Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dalmonach
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm begins once it is pulled through your lines — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Dalmonach, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dalmonach: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Call right where you are. Say a G83 9 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along A813.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
The staff working at any Dalmonach filling station — the John H Glen & Son among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Bonhill overnight and not started since is the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when the motor turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, since it eats at some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight around Dalmonach leaves it worse. In the tank only, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water content harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the BP. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Jamestown or the centre of Dalmonach, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in West Dunbartonshire the car is sitting.
Dalmonach: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two can look identical. No one means it. It usually happens at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, 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. Close to Willowbank Gardens, a driver tips a container in on the drive in the evening. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside The Fountain Tavern.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Dalmonach or the rest of West Dunbartonshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Dalmonach?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
Maybe returning from Christie Park, or part way across Dalmonach, your engine might run rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. Once safe, pull over and turn everything off — with no turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M8, under 5 miles from Dalmonach, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Dalmonach to park near Dalmonach Community Centre and a drive of under 25 miles towards Glasgow are very distinct jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once the motor has been run, and we do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it's caught early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Dalmonach: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped in Dalmonach — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Our Lady & St Mark's RC Church — the van comes to the car. The job depends on three answers, and our technicians ask for first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when your tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains won't wash away by itself. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. After that our engineers start the car and you head off, whether from a parking bay at Alexandria or a drive in Dalmonach. The test before our engineers go is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Dalmonach
Dalmonach is a village situated on the riverside in West Dunbartonshire, with a relatively low elevation of 13 metres. Dalmonach lies near the larger town of Alexandria and is close to other nearby places such as Ohare and Pappert. Dalmonach has a population of around 2451 people, predominantly living in flat-type housing. Dalmonach is located approximately 15.5 miles from Glasgow, making it a commuter base for the city.
AdBlue drains across Dalmonach and West Dunbartonshire
AdBlue call-outs in Dalmonach are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Alexandria, Ohare as well as Pappert — and much of West Dunbartonshire beyond, across G postcodes. Close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Anywhere the car stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Dalmonach, a village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Dalmonach: the cost of fixing it
Because the jobs vary, a single figure would not be fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Antartex Village.
What was put in, what quantity, and if it ran: every Dalmonach enquiry opens by asking precisely those, ahead of a figure, never after. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside your car in Dalmonach, still?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Dalmonach or anywhere around West Dunbartonshire.