AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Drymen? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Drymen, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the engine has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Drymen
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops anyone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting G63 0, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the car: your engine remains off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way up Old Gartmore Road.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the car away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Drymen, whether it is the Lomond View or somewhere else. At home, the vehicle stays just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. A motor filled on a driveway in Badshalloch yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor runs, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Once it's sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. A car left standing around Drymen with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole issue. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in your tank, it causes none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. It cannot just be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the next fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Drymen or out in Tullycross, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere in Stirling the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Drymen: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — can look the same. No one intends it; many designs allow it. It usually takes place outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it occurs in one of 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 pours the container in outside their house, just off Balmaha Road, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark outside The Clachan Inn, your vehicle is refilled by someone using that flap the first time.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical mistake, an identical first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around Drymen or the remainder of Stirling.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Drymen, and the motor started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any might appear, maybe midway across Drymen or coming back from Drymen Show Field. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the car off rather than testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M8, under 15 miles from Drymen, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Drymen to the car park by War Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Glasgow, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been started. Permanent damage is very rare if it's spotted early.
Drymen: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road beside The Village Hub, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has stopped in Drymen, our engineers come to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if your motor has run, since those replies settle this work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because what remains will not wash out unaided. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we arrive, if the engine has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to prime your system on clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, outside Balloch Central or on a drive in Drymen. It's checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our engineers head off. As the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Drymen and where it is
Drymen is a village in Stirling, situated inland at an elevation of 52 metres, and is located near the towns of Shandon and Buchanan Smithy. Drymen lies approximately 16 miles northwest of Glasgow, and its population of around 976 people reside predominantly in detached housing. Drymen is also close to Buchanan Castle, a notable landmark in the area. Drymen's rural setting and relatively small size contribute to its quiet, residential character.
AdBlue drains in Drymen and across Stirling
AdBlue call-outs around Drymen are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Shandon, Buchanan Smithy plus Buchanan Castle — and much of Stirling further out, throughout G postcodes. Ring and check instead of guessing if you are by a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Anywhere the car sits — your drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Drymen, a rural village, well.
Drymen: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind Drymen Library.
What got in, how much, and whether it ran: each Drymen call opens by asking precisely those, before a quote, not afterwards. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Drymen: still beside the car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Drymen or anywhere within Stirling.