AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Craigentinny? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and the ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Craigentinny, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Craigentinny: the first few minutes
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting EH7 6, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: the engine remains off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance down Stapeley Avenue.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it yourself.
Rolling the car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Craigentinny forecourt you're on, the Morrisons or any other. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It does not blend. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Seafield overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, untouched — though it will be first through once your motor starts, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. 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 running on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. By daybreak, a car parked in Craigentinny with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's just inside your tank, it doesn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the JET. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, so watering it won't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Meadowbank or the centre of Craigentinny alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in City of Edinburgh the car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Craigentinny?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs 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 few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. Someone tips the bottle in at home, right off Craigentinny Avenue, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by The Scottie Pub.
The least familiar cars get it the most — hire cars, new ones, fleet ones, and the spare car in a home with both fuel types. Anywhere around City of Edinburgh, Craigentinny as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Craigentinny?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Meadows Yard Local Nature Reserve, say, or part way across Craigentinny. No restarting to test: pull over once it is safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M8, under 10 miles from Craigentinny, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Craigentinny to the car park by RCCG King of Glory is a very different job from a run towards Edinburgh, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it is spotted soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Craigentinny?
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Craigentinny: a side street near Wilson Memorial United Free Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid went in, about how much, plus whether the engine has been run: we ask first, since those shape the job.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. The system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a check of your vehicle. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Finally, your system is primed with new diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Brunstane or a driveway in Craigentinny, that is where we fire it up and you head off. It is checked on clean diesel to be sure it runs properly before we head off. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Craigentinny and where it is
Craigentinny is a coastal suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 2.1 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Craigentinny has a relatively low elevation of 17 metres and is characterised by predominantly flat-type housing. Craigentinny is close to nearby places such as Restalrig, Piershill, and Northfield, and is home to a population of around 3795 people.
AdBlue drains across City of Edinburgh, Craigentinny included
Restalrig, Piershill and Northfield are among the places near Craigentinny that the same teams serve, together with much of City of Edinburgh beyond, over the EH postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
A mobile service suits Craigentinny, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your car to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Craigentinny: the cost of fixing it
Because each jobs differ, a flat price would not be honest. What changes the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Craigentinny Community Centre.
What was put in, how much, plus if the engine ran: every Craigentinny call begins by asking exactly that, ahead of a quote, never afterwards. With them, a range narrows to one firm number.
Our quote is given on the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still beside the car in Craigentinny?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Craigentinny or anywhere in City of Edinburgh.