Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dunlop
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble just starts once the pump starts pulling it. In Dunlop, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Dunlop, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take the keys out.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting KA3 4, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so call wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so keep the car off.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Even a short way up Joiners Lane is too far to drive it.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Rolling the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Dunlop forecourt you are on, the Esso or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to go through one.
It does not combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Fullwood yesterday and never switched on remains the straightforward case, as long as no one touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight around Dunlop leaves things worse. In the tank only, waiting does nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the another forecourt nearby, and the issue is diluted fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car is in Lugton or the centre of Dunlop, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits just in the tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest in East Ayrshire.
Dunlop: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — may look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs invite it. 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. The refill is hurried outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped in. Close to Main Street, a driver pours a bottle in on that drive in the evening. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Merito, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the other motor of a family with both fuels — the vehicles drivers use the least. Wherever in East Ayrshire, Dunlop as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dunlop?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been pulled through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Dunlop Millennium Woodland Nature Park or halfway across Dunlop. No starting it again to test: stop when it is safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M77, under 5 miles from Dunlop, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Hopping across Dunlop to the car park by Dunlop Kirk is one matter; heading towards Glasgow, under 25 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has stopped. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Dunlop: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Dunlop: a side street close to War Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What was put in, about how much, plus whether your motor has turned over: our technicians check before all else, since those decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is drained, on the spot. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians turn up, provided your engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Last, your system is bled with clean diesel. Then our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay at the nearest station or a drive in Dunlop. It is tested on new diesel to be sure it runs properly before we leave. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Dunlop
Dunlop is a village in East Ayrshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 132 metres. Dunlop lies approximately 15 miles southwest of Glasgow and is surrounded by nearby places such as Moneyacres, Burnhouse, and Halket. Dunlop has a population of around 1113 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Dunlop and East Ayrshire
Moneyacres, Burnhouse and Halket are among the places near Dunlop that the same vans reach, along with much of East Ayrshire further out, throughout the KA postcode area. Near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
Wherever your vehicle stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — we empty it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Dunlop, a village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Dunlop: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind Dunlop Nature Park Cairn.
That is why each call from Dunlop starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, the range narrows to one firm number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside the vehicle in Dunlop?
Then, touch nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across East Ayrshire, Dunlop included.