AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mossgreen? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the engine off then keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts till the motor sucks it through. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully purged where the car stands around Mossgreen. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Mossgreen
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, which stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and roughly what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Ring right where you are. Say a KY4 8 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way down Coles Place is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
The staff on duty at any Mossgreen forecourt — the Thames among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Hill of Beath last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it's pulled in, the damage takes two forms. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in Mossgreen with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it's just in your tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running past them, so the water content harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have an issue of thin fuel. No harm comes as long as it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the next fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Mossgreen or out in Halbeath, costs more than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Fife the car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Mossgreen: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive near Kirkcaldy Road. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by Crystal Bar.
The least known cars get it most — rentals, new ones, fleet ones, and the spare motor of a family with one of each fuels. Keep it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in Mossgreen or the remainder of Fife you are.
Mossgreen: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Maybe coming back from Cuttlehill Woods, or part way across Mossgreen, the engine may go rough, smoke, lose pace, flash your dash or cut out. Once safe, pull over and switch it off — with no restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M90, under a mile from Mossgreen, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Mossgreen to the car park by War Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Dunfermline, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. If it's spotted early, permanent damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Mossgreen?
A street by Crossgates Community Centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the car has come to rest in Mossgreen, our technicians come to it. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, plus whether your engine has turned over: we ask before all else, since those shape the job.
Next, draining that tank right there takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through since residue will not wash away by itself. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Last, the system is bled with new diesel. At that point our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Cowdenbeath or a driveway in Mossgreen. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Mossgreen
Mossgreen is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Fife, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 1213 residents. Mossgreen sits at an elevation of 129 metres, close to the nearby settlements of Fordell, Crossgates, and Donibristle. Mossgreen is located near Dunfermline, which is approximately 4.1 miles away, and is part of the wider commuter belt around the city. Mossgreen's riverside setting provides a scenic backdrop to the area.
AdBlue drains across Mossgreen and Fife
Fordell, Crossgates and Donibristle are among the towns around Mossgreen that the same vans serve, along with much of Fife further out, throughout the KY postcode area. Close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
No moving is needed. In Mossgreen, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your car is emptied on the spot, be it in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Mossgreen: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each jobs vary, a single figure would not be fair. What shifts the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Trinity Church.
With that in mind, every call from Mossgreen begins by asking the same trio — what went in, how much, if it ran — before a figure. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Our price is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Mossgreen and still beside your car?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Mossgreen or wherever in Fife.