Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Inchture
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until the engine pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Inchture, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Inchture, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take your keys away.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and about what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and we will know.
- Call just where you are. Say a PH14 9 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift your vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way along Moncur Road.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the car off the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Inchture, whether it's the Shell or elsewhere. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Middlebank yesterday and not switched on remains the simple case, as long as nobody turns your key.
After it's pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. It attacks certain metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches till it is removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight around Inchture leaves things worse. In your tank only, waiting does nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, and so watering it won't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Craigdallie or the heart of Inchture alike.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere around Perth and Kinross your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Inchture?
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. No one means it. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver buys a bottle driving home and tips it in at home.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. Close to Glebe Drive, a driver tips a container in at home after work. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least known cars see it most. Wherever across Perth and Kinross, Inchture as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Inchture: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Maybe coming back from Inchture Bowling Club, or midway across Inchture, the motor may go lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or stall. No restarting to check: stop once safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Inchture sits under 10 miles from the M90; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Inchture to park near Inchture Parish Church and a drive of under 10 miles for Dundee are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after your engine has been running. If it's spotted soon, lasting damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Inchture?
A street beside War Memorial, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your car has come to rest around Inchture, we come to it. The work rests on three replies, which our engineers get before all else — what went in, the amount, and if the motor has run.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the motor has not run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the last step. After that our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Invergowrie or a drive in Inchture. We check it runs smoothly on new diesel before we go. Since the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Inchture
Inchture is a small village in eastern Scotland, situated near the coast and approximately 7.5 miles from Dundee. Inchture sits at a low elevation of around 20 metres, with the surrounding landscape dominated by the nearby Tay Estuary. Inchture has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Inchture is close to several smaller settlements, including Baledgarno and Ballindean.
AdBlue drains across Inchture and Perth and Kinross
AdBlue call-outs in Inchture are passed to teams that serve the places near it — Baledgarno, Ballindean as well as Knapp — and most of Perth and Kinross further out, throughout PH postcodes. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — we drain it there, with no need to take it to us; which suits Inchture, a coastal village, well.
Inchture: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, and so no single price would be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind Inchture Village Hall.
For that in mind, each enquiry from Inchture opens with the same trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of any quote. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Inchture: still alongside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Perth and Kinross, Inchture too.