AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Corbiehall? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then keep the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Corbiehall, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Corbiehall: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting EH51 0, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is wasted.
- Even a short distance along Church Road is too far to drive it.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll your car off the island if you are on a forecourt around Corbiehall, whether it's the Hastons of Bo'ness or elsewhere. At home, the car remains exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Newtown last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it reaches until it's cleared completely. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a vehicle sitting in Corbiehall. Just in your tank, it stays stable. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water part damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the following tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Corbiehall or out in Boness, costs more than almost any other error.
As with petrol, there's good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever around Falkirk the vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Corbiehall
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under one flap — may look the same. No one means it; plenty of designs allow it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Panbrae Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Corbie Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, company cars, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known cars see it the most. Wherever you're around Corbiehall or the rest of Falkirk, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Corbiehall?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been drawn through the filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Perhaps returning from Cenotaph Grounds, or part way across Corbiehall, the motor may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or stall. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M9, under 3 miles from Corbiehall, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Corbiehall to park beside Bo'ness Old Kirk and a drive of under 10 miles towards Dunfermline are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been run. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Corbiehall: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped around Corbiehall — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Bo'ness War Memorial — the van travels to your car. The work rests on three replies, and we get before all else — what got in, the amount, and if the engine has turned over.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't clear away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking bay at Linlithgow or a driveway in Corbiehall, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Before leaving, our engineers make sure it is running correctly with new diesel in. As the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Corbiehall and where it is
Corbiehall is a coastal suburban area in Falkirk, situated near the Firth of Forth at an elevation of 22 metres. Corbiehall lies within a short distance of several nearby communities, including Deanfield, Castleloan, and Maidenpark. Corbiehall is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is located approximately 7 miles from Dunfermline. Corbiehall is part of the wider Falkirk area, with its residents being around 342 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Corbiehall and Falkirk
Over the EH postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs in Corbiehall serve most of Falkirk as well, Deanfield, Castleloan and Maidenpark among them. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
Wherever your car sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Corbiehall, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Corbiehall?
Because each callouts vary, a single price would not be honest. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind St Mary of the Assumption Church.
Before any figure, not after, each enquiry from Corbiehall opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
The price is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, check your policy: many include misfuelling.
In Corbiehall and still alongside your car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran is everything our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Falkirk, Corbiehall included.