonhall yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the simple case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when your engine runs, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight around Burdiehouse leaves things worse. Inside that tank alone, time does nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Gulf. Harm just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Burdiehouse or out in Alnwickhill, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere across City of Edinburgh your car has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Burdiehouse
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical story.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside the local primary school, because the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Burdiehouse Road. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside The Waverley Inn.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the other motor in a home with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers know least. Same slip, an identical first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you are in Burdiehouse or the remainder of City of Edinburgh.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Burdiehouse, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any may appear, perhaps midway across Burdiehouse or returning from Lime Grove Park. When you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — with no restarting to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M8, under 10 miles from Burdiehouse, at the first junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why a hop across Burdiehouse to park beside Former Lime Kilns and a drive of under 5 miles towards Edinburgh are very different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it is caught early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Burdiehouse
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Burdiehouse: a side street near Mortonhall Pit (disused), a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if your motor has run, since those answers determine this work.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. Whether it's a parking bay outside Eskbank or a drive in Burdiehouse, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. Before leaving, we make sure it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Burdiehouse itself
Burdiehouse is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Edinburgh, sitting near the river at an elevation of around 123 metres. Burdiehouse is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Straiton, Southhouse, and Kaimes. Burdiehouse has a population of approximately 3185 residents and is around 4.3 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Burdiehouse is also relatively distant from London, at around 327.4 miles away.
Burdiehouse and City of Edinburgh: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the EH postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs around Burdiehouse reach most of City of Edinburgh too, Straiton, Southhouse and Kaimes among them. Close to a boundary, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
No moving is needed. In Burdiehouse, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained on the spot, be it on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Burdiehouse?
There's no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Valley Park Community Centre.
That is why each call from Burdiehouse starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. When they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Our price is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Still beside the car around Burdiehouse?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout City of Edinburgh, Burdiehouse too.