AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dunning? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly cleaned where the car stands around Dunning. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Dunning: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting PH2 0, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the vehicle: your motor remains off.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is pointless.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Tron Square.
- Emptying your tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle away from the island if you are on a forecourt around Dunning, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. On that drive, your car stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor lets out. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a drive in Dalreoch overnight and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once your engine runs, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is flushed out. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in Dunning makes it worse. Inside that tank only, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the another forecourt nearby, and this issue is diluted fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and left in that tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, so thinning it can't help. That is why the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Aberuthven or the centre of Dunning equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits just in your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest around Perth and Kinross.
Dunning: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap — can look the same. No one means it; plenty of layouts invite it. Mostly it's not the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the car. Close to Thorntree Square, a driver tips a container in on that drive after work. One more version: darkness, the car park outside the pub in the village, and someone using that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars get it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet cars, and the other motor in a home with both fuels. Wherever you are in Dunning or the remainder of Perth and Kinross, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Dunning?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been pulled through your filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Rollo Park, say, or midway across Dunning. Once you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — without turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M90, under 10 miles from Dunning, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving towards Perth, under 10 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Dunning to the car park by Drinking Fountain. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been run. Permanent damage is very unusual if it's spotted early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Dunning: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest around Dunning — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street beside Dunning War Comforts Committee Memorial — our van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if the motor has run, since those answers decide the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. A test of the car comes at the end, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, where necessary, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, provided your motor hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the last step. Then we start it and you head off, whether from a parking space by Gleneagles or a driveway around Dunning. It is checked on fresh diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians head off. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Dunning and where it is
Dunning is a village situated on the banks of the River Earn in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Dunning lies at an elevation of 56 metres, close to the nearby settlements of Newton of Pitcairns and Duncrub. Dunning is located near the city of Perth, which is approximately 8 miles away, and is part of the wider Scottish countryside. Dunning has a population of around 885 people, living in a variety of housing types, predominantly semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains across Dunning and Perth and Kinross
Throughout the PH postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Dunning reach most of Perth and Kinross too, Newton of Pitcairns, Duncrub and Wester Keltie among them. Ring and ask rather than guess if you are close to a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
No towing is needed. In Dunning, a village, a mobile service works: the vehicle is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Dunning: the cost of fixing it
Since the jobs differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Thorn Tree.
For that reason, every call from Dunning opens with the identical trio — what got in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. When they are known, a range turns into a single fixed number.
Our price is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Beside the car around Dunning, right now?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Perth and Kinross, Dunning included.