AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Pettycur? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system draws it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car stands around Pettycur. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Pettycur
To do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting KY3 9, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, so keep the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is pointless.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance down Inch View.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
On a forecourt in Pettycur, whether it's the Morrisons or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the petrol pump. At your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same place the intake sucks from. A car topped up on a drive in Linktown overnight and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though when the motor turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. 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 stays there. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Pettycur with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is just in that tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the main problem. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in your tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Orrock or the middle of Pettycur.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Fife your car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Pettycur?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Pettycur Road. Else, after dark outside Crown Tavern, your car gets topped up by someone opening that flap for the first time.
The least known cars see it most — hire cars, new ones, fleet cars, and the spare motor of a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever you're around Pettycur or the remainder of Fife, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pettycur, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed through your filter and lines.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Kinghorn Tennis Club or halfway across Pettycur. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M90, under 10 miles from Pettycur, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Pettycur to the car park by Kinghorn Bowling Club is a very different job from a run towards Edinburgh, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once your engine has been run. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Pettycur?
Anywhere it has stopped in Pettycur — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Kinghorn Community Centre — the van travels to your car. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else we ask which fluid got in, about the amount, plus whether your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians arrive, provided the motor has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. After that our technicians fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Kinghorn or a drive around Pettycur. Our technicians confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Pettycur
Pettycur is a small coastal suburban area in Fife, situated near the towns of Kinghorn and Burntisland, with Pettycur being a predominantly residential community featuring detached housing. Pettycur sits at a low elevation of around 7 metres, overlooking the Firth of Forth, and Pettycur is close to the city of Edinburgh, which is approximately 7.6 miles away. Pettycur is one of several small communities along this stretch of coast, including nearby Kirkton.
AdBlue drains around Pettycur and across Fife
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Pettycur also cover the spots round it, Kinghorn, Burntisland and Kirkton among them, and most of Fife beyond, across the KY postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you are close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
A van that comes to you fits Pettycur, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Pettycur?
Since each callouts differ, a single figure would not be fair. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open drive is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Kinghorn Library.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, and if it ran: each Pettycur call begins by asking precisely that, before any quote, not after. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Pettycur: still beside the vehicle?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Pettycur or wherever in Fife.