AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Plains? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble starts once it is pulled through the lines — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Plains, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Plains
Do:
- Take the keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting ML6 7, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: your motor remains off.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it's pointless.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short way up Station Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
At a forecourt in Plains, whether it's the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car clear of the petrol pump. At your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a driveway in Moffat Mills yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though when your engine runs, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches until it's cleared from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Plains with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just inside that tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a separate form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the main fault. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside your tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether your car is in Petersburn or the centre of Plains, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits just inside the tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever your vehicle has come to rest across North Lanarkshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Plains
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may look the same. No one intends it; many designs invite it. It usually takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. The top-up gets rushed outside the local primary school, because your dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped in. Close to Northburn Street, someone pours a container in on that drive in the evening. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside the pub in the village.
The least known vehicles see it most — rentals, brand-new ones, fleet ones, and the spare motor in a home with one of each fuel types. Anywhere in North Lanarkshire, Plains as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Plains?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through the filter, through the pipework, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's where it travels.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Easter Moffat Golf Club or halfway across Plains. No starting it again to test: pull over once it is safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M8, under 3 miles from Plains, by the next junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Plains to the car park by Stanrigg and Arbuckle Colliery Disaster Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Glasgow, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it is spotted early.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Plains
Anywhere it has come to rest in Plains — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road beside Airdrie Clarkston Parish Church — our van travels to your car. The job depends on three replies, which our engineers ask for first — what got in, the quantity, and if the motor has run.
Then the tank is emptied where the car sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Plains or in a bay outside Drumgelloch. We make sure it runs smoothly on new diesel before leaving. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Plains itself
Plains is a village in North Lanarkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 170 metres. Plains lies approximately 12 miles east of Glasgow and is part of the wider Glasgow urban area. Plains has a mix of housing types, but predominantly features flat dwellings, and is close to nearby places such as Airdriehill and Clarkston.
AdBlue drains across North Lanarkshire, Plains included
Airdriehill, Dunrobin and Clarkston are among the places near Plains that the same vans reach, together with much of North Lanarkshire beyond, throughout the ML postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Wherever the car stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Plains, a village, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Plains
Because the jobs differ, a flat figure would not be honest. What changes the price is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Legs.
For that in mind, each call from Plains begins by asking the same trio — what went in, how much, whether the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
The price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In Plains and still next to the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Plains or wherever within North Lanarkshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.