Rhu: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once the pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Rhu, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has been run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rhu
Do these:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting G84 8, or just the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Don't:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way along Church Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
Rolling the vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Rhu forecourt you are on, the Esso or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very place the intake sucks from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Shandon overnight and not started since is the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once the motor turns, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
After it is drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it reaches until it is cleared from your system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle sitting in Rhu. Only in that tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. No damage comes while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car sits in Helensburgh or the heart of Rhu, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Argyll and Bute your car is standing.
Rhu: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. No one intends 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 pump.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside the local primary school, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Cumberland Road. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Rhu Inn, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the other motor of a family with one of each fuels — the cars people use the least. Wherever you are in Rhu or the remainder of Argyll and Bute, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rhu?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Maybe returning from Kidston Park, or part way across Rhu, the engine might run rough, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or stall. When safe, pull over then switch it off — with no turning it on again to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M8, under 15 miles from Rhu, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving towards Glasgow, under 25 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Rhu to the car park by War Memorial. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Long-term damage is very unusual if it's spotted early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Rhu: what it takes
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Rhu: a side street close to Rhu and Shandon Parish Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, so before anything else we ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
Next, draining the tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't wash out on its own. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The final step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, by Helensburgh Upper or on a drive around Rhu. It is tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we leave. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Rhu
Rhu is a coastal village in Argyll and Bute, situated on the shores of the Gareloch at an elevation of around 15 metres. Rhu lies near the villages of Rosneath, Clynder, and Stroul, and is approximately 23 miles from Glasgow. Rhu has a population of around 1007 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains in Rhu and across Argyll and Bute
Over the G postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs in Rhu serve much of Argyll and Bute as well, Rosneath, Clynder and Stroul among them. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you're by a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
A mobile service suits Rhu, a coastal village: you have no need to bring your car to us, because our engineers drain it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Rhu: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one single figure would be honest, because every job differs. Three things shift the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind village hall.
What got in, how much, plus whether the engine ran: every Rhu enquiry begins by asking exactly those, ahead of any figure, never afterwards. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single fixed figure.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Rhu and still next to the car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Rhu or anywhere across Argyll and Bute.