AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Canongate? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the motor off then keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm starts till the engine pulls it through. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly purged where the vehicle sits in Canongate. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Canongate: the first few minutes
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Tell us a postcode starting EH8 8, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Don't do these:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Canongate is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Rolling the vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Canongate forecourt you are on, the BP included. At home, the vehicle remains exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — quite different from fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Greenside yesterday and not switched on remains the straightforward case, as long as nobody touches the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. A vehicle left sitting in Canongate with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on JET's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the whole issue. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it does nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Edinburgh or the middle of Canongate.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside the tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to empty, anywhere your car has stopped across City of Edinburgh.
Canongate: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles waits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's not the filling station: a driver picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, after your dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken in. Someone pours the container in outside their house, right off Hutton Road, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark outside Tolbooth Tavern, your vehicle is refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet ones, and the spare car of a family with one of each fuel types. Wherever you are in Canongate or the remainder of City of Edinburgh, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Canongate?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and lines.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Dunbar's Close Garden or halfway across Canongate. When you safely can, stop and switch it off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M8, under 10 miles from Canongate, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing Canongate to park beside Canongate Mercat Cross and a drive of under a mile for Edinburgh are very separate jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it's spotted soon.
Canongate: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A road by The Last Chimera, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your car has stopped around Canongate, our engineers travel to it. The work rests on three replies, which we ask for first — which fluid was put in, the amount, and if your engine has run.
Then the tank is drained where the vehicle sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned right through because what remains won't wash away by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. At that point our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Edinburgh Waverley or a drive in Canongate. It's checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs properly before our engineers go. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Canongate
Canongate is a suburban area located on the coast of Scotland, within the City of Edinburgh, and sits at an elevation of 52 metres. Canongate is situated close to the city centre of Edinburgh, approximately 0.4 miles away, and is near other areas such as Calton, Dumbiedykes, and Hillside. Canongate has a population of around 8647 people and predominantly consists of flat-type housing. Canongate is part of the larger Edinburgh urban area, which is 331.3 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Canongate and City of Edinburgh
AdBlue jobs in Canongate go to vans that serve the places around it — Calton, Dumbiedykes plus Hillside — and most of City of Edinburgh further out, throughout EH postcodes. Phone and check instead of guessing if you are by a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A mobile service suits Canongate, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Canongate: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Scottish Poetry Library.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, and if it ran: each Canongate call begins by asking exactly those, before any figure, never after. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle around Canongate?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. 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, around Canongate or anywhere in City of Edinburgh.