Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Falside
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your motor off then leave your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it is sucked through the lines — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Falside, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Falside: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Say a EH48 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Don't:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance down Falside Drive.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the vehicle off the island if you are at a forecourt around Falside, whether it is the Morrisons or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its fuel from. A vehicle filled on a drive in Standhill yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when the engine turns, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches till it is removed completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. Overnight, a car sitting in Falside with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is just inside that tank, it doesn't. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the JET and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the next fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Falside or out in Bathgate, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just in the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, wherever the vehicle has come to rest in West Lothian.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Falside?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Someone tips the bottle in at home, just off Hardhill Road, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car after dark, parked in the car park by West Port Tavern.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuels — the cars drivers use the least. Keep it off: that's the first step to an identical slip, anywhere around Falside or the rest of West Lothian you are.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Falside?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Via the filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
You may see the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Meadow Park or halfway across Falside. When safe, pull over and switch everything off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
Falside sits under 3 miles from the M8; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system. That's why crossing Falside to park beside Creamery Park and a drive of under 15 miles towards Dunfermline are very distinct jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once your engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where your car has ended up. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it is spotted soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Falside?
The car remains where it is, whether that's a street beside Armadale Stadium, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Falside, and the van travels to it. The work depends on three answers, and our technicians get before all else — which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains won't flush away by itself. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the motor has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. You drive off as soon as we have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Falside or in a space outside Bathgate. It's tested on new diesel to make sure it runs properly before our technicians leave. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to go to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Falside
Falside is a suburban area in West Lothian, situated inland at an elevation of 147 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Falside is located near other residential areas such as Windyknowe and Whiteside, and is approximately 14 miles from Dunfermline. Falside has a population of around 3080 people, and is characterized by its relatively small size and residential nature. Falside is also situated a significant distance from major cities like London, being around 336 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Falside and West Lothian
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Falside also cover the spots about it, Windyknowe, Whiteside and Paulville among them, and most of West Lothian beyond, across the EH postcode area. Guessing won't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Wherever the vehicle sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians empty it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Falside, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Falside
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open driveway is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind Bathgate Library.
What was put in, how much, plus if the engine ran: every Falside enquiry begins with precisely those, before any quote, not after. With those replies, the range shrinks to one firm figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In Falside and still beside the car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Falside or wherever in West Lothian.