Kirkhill: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and leave your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Kirkhill, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the engine has been run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Kirkhill
Do:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and we will know.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting EH26 8, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Moving the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so leave the car off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance down Windsor Lane.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
At a forecourt around Kirkhill, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car clear of the petrol pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was intended to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the same place the intake sucks from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle filled in Eastfield yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward case, as long as no one touches the key.
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, so it keeps labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight in Kirkhill makes things worse. Inside that tank alone, time does nothing. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Asda and you have a problem of thin fuel. No harm is done while it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only once the engine works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your car sits in Loanstone or the centre of Kirkhill, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere around Midlothian your car has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Kirkhill: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars waits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually occurs at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside the local primary school, because the dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken in. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive near Eskvale Crescent. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Cuiken Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Kirkhill or the rest of Midlothian, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kirkhill, and the engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It has been drawn through the filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might show up, maybe midway across Kirkhill or coming back from Penicuik Cricket Club. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Leave it off rather than restarting it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M8, under 10 miles from Kirkhill, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Kirkhill to the car park by Kirkhill Bowling Club is a very different job from a run towards Edinburgh, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has run there is more of it. If it's caught quickly, long-term damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Kirkhill?
A street beside Ladywood Leisure Centre, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere the vehicle has come to rest around Kirkhill, our technicians travel to it. Three replies shape the job, and so first we ask what was put in, about the amount, plus if the motor has run.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't wash out by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, at Newtongrange or on a drive around Kirkhill. It's tested on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before we head off. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Kirkhill
Kirkhill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Midlothian, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 3951 residents. Kirkhill sits at an elevation of 186 metres, approximately 8.5 miles from Edinburgh, and is near other local places such as Eskhill and Ladywood. Kirkhill is part of the wider commuter belt around Edinburgh, with easy access to the city and its amenities. Kirkhill's location also makes it a relatively long distance from London, at around 324 miles.
Kirkhill and Midlothian: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around Kirkhill also cover the locations about it, Eskhill, Ladywood and Loanburn among them, and most of Midlothian beyond, across the EH postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
A van that comes to you suits Kirkhill, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
Kirkhill: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open drive is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight space behind French Prisoners' Monument.
That's why every call from Kirkhill starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. Those replies shrink a range down to a single figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Kirkhill: still beside the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Kirkhill or wherever within Midlothian.