Highcross: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Highcross, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Highcross
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TD6 9, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Moving your vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Even a short way down Ormiston Terrace is too far to drive it.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
The attendants on duty at any Highcross filling station — the BP among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On that drive, the car remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. No part in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to go that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its supply from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Gattonside last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it will be the first thing through once your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm by morning for a vehicle sitting around Highcross. Only inside the tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. No harm is done while it stays unused, blended into your diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the next tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Highcross or out in Tweedbank, costs more than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just in the tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Scottish Borders.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Highcross
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Abbotsford Road. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by King’s Arms, and someone using that flap the first time.
It happens most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in Scottish Borders, Highcross included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Highcross: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. The filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Gibson Park, or midway across Highcross, your motor might go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or stall. Once you safely can, stop and switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M8, under 50 miles from Highcross, by the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why crossing Highcross to park beside Holy Trinity and a drive of under 50 miles for Edinburgh are very distinct jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's spotted early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Highcross
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Highcross: a side street close to St Cuthbert's Catholic Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three replies, and our technicians ask for before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if your engine has run.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, then a check of the car. Engine not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Tweedbank or on a driveway around Highcross. We check it runs properly on clean diesel before we go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Highcross
Highcross is a suburban area situated on the riverside in the Scottish Borders, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 1107 residents. Highcross sits at an elevation of 103 metres, close to the nearby settlements of Darnick, Melrose, and Dingleton. Highcross is located approximately 30 miles from Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, and is part of the wider commuter belt. Highcross enjoys a scenic setting, with the River Tweed flowing nearby.
AdBlue drains across Scottish Borders, Highcross included
The teams that answer AdBlue calls around Highcross also cover the locations round it, Darnick, Melrose and Dingleton among them, and most of Scottish Borders beyond, across the TD postcode area. Ring and check rather than guess if you are by a county line, or anywhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service fits Highcross, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Highcross
Because each callouts differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Melrose Parish Church.
Before a quote, not afterwards, every enquiry from Highcross begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still beside the car in Highcross?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Highcross or anywhere in Scottish Borders.