Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Roanheads
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle stands in Roanheads. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Roanheads: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which product, and roughly how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can know.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting AB42 1, or just the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: the motor stays off.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance up Port Henry Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The attendants working at any Roanheads filling station — the Morrisons included — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. At home, your car stays just where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Keith Inch yesterday and not started stays the straightforward one, provided nobody touches the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. Overnight, a car parked around Roanheads with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is only inside that tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the next fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Roanheads or out in Buchanhaven, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere across Aberdeenshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Roanheads
It is not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. It usually happens at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside the local primary school. A driver pours the container in outside their house, just off North Street, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at Harbour Lights, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Rented motors, new cars, fleet cars, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars get it most. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere around Roanheads or the rest of Aberdeenshire you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Roanheads?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the fuel filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Victoria Community Park, perhaps, or midway across Roanheads. When safe, pull over then switch it off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Roanheads sits over 50 miles from the M90; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so driving for Aberdeen, under 50 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Roanheads to the car park by ApexChurch. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has stopped, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's caught early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Roanheads?
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a road near The Salvation Army - Peterhead, a driveway, a layby or a filling station in Roanheads, and our van comes to it. The work depends on three replies, which we get first — which fluid went in, the amount, and if your engine has run.
Then that tank is emptied where your car waits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not wash out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. Then our engineers start the engine and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside the nearest station or a driveway around Roanheads. Before leaving, we make sure it's running properly with clean diesel in. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Roanheads
Roanheads is a coastal suburban area in Aberdeenshire, situated near the North Sea at an elevation of around 9 metres. Roanheads lies within commuting distance of Aberdeen, which is approximately 27 miles to the south. Roanheads is close to nearby places such as Peterhead and Kirktown, and its predominant housing stock consists of flats.
Roanheads and Aberdeenshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the AB postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Roanheads reach most of Aberdeenshire too, Peterhead, Green Hill and Kirktown among them. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Roanheads is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Roanheads
Every job differs, so not one single price is honest. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Arbuthnot Museum.
That's why each call from Roanheads starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Our quote is given during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Roanheads and still alongside your car?
In that case, do nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Roanheads or anywhere within Aberdeenshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.