Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Crosshouse
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition as well. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It doesn't 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 generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Crosshouse. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Crosshouse, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Give us a postcode starting KA2 0, or whatever street is closest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down B751.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the car away from the island if you are on a forecourt around Crosshouse, whether it is the Morrisons or somewhere else. On that drive, the car remains exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It does not blend. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, and that is why a car filled in Springside last night and not started remains the simple one, as long as nobody turns your key.
Two kinds of damage come from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches till it is cleared from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in tiny channels. Overnight, a car parked in Crosshouse with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is just in that tank, it doesn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Tesco, and the problem is diluted fuel. No damage is done as long as it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether the car sits in Bonnyton or the heart of Crosshouse, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits just inside the tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has stopped across East Ayrshire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Crosshouse?
No one 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. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The top-up gets rushed outside the local primary school, because your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped off. Someone tips the container in at home, just off Kilmarnock Road, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside the pub in the village, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar vehicles see it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet ones, and the other car of a family with both fuels. Same mistake, same first step — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Crosshouse or the remainder of East Ayrshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Crosshouse?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Annanhill Golf Club, say, or part way across Crosshouse. No starting it again to check: pull over when it is safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Crosshouse sits under 5 miles from the M77; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Crosshouse to the car park by Andrew Fisher Memorial Cairn is a very different job from a run towards Glasgow, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. If it's caught soon, permanent damage is very unusual.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Crosshouse
Anywhere it has come to rest in Crosshouse — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a road by Crosshouse War Memorial — our van comes to the car. The job rests on three answers, which we ask for before all else — what was put in, the quantity, and whether your engine has run.
Then the tank is drained where the car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the final step. After that our engineers start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking space at Kilmaurs or a driveway around Crosshouse. We check it runs properly on new diesel before leaving. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Crosshouse
Crosshouse is a village situated on the banks of a river in East Ayrshire, with a relatively low elevation of around 30 metres. Crosshouse lies near several smaller communities, including Knockentiber, Busbiehill, and Gatehead, and is approximately 21 miles from Glasgow. Crosshouse has a population of around 1355 people, predominantly residing in flats. Crosshouse is located in a scenic area, with the city of Glasgow and its amenities within commuting distance.
Crosshouse and East Ayrshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Knockentiber, Busbiehill and Gatehead are among the towns around Crosshouse that the same vans serve, together with most of East Ayrshire beyond, throughout the KA postcode area. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Crosshouse, a village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Crosshouse?
Because each jobs vary, a single figure would not be fair. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Crosshouse Parish Church.
Ahead of any quote, not afterwards, every enquiry from Crosshouse opens with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Alongside your car around Crosshouse, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Crosshouse or anywhere across East Ayrshire.