AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rothney? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and your ignition as well. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until your engine sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Rothney, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do straight away, Rothney: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Remove your keys, which prevents someone switching the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting AB52 6, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Don't:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way up Beechcroft Gardens.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Moving the car off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Rothney forecourt you are on, the the nearest petrol station or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave the car just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Kirkton yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when the engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches until it is cleared from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a car sitting around Rothney. Just in the tank, it stays stable. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in your tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Auchleven or the middle of Rothney.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only in your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in Aberdeenshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Rothney
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, because the dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped in. Close to Mayfield Gardens, a driver tips a container in at home after work. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Commercial Hotel, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Rothney or the remainder of Aberdeenshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rothney?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Via the filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might appear, perhaps midway across Rothney or returning from The Pavilion. When you safely can, stop then switch everything off — with no restarting to test. Every start pulls more of that through.
On the M90, over 50 miles from Rothney, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so driving for Aberdeen, under 25 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Rothney to the car park by Premnay War Memorial. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Long-term damage is very rare if it is noticed quickly.
Rothney: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest around Rothney — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Insch Connection Museum — the van travels to your vehicle. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has run, since those replies settle the work.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the vehicle follows at the end, once fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, if needed, replaced. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Last, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. At that point our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space by Insch or a drive around Rothney. Our technicians check it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Rothney itself
Rothney is a small locality in Aberdeenshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 128 metres. Rothney lies near the towns of Insch and Ardoyne, and is approximately 23 miles from Aberdeen. Rothney has a population of around 675 people, with predominantly detached housing. Rothney is also close to the small settlement of Knockenbaird.
Rothney and Aberdeenshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Insch, Ardoyne and Knockenbaird are among the towns around Rothney that the same vans reach, along with most of Aberdeenshire further out, over the AB postcode area. Assuming doesn't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Rothney is a small village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Rothney?
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind insch War Memorial.
Before a quote, not afterwards, each call from Rothney begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Their answers narrow a range down to a single number.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our price by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside the vehicle in Rothney, still?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Rothney or wherever in Aberdeenshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.