AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Malleny Mills? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens till your motor sucks it round. In Malleny Mills, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Malleny Mills: the first few minutes
Do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Ring right where you are. Say a EH14 7 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Even a short way down Harlaw March is too far to drive it.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The staff working at any Malleny Mills filling station — the Sainsbury's included — will usually help pushing it clear if you ask. At your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its supply from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Currie last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and narrow passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. A vehicle left sitting around Malleny Mills with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the BP, and this issue is thinned fuel. Blended through your diesel and left still, it is no threat for now; running your engine does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Warriston or the middle of Malleny Mills.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around City of Edinburgh your car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Malleny Mills: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is not the filling station: a driver picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Harlaw Bank. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Balerno Inn, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in City of Edinburgh, Malleny Mills as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Malleny Mills?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Harmeny Wood, say, or part way across Malleny Mills. No restarting to test: stop once safe, then turn it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Malleny Mills lies under 3 miles from the M8; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system. That is why crossing Malleny Mills to park near Balerno Community Centre and a drive of under 10 miles for Edinburgh are such separate jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after your engine has been started. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it is spotted soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Malleny Mills
Anywhere it has stopped around Malleny Mills — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road by Balerno Farmer's Market — the van travels to your vehicle. Before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run, because those replies determine the work.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of your car comes last, after fresh diesel goes in and your filter gets flushed or, if needed, replaced. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking bay outside Curriehill or a drive around Malleny Mills, that is where our technicians fire it up and you drive off. It is checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before our technicians head off. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Malleny Mills and where it is
Malleny Mills is a suburban area situated on the riverside in the City of Edinburgh, with a mix of flat housing and local amenities. Malleny Mills sits near the towns of Balerno and Glenbrook, and is approximately 7.6 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Malleny Mills has a relatively small population of around 2009 residents, and is characterised by its flat housing stock. Malleny Mills is located at an elevation of 196 metres, with views of the surrounding countryside.
AdBlue drains across Malleny Mills and City of Edinburgh
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs in Malleny Mills also cover the locations about it, Balerno, Gowanhill and Glenbrook among them, and most of City of Edinburgh beyond, across the EH postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Wherever your vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Malleny Mills, a residential suburb, well.
Malleny Mills: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat figure could be fair, because each job is different. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind St Mungo's Episcopal Church.
What got in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: each Malleny Mills enquiry begins with exactly those, before a figure, never after. With those replies, the range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear our quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Still alongside the vehicle around Malleny Mills?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Malleny Mills or wherever in City of Edinburgh.