AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hillend? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your engine off and leave the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts till the motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Hillend, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hillend: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting KY11 9, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short distance up B916.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
The attendants on duty at any Hillend filling station — the BP included — will usually help pushing it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Inverkeithing last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left sitting in Hillend with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Tesco, and the issue is thinned fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and left inside that tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. It can't just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the next fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Hillend or out in Jamestown, costs more than almost any other mistake.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Fife the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Hillend: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off A921. Or the car is topped up in the car park at Hillend Tavern, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first response — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be around Hillend or the rest of Fife.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hillend?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Via the filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Letham Hill Wood, perhaps, or midway across Hillend. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M90, under a mile from Hillend, by the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
Distance matters: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so driving towards Dunfermline, under 5 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Hillend to the car park by Donibristle Airfield Memorial. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to flush once your engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Hillend: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Hillend: a side street near Bella the Dog Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the job, so first our engineers ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, and if your engine has run.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking bay outside Dalgety Bay or a driveway in Hillend, that is where we fire it up and you set off. The test before we go is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Hillend, briefly
Hillend is a small coastal village in Fife, situated near the town of Dunfermline and overlooking the Firth of Forth. Hillend has a population of around 581 people and is characterised by detached housing. Hillend sits at an elevation of 33 metres, close to nearby places such as Dalgety Bay and Fordell Firs.
AdBlue drains across Fife, Hillend included
Throughout the KY postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Hillend reach most of Fife as well, Dalgety Bay, Fordell Firs and Duloch included. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
A van that comes to you fits Hillend, a coastal village: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Hillend: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each jobs vary, a flat price wouldn't be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Dalgety Bay Sports & Leisure Centre.
What was put in, what quantity, and if it ran: each Hillend call begins with exactly that, before any figure, not afterwards. Those answers shrink the range down to a single figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Hillend and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Hillend or wherever in Fife, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.