Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Montrose
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's pulled through the pump — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits around Montrose. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Montrose: the first few minutes
To do:
- Take the keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't throw it away.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting DD10 8, or just the name of a street nearby, so call from the spot.
Don't do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: your motor remains off.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way up Bow Butts.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the vehicle away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Montrose, whether it's the BP or elsewhere. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it sits beneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Rossie Mills last night and never switched on stays the straightforward case, as long as nobody turns your key.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Montrose with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's only in that tank, nothing changes. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Asda. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, and so thinning it won't help. Hence the flush counts more, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Borrowfield or the heart of Montrose alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Angus the car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Montrose
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's not the forecourt: someone picks up a container driving home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside the local primary school. A driver pours the bottle in at home, just off Baltic Street, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park outside Sharkys.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet cars, and the spare motor in a home with both fuel types. An identical slip, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Montrose or the remainder of Angus.
Montrose: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, maybe part way across Montrose or coming back from Millenium Garden. No starting it again to check: stop once safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M90, under 50 miles from Montrose, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Montrose to the car park by James Graham Statue is a very different job from a run towards Dundee, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Montrose
Anywhere it has come to rest around Montrose — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road beside Robert Peel Statue — our van comes to your vehicle. The work depends on three answers, and we ask for before all else — what was put in, the amount, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then that tank is drained where the car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. After that, the filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of your car. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the motor hasn't run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Finally, your system is bled with clean diesel. After that we start the car and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway around Montrose. The test before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Montrose and where it is
Montrose is a coastal town in Angus, Scotland, situated on the North Sea coast at a low elevation of around 8 metres. Montrose lies approximately 25 miles from Dundee and is surrounded by nearby places such as Inchbraoch, Ferryden, and Kirkton of Craig. Montrose has a population of around 8595 people and predominantly features flat-type housing. Montrose is located relatively far from London, at a distance of approximately 372 miles.
Montrose and Angus: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue calls in Montrose also cover the spots round it, Inchbraoch, Ferryden and Kirkton of Craig among them, and most of Angus beyond, across the DD postcode area. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Montrose is a coastal town, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Montrose?
Not one flat figure could be honest, because each job differs. The price changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind The Whisper.
Before any figure, never after, each call from Montrose begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if the engine ran. When those are answered, a range becomes a single fixed figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. While the van is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
In Montrose and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, touch nothing — that is the best step there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Montrose or wherever within Angus.