Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gowkshill
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the engine off then keep the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. In Gowkshill, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Gowkshill
Do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a EH23 4 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Moving the vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself starts your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance down The Crescent.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the island if you are on a forecourt in Gowkshill, whether it is the Shell or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A vehicle filled on a drive in Bryans yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once the motor runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and tiny channels; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it remains inside. Overnight, a car sitting around Gowkshill with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is only in your tank, it doesn't. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside the tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Gorebridge or the heart of Gowkshill, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Midlothian your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Gowkshill
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when heading home and tipped in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning 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 Pentland Avenue. One more version: darkness, a pub car park by The Dean Tavern, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere around Gowkshill or the rest of Midlothian you are.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Gowkshill, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps part way across Gowkshill or returning from Masterton Wood. Once you safely can, stop then turn it off — without restarting to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Gowkshill lies under 15 miles from the M8; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Hopping across Gowkshill to the car park by National Mining Museum Scotland is one matter; driving towards Edinburgh, under 10 miles away, is something else, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
We do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it's spotted early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Gowkshill: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest around Gowkshill — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road beside RYZE Ultimate Trampoline Park — our van comes to the car. Three answers shape the job, and so first our engineers ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, plus whether your motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when the tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since what remains won't flush out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Finally, the system is primed with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, by Newtongrange or on a driveway in Gowkshill. The check before we go is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Gowkshill and where it is
Gowkshill is a small village in Midlothian, situated inland at an elevation of 145 metres, approximately 8 miles from Edinburgh. Gowkshill lies near several other communities, including Monkswood, Arniston, and Newtongrange. Gowkshill has a population of around 581 people, predominantly residing in flats. Gowkshill is located about 323 miles north of London, in the central lowlands of Scotland.
AdBlue drains across Midlothian, Gowkshill included
Over the EH postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Gowkshill serve much of Midlothian too, Monkswood, Arniston and Newtongrange included. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
No towing is needed. In Gowkshill, a rural village, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Gowkshill: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price would be fair, since every job is different. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Newtongrange Leisure Centre.
Which fluid went in, how much, plus whether the engine ran: each Gowkshill call opens with precisely those, before a figure, never afterwards. Given them, the range narrows to a single fixed number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Gowkshill: still next to your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Gowkshill or wherever within Midlothian, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.