Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ceres
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only starts once the pump begins pulling it. In Ceres, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Ceres: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Call right where you are. Quote a KY15 5 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: the engine stays off.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it's pointless.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance up St Andrews Road.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
On a forecourt in Ceres, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It sinks, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Pitscottie last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car sitting in Ceres. Only in your tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Gulf, and this issue is diluted fuel. Harm just comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside your tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue separates back from your diesel, and so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Baldinnie or the centre of Ceres alike.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Fife the car sits.
Ceres: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the top-up is rushed. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Main Street. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by Ceres Inn.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company car, or the spare car of a family with both fuel types — the cars drivers know least. Wherever you're around Ceres or the remainder of Fife, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Ceres: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Bow Butts, perhaps, or part way across Ceres. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Ceres sits under 25 miles from the M90; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so heading for Dundee, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Ceres to the car park by The Provost. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Ceres?
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Ceres: a side street near Fife Folk Museum, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what went in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run, since those replies decide the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, outside Cupar or on a drive around Ceres. Before we go, our engineers make sure it's running properly with new diesel in. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Ceres and where it is
Ceres is a small village in Fife, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 80 metres. Ceres lies near the villages of Baltilly, Bridgend, and Craigrothie, and is approximately 11.5 miles from Dundee. Ceres has a population of around 675 people, with a predominance of detached housing. Ceres is located in a rural area, with the city of Dundee and its amenities within commuting distance.
AdBlue drains across Ceres and Fife
The vans that answer AdBlue calls in Ceres also cover the places around it, Baltilly, Bridgend and Craigrothie among them, and most of Fife beyond, across the KY postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to explain? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
Wherever the vehicle stands — your drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — we empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Ceres, a village, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Ceres
Since the callouts differ, a flat price wouldn't be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Bannockburn Memorial.
With that reason, every call from Ceres opens with the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, whether the engine ran — before any quote. When those are known, a range turns into one firm figure.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Ceres: still beside your car?
Right now, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Ceres or wherever in Fife.