Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dundonald
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble starts once it's sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. In Dundonald, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Dundonald: the first few minutes
Do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the amount, so don't bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting KA2 9, or whichever street is closest, and our van reaches you directly — so call wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is pointless.
- Even a short stretch along Main Street is too far to drive the car.
- Beside the road, do not try draining it yourself.
At a forecourt around Dundonald, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the petrol pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Symington last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. Pipes holding AdBlue spell harm by morning for a vehicle parked around Dundonald. Only inside that tank, it stays the same. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the BP, and this problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside your tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether the car sits in Gatehead or the heart of Dundonald, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across South Ayrshire your car is sitting.
Dundonald: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two can appear the same. Nobody means it. A bottle picked up when driving home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Warly Drive. 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.
It comes up most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle of a home with both fuel types — the cars people use least. Wherever you're in Dundonald or the rest of South Ayrshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Dundonald, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Through the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — with any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Shewalton Wood Wildlife Reserve, say, or part way across Dundonald. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M77, under 10 miles from Dundonald, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing Dundonald to park beside Dundonald Parish Church and a drive of under 25 miles for Glasgow are very different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after your engine has been run. If it's spotted quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Dundonald?
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that is a street near War Memorial, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Dundonald, and our van comes to it. What was put in, roughly the quantity, plus whether the motor has been run: our technicians check first, because those shape the work.
Then the tank is drained where your car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed right through since what remains won't wash out by itself. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we arrive, provided the engine has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Dundonald or in a bay outside Barassie. Before leaving, our engineers check it's running properly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Dundonald itself
Dundonald is a coastal village in South Ayrshire, situated near the towns of Troon and Irvine, with Laigh Hillhouse and Drybridge nearby. Dundonald has a population of around 1617 people and is characterized by its terraced housing. Dundonald sits at an elevation of 36 metres, looking out to the coast of the Firth of Clyde. Dundonald is located approximately 24 miles from Glasgow and 335 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across South Ayrshire, Dundonald included
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs in Dundonald also cover the spots about it, Laigh Hillhouse, Drybridge and Collennan among them, and most of South Ayrshire beyond, across the KA postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Dundonald is a coastal village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Dundonald?
There's no honest single quote, because the jobs are not the same. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Dundonald Castle.
Before a figure, never after, every enquiry from Dundonald opens with three questions: the fuel, the amount, and if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
The quote is given during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Dundonald and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Dundonald or wherever within South Ayrshire.