AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Portlethen? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The harm starts once it is pulled through your pump — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully cleaned where the vehicle sits around Portlethen. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Portlethen: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting AB12 4, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Even a short distance along Nicol Place is too far to drive the car.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your car away from the island if you are on a forecourt around Portlethen, whether it is the Asda or somewhere else. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a dedicated reservoir it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the intake draws from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, which is how a car topped up in Badentoy Park last night and never started remains the straightforward one, provided no one turns the key.
After it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it's cleared out. A vehicle left standing around Portlethen with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the EG On the Move, and the problem is thinned fuel. Harm just comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left in that tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Whether your car is in Downies or the centre of Portlethen, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Aberdeenshire your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Portlethen
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap — may look the same. No one means it; many layouts invite it. Usually it's never the forecourt: someone buys a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Rowanbank Road. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the car in dim light, parked in the car park outside Leathan Arms.
Hired motors, brand-new vehicles, company cars, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known cars see it most. Wherever you're around Portlethen or the rest of Aberdeenshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Portlethen: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Perhaps coming back from Nicol Park, or midway across Portlethen, the engine may go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. Once you safely can, pull over then switch it off — with no restarting to test. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M90, over 50 miles from Portlethen, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Portlethen to the car park by Jubilee Hall is a very different job from a run towards Aberdeen, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it's noticed early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Portlethen: what it takes
A street beside Porty Cabin, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere the car has stopped in Portlethen, we travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether your engine has been run, because those replies determine this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when your tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue won't wash away by itself. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Last, the system is primed with fresh diesel. After that our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space at the nearest station or a driveway in Portlethen. Before we leave, we confirm it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Portlethen
Portlethen is a coastal town in Aberdeenshire, situated approximately 6 miles south of Aberdeen. Portlethen sits at an elevation of around 71 metres, overlooking the North Sea. Portlethen has a mix of residential areas, including the older Portlethen Village and more modern developments, with detached housing being predominant. Portlethen is close to nearby places such as Hillside and Findon, and is around 392 miles from London.
Portlethen and Aberdeenshire: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Portlethen also cover the locations about it, Hillside, Portlethen Village and Findon among them, and most of Aberdeenshire beyond, across the AB postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Portlethen, a coastal town: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, since we empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Portlethen: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat figure could be fair, since each job is different. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Portlethen War Memorial.
That's why every call from Portlethen starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price by phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Portlethen and still alongside the car?
Then, do nothing — that is the best move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Portlethen or anywhere in Aberdeenshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.