Northfield: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only comes when your pump begins drawing it. In Northfield, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Northfield: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting AB16 5, or whatever street is nearest, and our van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Never:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance along Byron Square.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
The attendants working at any Northfield filling station — the Esso among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its supply from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Cummings Park overnight and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it will be first through if your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting around Northfield. Only inside the tank, it stays stable. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Tesco Extra. Blended through the diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat for now; using the engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Bucksburn or the heart of Northfield equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever across Aberdeen City your car has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Northfield
It is not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Byron Avenue. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, parked in the car park by The Lord Byron.
The least familiar cars get it the most — rentals, brand-new cars, company ones, and the other car of a family with one of each fuels. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever around Northfield or the rest of Aberdeen City you are.
Northfield: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may appear, maybe midway across Northfield or returning from Allan Douglas Park. No starting it again to test: stop when it is safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M90, over 50 miles from Northfield, the first 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 Northfield to the car park by Northfield Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Aberdeen, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been run. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it's noticed soon.
Northfield: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a road beside Northfield Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Northfield, and our van travels to it. Three answers decide the job, and so before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly the amount, plus if your engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is emptied, on the spot. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, provided your motor has not run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, your system is bled with new diesel. After that our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space at Aberdeen or a driveway around Northfield. The test before our engineers head off is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Northfield, for a moment
Northfield is a suburban area in Aberdeen City, situated near the River Don and approximately 2.8 miles from Aberdeen city centre. Northfield has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Northfield sits at an elevation of around 104 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Northfield is part of the larger Aberdeen urban area, with nearby neighbourhoods including Heathryfold, Mastrick, and Middlefield.
AdBlue drains across Aberdeen City, Northfield included
AdBlue jobs in Northfield go to vans that cover the towns around it — Heathryfold, Mastrick as well as Middlefield — and much of Aberdeen City beyond, throughout AB postcodes. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Northfield is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Northfield: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the callouts vary, a single price wouldn't be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the car, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Northfield Parish Church of Scotland.
Ahead of a quote, never afterwards, each call from Northfield opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still next to your car in Northfield?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Northfield or anywhere in Aberdeen City.