AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Seatown? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Seatown. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Seatown: the first few minutes
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a AB56 1 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the vehicle: the motor remains off.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch along North Pringle Street.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Rolling your car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Seatown forecourt you're on, the the nearest petrol station or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Ianstown last night and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it would be first through if your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
After it is drawn in, the damage takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. Lines holding AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle sitting around Seatown. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Tesco. No damage comes as long as it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. Crystals and corrosion stay after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so watering it can't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Rathven or the heart of Seatown equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only inside that tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere your car has stopped across Moray.
Seatown: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A container bought while driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the car. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive near East Carlton Terrace. One more version: darkness, a pub car park outside Thistle Bar, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the spare vehicle of a family with both fuels — the cars drivers use least. Wherever around Moray, Seatown included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Seatown?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Buckie Old Railway Park or halfway across Seatown. When safe, stop then switch everything off — with no restarting to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M90, over 50 miles from Seatown, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so heading for Inverness, under 50 miles away, gives a much bigger job than crossing Seatown to the car park by Buckie Methodist Church. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage if it is noticed quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Seatown?
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a street beside Fisherman's Hall, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Seatown, and the van travels to it. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, and if your engine has been run: our technicians ask first, since those shape the job.
Next, draining the tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we turn up, if the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have started the car, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Seatown or in a space by Keith. Before leaving, our technicians check it's running correctly with new diesel in. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Seatown
Seatown is a coastal suburban area in Moray, situated near the towns of Buckie and Buckpool, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Seatown sits at a relatively low elevation of 24 metres, looking out to the Moray Firth. Seatown is located close to other nearby places such as Gordonsburgh, and is within commuting distance of the city of Inverness. Seatown has a population of around 2861 people, making it a small but established community.
AdBlue drains in Seatown and across Moray
AdBlue call-outs around Seatown go to vans that serve the towns near it — Buckie, Buckpool plus Gordonsburgh — and most of Moray further out, throughout AB postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No towing is needed. In Seatown, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the car is emptied on the spot, be it in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Seatown?
There is no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Buckie Church of Christ.
What got in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Seatown call opens by asking precisely those, before any figure, not afterwards. Given those replies, the range shrinks to one fixed number.
You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the car around Seatown?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move you can do. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Seatown or wherever in Moray, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.