AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Restalrig? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your motor off then keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it is pulled through the lines — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. In Restalrig, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Restalrig
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, which stops someone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting EH7 6, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Do not:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch down Sleigh Drive is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
On a forecourt around Restalrig, whether it's the JET or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the car away from the petrol pump. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. From a separate tank it goes directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the motor lets out. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, and that is how a car filled in Seafield last night and not switched on remains the straightforward one, provided nobody touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. By daybreak, a car sitting around Restalrig with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just in your tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Morrisons. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Whether the vehicle sits in Meadowbank or the centre of Restalrig, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere in City of Edinburgh the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Restalrig
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may appear the same. Nobody means it; many layouts invite it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. Close to Craigentinny Road, someone pours a container in at home in the evening. Else, in dim light by Logan’s Rest, your car is refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new cars, fleet cars, or the spare vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars see it the most. Wherever you are in Restalrig or the rest of City of Edinburgh, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Restalrig?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It has been sucked through your filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Maybe coming back from Craigentinny Golf Course, or midway across Restalrig, the engine may go lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or stall. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Restalrig sits under 10 miles from the M8; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving for Edinburgh, under 3 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Restalrig to the car park by Craigentinny Community Centre. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Caught soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Restalrig
Anywhere it has stopped around Restalrig — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside St. Margaret's Parish Church — the van travels to the vehicle. The job depends on three replies, which we ask for before all else — what got in, the amount, and if the motor has run.
Then your tank is cleared where your car waits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Finally, your system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Edinburgh Waverley or a driveway in Restalrig, that is where we start the car and you drive off. Our technicians make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel before leaving. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Restalrig
Restalrig is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 1.8 miles east of Edinburgh's city centre. Restalrig lies close to the coast, with its elevation at around 21 metres, and is bordered by nearby places such as Craigentinny and Lochend. Restalrig is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which accommodates its population of around 8180 residents.
AdBlue drains across City of Edinburgh, Restalrig included
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Restalrig also cover the places about it, Craigentinny, Lochend and Piershill among them, and most of City of Edinburgh beyond, across the EH postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
No towing is needed. In Restalrig, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Restalrig: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each callouts vary, a flat price would not be honest. What moves the price is, firstly, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St Margaret's Parish Church - McLaren Halls.
That's why every call from Restalrig starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Their replies shrink a range right down to a single number.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Beside your car around Restalrig, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Restalrig or wherever within City of Edinburgh.