AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Scone? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and your ignition as well. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until your engine pulls it through. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully cleaned where your car sits around Scone. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Scone: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting PH2 6, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Do not do these:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Even a short way along Angus Road is too far to drive it.
- Emptying your tank on your own beside the road isn't worth trying.
On a forecourt around Scone, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. 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 combine. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bridgend last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of harm come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting till morning in Scone makes it worse. Inside that tank alone, waiting costs nothing. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Asda. Blended into your diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; running your motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether your car sits in Corsiehill or the heart of Scone, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Perth and Kinross your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Scone?
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A bottle bought while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
Mostly, it happens 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 driver tips the bottle in at home, just off Balformo Road, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside The Scone Arms.
It happens most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere across Perth and Kinross, Scone as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Scone?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through your filter, along the lines, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Perhaps returning from Scone Recreation Park, or part way across Scone, the engine may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or stall. Once safe, pull over and turn everything off — with no turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M90, under 3 miles from Scone, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Scone to the car park by Scone New Church is a very different job from a run towards Perth, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once your engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has ended up. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Scone: what it takes
A street beside Scone Library, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your car has come to rest in Scone, our engineers travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run, since those replies determine the work.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't clear away by itself. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the engine has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking space outside Perth or a drive in Scone, that is where our engineers fire it up and you drive off. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Scone itself
Scone is a village situated on the River Tay in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, with a mix of old and new buildings, including many detached homes. Scone lies close to the city of Perth, which is about 2 miles away, and is near other small communities like Gannochy and Old Scone. Scone has a population of around 2127 people and is located at an elevation of 55 metres above sea level. Scone is also relatively distant from major English cities, with London being approximately 364 miles away.
Scone and Perth and Kinross: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Scone also cover the spots around it, Gannochy, Old Scone and Quarrymill among them, and most of Perth and Kinross beyond, across the PH postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
No towing is needed. In Scone, a village, a mobile service fits: the car is drained where it stands, whether in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Scone?
Not one single figure could be honest, since each job differs. What changes the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Balgarvie Mill.
Ahead of a quote, never after, each call from Scone opens with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. When they are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Scone and still alongside your car?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Scone or anywhere within Perth and Kinross.