Elie: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition as well. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens till the motor sucks it through. In Elie, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Elie: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and we can know.
- Ring just where you are. Say a KY9 1 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your car: the motor remains off.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's wasted.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch along School Wynd.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car off the island if you're on a forecourt in Elie, whether it's the BP or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — entirely unlike fuel. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Balbuthie last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it's pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A vehicle left sitting in Elie with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Gulf's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that is the main problem. No harm comes as long as it stays unused, blended into your diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, and so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Colinsburgh or the centre of Elie equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere across Fife your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Elie
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Mostly it's not the filling station: someone picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Close to High Street, someone tips a container in on that drive in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light outside Station Buffet Bar, the vehicle is topped up by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same slip, wherever around Elie or the remainder of Fife you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Elie, and the motor started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
You may see the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Toll Green or halfway across Elie. When safe, pull over then switch it off — without turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Elie sits under 25 miles from the M90; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
Hopping across Elie to the car park by War Memorial is one matter; heading towards Dundee, under 25 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Elie?
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a road beside Elie Parish Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Elie, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if the engine has run, because those answers decide the work.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. A full flush counts far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains won't wash out on its own. After that, the filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking bay by Leven or a drive around Elie, that is where we fire it up and you head off. It is tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our technicians go. Because the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Elie, for a moment
Elie is a small coastal village in Fife, situated on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, with Earlsferry and Kilconquhar nearby. Elie has a population of around 592 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing, and is located close to the larger settlements of Dundee and St Andrews. Elie sits at a low elevation of 15 metres above sea level, looking out across the Firth of Forth. Elie is part of a network of small communities along this stretch of Fife coastline, including Barnyards and other rural areas.
AdBlue drains across Elie and Fife
Throughout the KY postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs in Elie reach much of Fife too, Earlsferry, Kilconquhar and Barnyards included. Phone and check rather than guess if you're by a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Anywhere the car sits — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Elie, a coastal village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Elie: the cost of fixing it
Because each callouts vary, a flat price wouldn't be honest. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on 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 Elie Parish Church Hall.
That's why every call from Elie starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Those replies shrink a range down to a single figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car in Elie, still?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Elie or anywhere within Fife.