AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Seatown? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble starts once it is sucked through the lines — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Seatown, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the engine has run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Seatown: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, and that prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so don't bin it out.
- Call right where you are. Quote a AB45 3 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Never:
- Shifting the car even a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Seatown.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your car off the island if you are at a forecourt in Seatown, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Overbrae overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through if your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, attacking any part it touches until it is cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. A motor left sitting around Seatown with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside that tank, it does none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Pennan or the centre of Seatown, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Aberdeenshire the vehicle is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Seatown?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap — may look the same. No one intends it; plenty of layouts allow it. It usually occurs at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a couple of 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 bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off High Street. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Garden Arms Hotel, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Seatown or the remainder of Aberdeenshire, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Seatown?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through the filter and pipework.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Broomybrae Wood or halfway across Seatown. When you safely can, pull over then turn everything off — without restarting to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Leave the M90, over 50 miles from Seatown, at the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so heading for Aberdeen, under 50 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Seatown to the car park by Gardenstown Public Hall. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after your engine has been running. Long-term damage is very rare when it is caught quickly.
Seatown: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Seatown: a side street close to Gardenstown Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, about the quantity, plus if the motor has been run: we check first, since those shape the job.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't wash away by itself. Testing your car comes at the end, once clean diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, where needed, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we turn up, provided your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, by the nearest station or on a driveway around Seatown. We make sure it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Seatown itself
Seatown is a small suburban area situated on the coast of Aberdeenshire, with a mix of detached housing and scenic views. Seatown sits at an elevation of 107 metres, looking out to the North Sea, and is located near other coastal communities such as Gardenstown and Crovie. Seatown is part of the wider residential area surrounding Aberdeen, Scotland's third-largest city, which is 37 miles away. Seatown has a population of around 649 people, living in predominantly detached homes.
Seatown and Aberdeenshire: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue calls around Seatown also cover the spots around it, Gardenstown, Dubford and Crovie among them, and most of Aberdeenshire beyond, across the AB postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A mobile service suits Seatown, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Seatown
Each job differs, and so not one fixed quote is honest. Three things move the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind SS Vigilant Memorial.
With that in mind, each call from Seatown opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, if it ran — before a quote. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single firm number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside the vehicle in Seatown, still?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Seatown or wherever in Aberdeenshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.