AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Moycroft? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts until your engine sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Moycroft, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Moycroft: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, which stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting IV30 1, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so keep it off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Linkwood Place East.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you are at a forecourt in Moycroft, whether it is the Esso or elsewhere. At home, the vehicle stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is why a car filled in Hallowood last night and never switched on stays the simple case, as long as no one touches the key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What remains when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is cleared out. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a vehicle parked around Moycroft. Just inside that tank, it stays the same. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's inside your tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Bishopmill or the heart of Moycroft alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Anywhere across Moray the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Moycroft?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside the local primary school, because the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken in. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Linkwood Place. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, parked in the car park outside Cottar Hoose.
It happens most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, an identical first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Moycroft or the rest of Moray.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Moycroft?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Your filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Perhaps coming back from Pinefield Playing Field, or midway across Moycroft, the motor may go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M90, over 50 miles from Moycroft, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Hopping across Moycroft to the car park by Oasis Church Elgin is one thing; heading towards Inverness, under 50 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. If it is spotted quickly, long-term damage is very unusual.
Moycroft: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street by Order Pot Stone, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your car has come to rest in Moycroft, our engineers come to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether the motor has run, because those answers determine the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when the tank is emptied, right there. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing your car follows last, once fresh diesel goes in and the filter is flushed or, if necessary, replaced. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the fuel system is bled with new diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, outside Elgin or on a driveway around Moycroft. Before we leave, our engineers make sure it is running smoothly with new diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Moycroft
Moycroft is a locality situated on the riverside in Moray, with an elevation of 17 metres above sea level. Moycroft lies near the Moss of Barmuckity and the towns of New Elgin and Elgin, and is approximately 36.8 miles from Inverness. Moycroft has a population of around 1364 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Moycroft is located in a scenic area, with the city of Inverness and the surrounding countryside within easy reach.
AdBlue drains across Moray, Moycroft included
Moss of Barmuckity, New Elgin and Elgin are among the towns around Moycroft that the same teams reach, along with much of Moray further out, throughout the IV postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A mobile service suits Moycroft, a small village: you have no need to take the car to us, since our engineers drain it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Moycroft: the cost of fixing it
No single price could be fair, since every job differs. What changes the price is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Johnston's of Elgin Cashmere Mill.
For that reason, each enquiry from Moycroft begins with the same trio — what was put in, how much, if it ran — before a quote. With them, the range shrinks to one fixed figure.
The price is given during the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Moycroft: still alongside the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Moycroft or wherever within Moray, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.