AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eldindean? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your engine. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens till the engine pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Eldindean, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Eldindean: the first few minutes
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting EH19 2, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Even a short stretch along Eldindean Terrace is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Draining that tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
The staff on duty at any Eldindean forecourt — the Tesco included — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed 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 deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Broomieknowe overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of your tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through once your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A car left sitting in Eldindean with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the whole fault. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and left in that tank, it causes nothing.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It does not burn, so it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, so thinning it won't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and turning the key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Bonnyrigg or the centre of Eldindean equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around Midlothian your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Eldindean
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two may look identical. Nobody intends it. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the refill is hurried. Close to Pendreich Terrace, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Else, after dark by The Anvil Inn, your vehicle gets topped up by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new car, a fleet vehicle, or the spare motor of a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers know least. Wherever across Midlothian, Eldindean as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Eldindean?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It has been drawn through your filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Broomieknowe Park or halfway across Eldindean. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Eldindean sits under 10 miles from the M8; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Eldindean to park near Bonnyrigg Parish Church and a drive of under 10 miles for Edinburgh are very distinct jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to flush once the motor has run, and we do all of it where the car has come to a stop. When it is noticed quickly, permanent damage is very rare.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Eldindean
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a street beside Madinah Masjid & Community Centre, a driveway, a layby or a filling station in Eldindean, and our van travels to it. What went in, roughly the quantity, plus if the engine has turned over: our engineers check first, since those decide the job.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the final step. You set off as soon as our technicians have started it, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Eldindean or in a space at Eskbank. It's checked on new diesel to make sure it runs properly before our technicians leave. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Eldindean itself
Eldindean is a suburban area located inland in Midlothian, Scotland, with an elevation of around 100 metres. Eldindean sits approximately 6 miles south of Edinburgh, near the communities of Lasswade and Quarryhead. Eldindean is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which is typical of many suburban areas in the region. Eldindean is also situated near Waverley, and is around 325 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Eldindean and Midlothian
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Eldindean also cover the spots around it, Lasswade, Quarryhead and Waverley among them, and most of Midlothian beyond, across the EH postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess if you are by a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
Wherever your vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — we empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Eldindean, a residential suburb, well.
Eldindean: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the jobs differ, a single price would not be honest. What moves the price is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind New Dundas Park.
That's why every call from Eldindean starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Given those replies, a range narrows to one fixed figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the car in Eldindean?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Eldindean or wherever in Midlothian, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.