Burnhouse: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep your motor off and keep your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits around Burnhouse. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Burnhouse: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket your keys, and that prevents anyone switching the power on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting G77 5, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Don't do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch along Blackhouse Road.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
Get the attendants to help you roll the car away from the island if you're on a forecourt in Burnhouse, whether it is the BP or somewhere else. On the drive, the car stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Newton Mearns last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning around Burnhouse makes things worse. In that tank alone, time costs nothing. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, and so watering it won't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Crookfur or the centre of Burnhouse equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around East Renfrewshire the vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Burnhouse: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A container picked up while driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the refill is rushed. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Firwood Road. Or your car is topped up in the car park at the pub in the village, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
Hired cars, new cars, fleet cars, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Wherever in East Renfrewshire, Burnhouse as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Burnhouse?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Maybe returning from Shawlinn Park, or part way across Burnhouse, your engine might run rough, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Burnhouse lies under 3 miles from the M77; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Burnhouse to park beside Maxwell Mearns Castle Church and a drive of under 10 miles towards Glasgow are such distinct jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it's caught quickly.
Burnhouse: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a road beside Mearns Castle, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Burnhouse, and the van comes to it. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has been run: our engineers ask before all else, because those shape the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is drained, on the spot. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. You drive off as soon as our technicians have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Burnhouse or in a bay at Whitecraigs. It's checked on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our engineers head off. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Burnhouse and where it is
Burnhouse is a suburban area situated on the riverside in East Renfrewshire, with a mix of detached housing and local amenities. Burnhouse sits at an elevation of 111 metres, close to the nearby communities of Broom, Mearns, and Kirkhill. Burnhouse is located approximately 7 miles from Glasgow, making it a commuter-friendly location. Burnhouse has a population of around 5285 residents, who enjoy the area's scenic riverside setting.
AdBlue drains across East Renfrewshire, Burnhouse included
Throughout the G postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Burnhouse serve most of East Renfrewshire too, Broom, Mearns and Kirkhill among them. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
Wherever the vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Burnhouse, a residential suburb, well.
Burnhouse: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one single price could be fair, since every job is different. What shifts the price is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Mother Earth Temple.
That's why each call from Burnhouse starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay 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 gets there.
Still alongside the vehicle around Burnhouse?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Burnhouse or anywhere around East Renfrewshire.