AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Gannochy? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Gannochy. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Gannochy: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can know.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting PH2 7, or simply the name of a street close by, so call from the car.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: your motor stays off.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short stretch down Gannochy Avenue.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
On a forecourt around Gannochy, whether it's the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Stored in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in North Inch overnight and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — but it will be first through if the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
After it is pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it's cleared out. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight in Gannochy leaves things worse. Inside your tank only, waiting costs nothing. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Morrisons. No harm comes while it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Corsiehill or the middle of Gannochy.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Perth and Kinross your vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Gannochy
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two can look the same. No one means it. A container bought when driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. After work, a container goes in on a drive near Gannochy Green. Or someone new to that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Bridgend Inn.
The least familiar cars get it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet ones, and the other vehicle in a home with both fuel types. Keep it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in Gannochy or the remainder of Perth and Kinross you happen to be.
Gannochy: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It's been drawn through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Doo'cot Park, or part way across Gannochy, your engine might go rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep it off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Gannochy lies under 3 miles from the M90; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Gannochy to the car park by Quarrymill is a very different job from a run towards Perth, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the engine has been started. If it's noticed early, long-term damage is very rare.
Gannochy: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road by Peter J Rodger memorial bench, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Gannochy, our engineers come to it. Three replies decide the work, and so first we ask what went in, roughly what quantity, plus if the engine has run.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. A test of your vehicle follows last, after fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter is cleaned or, if needed, swapped. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, by Perth or on a driveway around Gannochy. It's checked on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Gannochy
Gannochy is a suburban area situated on the River Tay in Perth and Kinross, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Gannochy lies close to the city of Perth, being only 1.1 miles away, and is near other local places such as Bridgend and Kinnoull. Gannochy has a population of around 1526 people and is located at an elevation of 39 metres above sea level. Gannochy is part of the wider Perth urban area, which is around 363.8 miles from London.
Gannochy and Perth and Kinross: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Gannochy go to teams that cover the places near it — Bridgend, Kinnoull plus Quarrymill — and most of Perth and Kinross beyond, across PH postcodes. Ring and check rather than guess when you're close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Gannochy is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Gannochy
No single price could be fair, since every job is different. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the car, since an open drive is easier for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind Battle of the North Inch (1396).
What was put in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: every Gannochy enquiry begins by asking precisely that, ahead of a quote, never after. When those are known, a range turns into a single firm number.
Our price is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
In Gannochy and still beside the car?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best step available. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Gannochy or anywhere within Perth and Kinross.