Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Edzell
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and your ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system draws it in. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Edzell. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Edzell: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting DD9 7, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Shifting your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's wasted.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Manse Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Moving the car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Edzell forecourt you are on, the Hamish A MacKay included. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It doesn't blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Inchbare last night and never switched on remains the simple case, as long as nobody turns the key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. By daybreak, a car sitting around Edzell with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's only inside that tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. No damage comes as long as it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only when the motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Stracathro or the middle of Edzell.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Angus your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Edzell
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two can look the same. No one means it. A bottle bought while heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Dalhousie Street. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by the pub in the village.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company car, or the spare motor of a family with both fuel types — the vehicles people use least. Wherever around Angus, Edzell as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Edzell?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been sucked through your filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Edzell Muir, say, or part way across Edzell. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then turn everything off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M90, under 50 miles from Edzell, by the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system. That's why crossing Edzell to park near Edzell War Memorial and a drive of under 50 miles towards Dundee are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to flush once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Long-term damage is very unusual if it is spotted soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Edzell
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a road near Inglis Memorial Hall, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt around Edzell, and the van comes to it. Before anything else we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run, because those replies decide this work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one after the tank is drained, right there. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Bleeding your system with new diesel comes last. You drive off as soon as our technicians have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Edzell or in a bay outside Laurencekirk. Our technicians check it runs properly on new diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Edzell and where it is
Edzell is a village situated in a riverside setting in Angus, Scotland, with Edzell being close to the River North Esk and having an elevation of 61 metres. Edzell has a mix of housing types, but predominantly features detached homes, and is located near to Gannochy and Edzell Woods. Edzell is also near the Inch of Arnhall, a notable local landmark. Edzell has a population of around 792 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Edzell and Angus
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Edzell also cover the places round it, Gannochy, Edzell Woods and Inch of Arnhall among them, and most of Angus beyond, across the DD postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No moving is needed. In Edzell, a village, a van that comes to you fits: the car is emptied on the spot, be it on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Edzell: the cost of fixing it
No single figure would be honest, since every job is different. Three things move the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Edzell Parish Church.
With that in mind, each call from Edzell opens with the identical trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Those replies shrink the range right down to one figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. While our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Still alongside the car around Edzell?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Edzell or wherever in Angus.