AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cheeklaw? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it is sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Cheeklaw. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Cheeklaw, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Remove your keys, and that prevents someone turning the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting TD11 3, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: your engine stays off.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch up A6112 is too far to drive it.
- Draining your tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
The attendants on duty at any Cheeklaw filling station — the Gulf included — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Clockmill yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your engine turns, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Once it's drawn in, the harm takes two forms. 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 working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a car sitting in Cheeklaw. Just in the tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
A problem of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the JET. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's inside your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the following tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Cheeklaw or out in Gavinton, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just in the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere your car has come to rest in Scottish Borders.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Cheeklaw
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. No one intends it. Mostly it's not the filling station: a driver buys a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped in. Close to Station Avenue, a driver tips a bottle in at home after work. Otherwise, in dim light by The Plough, your vehicle gets topped up by someone using that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it the most — rentals, new ones, fleet ones, and the spare motor in a home with both fuels. Wherever you are in Cheeklaw or the remainder of Scottish Borders, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cheeklaw?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It has been pulled through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might appear, perhaps part way across Cheeklaw or returning from Duns Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M8, under 50 miles from Cheeklaw, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system. That's why a hop across Cheeklaw to park beside Southfield Community Centre and a drive of under 50 miles for Edinburgh are very different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. If it is caught soon, permanent damage is very rare.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Cheeklaw
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Cheeklaw: a side street close to Polish War Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, and if the engine has turned over: our technicians check first, since those decide the work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned right through because what remains will not wash away unaided. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided the motor has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Reston or a drive around Cheeklaw, that is where our technicians fire it up and you drive off. The test before we leave is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. We do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Cheeklaw itself
Cheeklaw is a suburban area in the Scottish Borders, situated inland at an elevation of 119 metres. Cheeklaw lies near the towns of Duns and Buxley, and is close to the Wellnage Myre area. Cheeklaw has a population of around 1123 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Cheeklaw is located approximately 35 miles from Edinburgh, the nearest city.
Cheeklaw and Scottish Borders: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Cheeklaw are passed to teams that cover the places near it — Wellnage Myre, Duns plus Buxley — and most of Scottish Borders further out, across TD postcodes. Near a boundary, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
A mobile service suits Cheeklaw, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your car to us, since our engineers drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Cheeklaw?
Each job is different, so not one fixed price is honest. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open driveway is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight gap behind Mercat Cross.
Before any figure, not after, every call from Cheeklaw opens with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and if the engine ran. With those replies, a range narrows to one firm figure.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Cheeklaw and still beside your car?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Cheeklaw or anywhere in Scottish Borders, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.