Findochty: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. In Findochty, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Findochty: 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 fluid, and roughly how much volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Give us a postcode starting AB56 4, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Shifting the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way down Station Road.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
At a forecourt around Findochty, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't blend. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a drive in Ianstown yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor runs, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches till it's cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a car parked around Findochty. Only in that tank, it stays stable. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in that tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning the key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Rathven or the heart of Findochty equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere around Moray the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Findochty: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Many cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. A bottle picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Blantyre Terrace. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside the pub in the village, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new cars, fleet motors, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars see it the most. Anywhere around Moray, Findochty included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Findochty, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Via the fuel filter, along the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
Maybe returning from Strathlene Golf Club, or part way across Findochty, the motor might go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or stall. Once safe, stop and turn everything off — with no turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Findochty lies over 50 miles from the M90; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Findochty to park beside The Salvation Army - Findochty and a drive of under 50 miles towards Aberdeen are very different jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been run. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Findochty
The car stays put, whether that's a road near The Mannie - War Memorial, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Findochty, and our van travels to it. Three answers shape the job, and so first our engineers ask what got in, about what quantity, plus if your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is drained, right there. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing the car follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, where needed, swapped. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. At that point we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Keith or a driveway around Findochty. It is tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians go. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Findochty, for a moment
Findochty is a small coastal town in Moray, situated on the shore of the Moray Firth at an elevation of around 18 metres. Findochty has a population of approximately 950 people and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Findochty is located near other coastal communities such as Bauds of Cullen, Portessie, and Portknockie, and is within commuting distance of Aberdeen, which is around 48 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Moray, Findochty included
The teams that answer AdBlue calls around Findochty also cover the places around it, Bauds of Cullen, Portessie and Portknockie among them, and most of Moray beyond, across the AB postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Findochty is a coastal town, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Findochty?
There is no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The price changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Findochty Methodist Church.
For that in mind, every call from Findochty begins with the identical trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Those answers narrow the range down to one figure.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still alongside the car in Findochty?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Findochty or anywhere around Moray.