Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coalburn
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition as well. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system pulls it in. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Coalburn. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Coalburn
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Quote a ML11 0 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is wasted.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Manse View.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
Rolling the car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Coalburn forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. On the drive, the vehicle stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your 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. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very place the pickup draws from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Turfholm overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — but it will be first through if the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
After it's pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it reaches until it's cleared completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning around Coalburn leaves things worse. In that tank alone, waiting does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
Petrol put into a diesel on Thames's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the main issue. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside your tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Coalburn or out in Devonburn, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere across South Lanarkshire your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Coalburn: 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. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. A driver tips the container in outside their house, just off Dunn Crescent, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light by the pub in the village, your vehicle is refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles see it most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet ones, and the other vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever you're around Coalburn or the remainder of South Lanarkshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Coalburn?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Coalburn Village Green, perhaps, or part way across Coalburn. Once safe, stop then switch it off — with no restarting to test. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M74, under 3 miles from Coalburn, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Coalburn to the car park by Coalburn Leisure Centre is a very different job from a run towards Glasgow, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Caught early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
Coalburn: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest in Coalburn — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street by Coalburn Parish Church — the van travels to the car. Three replies decide the job, so first we ask what got in, about what quantity, and whether your motor has run.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. After that clean diesel, then a check of the vehicle. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your motor has not run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Lanark or on a drive around Coalburn. Before we leave, we confirm it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. As the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Coalburn and where it is
Coalburn is a village in South Lanarkshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 237 metres. Coalburn sits in a rural area, approximately 23 miles from Glasgow and 321 miles from London. Coalburn has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being predominant. Coalburn is close to nearby settlements such as Auchlochan and Douglas West.
AdBlue drains across South Lanarkshire, Coalburn included
Auchlochan, New Trows and Douglas West are among the places near Coalburn that the same teams reach, along with much of South Lanarkshire further out, over the ML postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and ask.
A van that comes to you fits Coalburn, a village: you have no need to take the car to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Coalburn
Because each jobs differ, a flat figure would not be honest. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight spot behind Auchlochan Coalfield Old No. 6 Pit Mining Memorial.
Before a quote, never after, each enquiry from Coalburn begins with three checks: the liquid, the amount, and whether the engine ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the quote on the phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. While our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Alongside the car in Coalburn, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Coalburn or anywhere across South Lanarkshire.