--- title: Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank Dumbiedykes canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/dumbiedykes-city-of-edinburgh/ location: Dumbiedykes county: City of Edinburgh latitude: 55.945880 longitude: -3.180920 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-05 --- # Dumbiedykes: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing happens till the engine sucks it through. In Dumbiedykes, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else. ## AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dumbiedykes: the first few minutes Do: - Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on. - If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on. - So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle. - Call right where you are. Say a EH8 9 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you. Don't: - Not even briefly, and not to roll your car: the engine remains off. - Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run the fuel pump. - AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't weaken it. - Even a short stretch along Briery Bauks is too far to drive it. - Emptying the tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying. On a forecourt around Dumbiedykes, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On that drive, the vehicle stays just where it is. ## AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one. Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its fuel from. A car filled on a drive in St Leonards yesterday evening and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when the engine turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of the tank. Once it is sucked in, the harm takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a vehicle parked in Dumbiedykes. Only inside your tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of damage. ## Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more significant than petrol Petrol put into a diesel on JET's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the main problem. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it. With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back from your diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Old Town or the centre of Dumbiedykes equally. The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around City of Edinburgh your vehicle has stopped. ## How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Dumbiedykes It is not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt. It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Pleasance. Otherwise, after dark by Southsider, the vehicle gets topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time. Hired cars, brand-new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles see it most. Anywhere across City of Edinburgh, Dumbiedykes as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it off. ## Dumbiedykes: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank? If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and your lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors. You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Bauks View or halfway across Dumbiedykes. When you safely can, stop and switch everything off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of that through. Exit the M8, under 10 miles from Dumbiedykes, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on. Distance matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so heading towards Edinburgh, under a mile away, gives a much bigger job than crossing Dumbiedykes to the car park by Greyfriars Charteris Centre. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us. Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Caught early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage. ## Dumbiedykes: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel A road by The Crags Centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the car has stopped around Dumbiedykes, our engineers travel to it. The job rests on three replies, and we ask for before all else — what was put in, the quantity, and whether your engine has run. On the spot, that tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. A careful flush matters far more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not clear out on its own. After that, the filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of the car. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the final step. You drive off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Dumbiedykes or in a bay by Edinburgh Waverley. It is tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians head off. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for. ## About Dumbiedykes, briefly Dumbiedykes is a densely populated suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the city centre and close to the coastal area. Dumbiedykes sits at an elevation of 78 metres, overlooking the surrounding urban landscape. Dumbiedykes is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which accommodates a significant proportion of the local population. Dumbiedykes is bordered by nearby places such as South Side, Canongate, and Roxburghs Court. ## AdBlue drains across City of Edinburgh, Dumbiedykes included South Side, Canongate and Roxburghs Court are among the places around Dumbiedykes that the same vans reach, together with most of City of Edinburgh beyond, throughout the EH postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats guessing, and so phone. A van that comes to you fits Dumbiedykes, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, because our technicians empty it there, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt. ## Dumbiedykes: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Life Church Edinburgh. For that reason, every call from Dumbiedykes begins by asking the same trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, whether it ran — before any figure. Their replies shrink a range right down to a single figure. Before anyone sets off, you are told the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way. ## Dumbiedykes: still alongside the car? In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Dumbiedykes or anywhere across City of Edinburgh.