Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newbattle
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition as well. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it's pulled through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Newbattle, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Newbattle: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting EH22 3, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance down Newbattle Abbey Crescent.
- Emptying your tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt in Newbattle, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or elsewhere. At home, the car remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Lothianbridge yesterday and never switched on stays the simple case, provided nobody turns your key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny channels; and, since it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting around Newbattle. Only in that tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running through them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Newtongrange or the middle of Newbattle.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Midlothian your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Newbattle
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. Nobody intends it. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Near Jewel Gardens, someone pours a container in on that drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Justinlees Inn, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars get it the most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare car in a family with both fuel types. Same slip, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be in Newbattle or the remainder of Midlothian.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Newbattle?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, maybe midway across Newbattle or returning from Lord Ancrum's Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M8, under 10 miles from Newbattle, by the next junction and stop safely, not driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Newbattle to the car park by Newbattle Parish Church is a very different job from a run towards Edinburgh, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Newbattle: what it takes
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Newbattle: a side street close to Newbattle Abbey, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job depends on three replies, which our technicians ask for first — what got in, the amount, and whether the engine has run.
Then that tank is drained where the car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we get there, provided your motor has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the last step. You head off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Newbattle or in a space at Eskbank. The test before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Newbattle and where it is
Newbattle is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Midlothian, with a mix of detached housing and other residential properties. Newbattle sits at an elevation of around 50 metres, close to the River Esk and near the towns of Eskbank and Dalkeith. Newbattle is located approximately 6.8 miles from Edinburgh, making it a commuter-friendly area. Newbattle has a population of around 1321 people, living in a variety of detached homes.
Newbattle and Midlothian: AdBlue drains across the area
Eskbank, Dalkeith and Easthouses are among the towns near Newbattle that the same teams serve, along with most of Midlothian beyond, throughout the EH postcode area. Close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
Newbattle is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Newbattle?
No flat figure would be honest, because each job is different. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Unicorn.
That is why each call from Newbattle starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still next to your car around Newbattle?
Then, do nothing — that is the best step available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran is all we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Midlothian, Newbattle too.