Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kinloss
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the engine off and leave the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Kinloss, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kinloss
To do:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting IV36 3, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Even a short distance up B9011 is too far to drive it.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it on your own.
The staff on duty at any Kinloss forecourt — the Sea Park Filling Station included — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what your engine emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It does not blend. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Findhorn last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning in Kinloss leaves it worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and the issue is thinned fuel. Mixed into the diesel and left still, it is no threat for now; running your motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay after the next fill, and AdBlue separates again out of the diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning the key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Forres or the heart of Kinloss equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits only in the tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, wherever the vehicle has come to rest across Moray.
Kinloss: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts allow it. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. A driver tips the container in at home, right off Glebe Road, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by The Abbey Inn.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet cars, and the spare motor in a home with both fuels. Wherever around Moray, Kinloss included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it switched off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kinloss?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Blackstob Wood, or part way across Kinloss, your motor might go lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the car off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Kinloss lies over 50 miles from the M90; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Kinloss to the car park by Kinloss Church is a very different job from a run towards Inverness, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it's caught soon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Kinloss: what it takes
A road beside Kinloss Abbey, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Kinloss, our engineers travel to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether the motor has run, because those answers determine the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. A careful flush matters far more after AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't wash away on its own. A test of the vehicle follows at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the last step. Then our technicians start the car and you head off, whether from a parking space by Forres or a drive in Kinloss. Our technicians confirm it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we leave. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Kinloss, briefly
Kinloss is a small coastal village in Moray, situated near the shores of the Moray Firth. Kinloss has a low elevation of around 8 metres and is located approximately 26 miles from Inverness. Kinloss is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is close to nearby places such as Whiteinch and Bogton. Kinloss is a relatively small community with a population of around 535 people.
AdBlue drains across Kinloss and Moray
AdBlue jobs around Kinloss go to vans that serve the towns near it — Whiteinch, Bogton plus Lawrenceton — and most of Moray further out, across IV postcodes. Ring and ask rather than guess when you are close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
A mobile service suits Kinloss, a coastal village: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, because we empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Kinloss: the cost of fixing it
No single figure would be fair, because every job is different. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind CWGC Cross of Sacrifice.
Before any figure, never after, each enquiry from Kinloss opens with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Given those replies, a range narrows to a single fixed figure.
The price is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Kinloss: still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Kinloss or anywhere in Moray.