AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Phantassie? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts till the engine pulls it round. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car sits in Phantassie. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Phantassie
To do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops someone switching the power on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting EH40 3, or simply the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Don't do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: your motor stays off.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch up Stories Park.
- Emptying your tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
The staff working at any Phantassie filling station — the Tesco included — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. 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 why a vehicle filled in Markle last night and never switched on stays the simple case, as long as no one touches your key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches until it's removed completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow channels. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle parked around Phantassie. Only inside the tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel running past them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the JET. Blended into your diesel and left still, it is no threat for now; using the engine does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, so it can't 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 the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Knowes or the middle of Phantassie.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around East Lothian your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Phantassie: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. A bottle bought when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. A driver pours the container in outside their house, just off Preston Road, as the day ends. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside The Crown and Kitchen, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Phantassie or the rest of East Lothian, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Phantassie?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from East Linton Park, say, or midway across Phantassie. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then turn everything off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M8, under 50 miles from Phantassie, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Phantassie to the car park by Phantassie Doocot is one matter; driving for Edinburgh, under 25 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's noticed quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Phantassie: what it takes
A street beside Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has come to rest around Phantassie, we come to it. Which fluid was put in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run: our engineers check first, because those decide the job.
Then that tank is cleared where your car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned right through because residue will not wash out by itself. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by East Linton or on a drive in Phantassie. Our technicians check it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. No workshop is required 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 Phantassie
Phantassie is a small coastal locality in East Lothian, situated near the towns of East Linton and Preston. Phantassie lies at a low elevation of around 13 metres, close to the sea and within commuting distance of Edinburgh. Phantassie has a population of approximately 531 people, living in predominantly detached housing. Phantassie is part of the wider East Lothian area, with nearby Traprain also being a notable settlement.
AdBlue drains across East Lothian, Phantassie included
AdBlue jobs in Phantassie go to teams that cover the places around it — East Linton, Preston plus Traprain — and much of East Lothian beyond, throughout EH postcodes. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
No towing is needed. In Phantassie, a coastal area, a mobile service works: the car is emptied where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Phantassie?
Each job is different, so no single price would be fair. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Preston Mill.
Ahead of a quote, never after, each call from Phantassie begins with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. When those are answered, a range becomes one fixed number.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
In Phantassie and still alongside the car?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful move open to you. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Phantassie or anywhere within East Lothian, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.