AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lochyside? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then leave your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it is sucked through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Lochyside, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has been run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lochyside
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops anyone switching the power on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting PH33 7, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance down Kilmallie Road.
- By the road, do not try draining it on your own.
On a forecourt around Lochyside, whether it is the Shell or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. At home, the car remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and settles low where the intake takes its fuel from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Claggan last night and not started stays the straightforward one, provided no one touches the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It eats at certain metals found in fuel components, working on any part it reaches till it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle parked around Lochyside. Just in that tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Gleaner. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left in that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the car sits in Banavie or the heart of Lochyside, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Highland the car has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Lochyside
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. It mostly occurs at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Close to Old School Court, a driver tips a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Lochy, your car gets refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, brand-new motors, company motors, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles see it the most. An identical mistake, an identical first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you are around Lochyside or the rest of Highland.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lochyside?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
Perhaps returning from Eilean Mòr, or midway across Lochyside, the engine may go lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or stall. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M9, over 50 miles from Lochyside, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Lochyside to the car park by Inverlochy Castle is one matter; heading towards Inverness, over 50 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once your engine has run, and we do all of it where your car has stopped. When it is caught quickly, permanent damage is very unusual.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Lochyside: what it takes
A street beside Battle of Inverlochy Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has come to rest around Lochyside, our engineers come to it. The work rests on three replies, which our engineers get before all else — what was put in, the amount, and if your motor has run.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. At that point we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space by Banavie or a driveway around Lochyside. Our engineers check it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we leave. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Lochyside and where it is
Lochyside is a small coastal village in the Highland region of Scotland, situated near the shores of Loch Linnhe. Lochyside has a low elevation of around 3 metres, and its semi-detached housing stock is typical of many modern Scottish villages. Lochyside is located near several other small communities, including Camaghael, Caol, and Inverlochy, and is within commuting distance of the city of Inverness.
AdBlue drains across Highland, Lochyside included
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Lochyside also cover the spots round it, Camaghael, Caol and Inverlochy among them, and most of Highland beyond, across the PH postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess when you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — we empty it there, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Lochyside, a coastal village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Lochyside?
No flat figure could be honest, because each job differs. What changes the cost is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Ben Nevis Distillery.
That's why each call from Lochyside starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. When those are known, a range becomes one firm figure.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Lochyside and still next to the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Lochyside or anywhere within Highland.