AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Muirhouses? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Muirhouses. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Muirhouses
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a EH51 9 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Never:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your car: your motor remains off.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't thin it.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short distance up Glenard View.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
The staff working at any Muirhouses forecourt — the Esso among them — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. At home, your car remains exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A motor topped up on a drive in Bonhard Terrace overnight and not started since is the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches till it is cleared from your system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Muirhouses with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's just in your tank, nothing changes. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on Hastons of Bo'ness's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that is the main problem. Mixed into your diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; using your engine does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, since it does not burn. Whether your car sits in Mingle or the centre of Muirhouses, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around Falkirk your car sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Muirhouses?
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Usually it is not the filling station: someone picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. 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 Acre Road. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside the pub in the village, and someone using that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet ones, and the spare motor in a family with one of each fuel types. Anywhere in Falkirk, Muirhouses as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Muirhouses?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it has gone.
Perhaps coming back from Kinningars Park, or midway across Muirhouses, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M9, under 3 miles from Muirhouses, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why crossing Muirhouses to park beside Carriden Parish Church and a drive of under 10 miles towards Dunfermline are such separate jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed quickly.
Muirhouses: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road beside Antonine Wall Marker, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever the car has come to rest in Muirhouses, we come to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if your engine has run, since those replies determine the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is emptied, on the spot. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains won't clear out on its own. Testing the car follows at the end, once fresh diesel is added and the filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on clean diesel. After that our engineers start it and you head off, whether from a parking space at Linlithgow or a drive in Muirhouses. Before we leave, our engineers check it's running properly with fresh diesel in. As the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Muirhouses, for a moment
Muirhouses is a suburban area in Falkirk, situated near the coast at an elevation of 56 metres, with views out to the Firth of Forth. Muirhouses is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature. Muirhouses is close to several nearby places, including Carriden, Bridgeness, and Grangepans, and is within commuting distance of Dunfermline, the nearest city. Muirhouses has a population of around 1329 people, according to approximate estimates.
AdBlue drains across Falkirk, Muirhouses included
AdBlue call-outs in Muirhouses go to vans that serve the towns near it — Carriden, Bridgeness as well as Grangepans — and much of Falkirk beyond, across EH postcodes. Assuming won't help by a county line or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Muirhouses, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since our technicians empty it there, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Muirhouses: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open drive is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight space behind Bo'ness Motor Museum.
With that reason, each enquiry from Muirhouses begins by asking the same trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before a quote. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Alongside the car in Muirhouses, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Falkirk, Muirhouses too.