Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Town
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble starts once it's pulled through the pump — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Old Town. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do straight away, Old Town: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and we can see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TD1 3, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Elm Row.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Old Town forecourt you're on, the Asda included. At home, your car stays exactly as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It doesn't combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Glenfield last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Overnight, a car parked around Old Town with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is only in the tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and the issue is diluted fuel. No harm is done while it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the following tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Old Town or out in Halliburton, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Scottish Borders the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Old Town?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. Mostly it's not the filling station: a driver buys a bottle heading home and tips it in at home.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside the local primary school, after the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Scott Crescent. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside The Auld Mill Inn, and a driver using that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company cars, and the spare car of a family with one of each fuel types. Wherever around Scottish Borders, Old Town as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Old Town: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been drawn through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Scott Park, perhaps, or part way across Old Town. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M8, under 50 miles from Old Town, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Old Town to the car park by Mercat Cross is one thing; heading for Edinburgh, under 50 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the vehicle has ended up, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it's caught early.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Old Town
The car stays where it is, whether that's a street near Galashiels Parish Church, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Old Town, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run, because those answers determine the work.
Then that tank is cleared where the car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. A test of the car follows last, once clean diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, if needed, swapped. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. You set off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Old Town or in a bay at Galashiels. Before we go, our technicians check it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. We do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Old Town, briefly
Old Town is a suburban area situated on the riverside in the Scottish Borders, with a mix of flat housing and other residential properties. Old Town sits at an elevation of around 130 metres, close to the nearby towns of Galashiels and Gala Park. Old Town is located near Edinburgh, which is approximately 27.8 miles away, and is part of the wider Scottish Borders region. Old Town has a population of around 3636 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Old Town and Scottish Borders
Galashiels, Gala Park and Balmoral are among the towns near Old Town that the same teams serve, together with much of Scottish Borders beyond, throughout the TD postcode area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No towing is needed. In Old Town, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the car is drained where it stands, be it in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Old Town: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat price could be honest, since every job is different. What changes the price is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Old Gala House.
Before any quote, not afterwards, every call from Old Town begins with three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Their answers narrow the range down to one figure.
Our quote is given on the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Beside your car around Old Town, right now?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Old Town or anywhere within Scottish Borders, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.