AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Perth? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm starts once it's pulled through the lines — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Perth. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Perth: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops someone switching the power on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting PH1 5, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up York Place.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Perth, whether it is the Morrisons or somewhere else. At your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the very place the pickup draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in North Inch last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a car sitting in Perth with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's only in your tank, it doesn't. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Perth or out in Upper Craigie, does more harm than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only in the tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, anywhere your car has come to rest around Perth and Kinross.
Perth: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and after dark the two can look the same. No one means it. It usually takes place at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Kinnoull Causeway. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Ball Room, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that's the first response to the same mistake, anywhere in Perth or the remainder of Perth and Kinross you are.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Perth?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Korean Veterans Garden, or midway across Perth, the motor may go rough, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M90, under 3 miles from Perth, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving for Dundee, under 25 miles away, gives a far bigger job than hopping across Perth to the car park by Trinity Church of the Nazarene. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has been run, and we do all of it where the car has come to a stop. When it's caught quickly, lasting damage is very rare.
Perth: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street by AK Bell Library, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your car has come to rest around Perth, we come to it. Three answers shape the job, so first our technicians ask which fluid got in, roughly what quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after the tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush counts far more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't clear out by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of the car. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. After that our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside the nearest station or a drive around Perth. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it is running properly with fresh diesel in. No workshop is needed at any point, 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 Perth and where it is
Perth is a city situated on the River Tay in eastern Scotland, with a relatively low elevation of around 12 metres above sea level. Perth sits near the mouth of the River Almond and is close to several smaller communities, including Craigie, Cherrybank, and Bridgend. Perth has a population of approximately 47,080 people, predominantly residing in flats. Perth is located about 18 miles from Dundee and around 364 miles from London.
Perth and Perth and Kinross: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the PH postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Perth serve most of Perth and Kinross as well, Craigie, Cherrybank and Bridgend among them. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
No towing is needed. In Perth, a city, a van that comes to you fits: the car is drained where it stands, whether in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Perth?
No flat price would be honest, since each job differs. What changes the price is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Perthshire Creates - Makerspace.
What went in, how much, plus whether the engine ran: each Perth enquiry begins by asking exactly those, ahead of a quote, not after. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you are told the price on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car around Perth, right now?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Perth or anywhere in Perth and Kinross.