AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Elphinstone? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm begins once it is pulled through the pump — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Elphinstone, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Elphinstone: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops someone turning the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Call right where you are. Say a EH33 2 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: your engine remains off.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it's wasted.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch up B6414.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your car off the pumps if you are on a forecourt around Elphinstone, whether it is the Asda or somewhere else. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake takes its supply from. A car filled on a drive in Dolphingstone yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches until it's removed completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. By daybreak, a car parked around Elphinstone with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just in the tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the JET and you have an issue of thin fuel. Blended into the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless at that stage; using your motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next tankful will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Elphinstone or out in Tranent, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever around East Lothian your car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Elphinstone: how it ends up there
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and after dark the two may look the same. Nobody means it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken off. Near Durie's Park, a driver tips a container in on that drive in the evening. Or the car is topped up in the car park at the pub in the village, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar vehicles get it most — hire cars, new cars, fleet cars, and the other motor in a family with both fuels. An identical mistake, an identical first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Elphinstone or the remainder of East Lothian.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Elphinstone?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps midway across Elphinstone or returning from Hadfast Valley Wildlife Reserve. No restarting to check: pull over once it is safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M8, under 15 miles from Elphinstone, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, so heading for Edinburgh, under 10 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Elphinstone to the car park by War Memorial. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Elphinstone: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street by Elphinstone Tower, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your car has stopped around Elphinstone, our technicians come to it. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers get before all else — what got in, the quantity, and if the engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after your tank is emptied, right there. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of your vehicle. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Elphinstone or in a space by Prestonpans. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a garage. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Elphinstone, briefly
Elphinstone is a small village in East Lothian, situated near the coast and approximately 8.9 miles from Edinburgh. Elphinstone has a relatively low elevation of 124 metres and is surrounded by other nearby places such as North Elphinstone and Ormiston. Elphinstone is characterized by its semi-detached housing and quiet residential atmosphere. Elphinstone is also located a significant distance from London, at around 326.3 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Elphinstone and East Lothian
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Elphinstone also cover the locations about it, North Elphinstone, South Elphinstone and Ormiston among them, and most of East Lothian beyond, across the EH postcode area. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No towing is needed. In Elphinstone, a coastal village, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Elphinstone: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job is different, so no fixed price is fair. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind Lie Forrit.
That is why every call from Elphinstone starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. When they are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Our price is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Elphinstone and still beside the car?
Not touching your car is, then, the best thing open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Elphinstone or anywhere in East Lothian.