Sherwood: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your motor off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts until your motor sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Sherwood, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Sherwood: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting EH19 3, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the spot.
Not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Laird Terrace.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
The attendants on duty at any Sherwood filling station — the Tesco included — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its supply from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Eldindean last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it is pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. 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 working on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it till morning around Sherwood makes it worse. In that tank alone, time does nothing. Then there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the another forecourt nearby, and the issue is diluted fuel. Mixed into the diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; running your motor does the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so watering it can't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Staiside Court or the heart of Sherwood alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside that tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere the car has come to rest across Midlothian.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Sherwood: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. It usually happens outside the house, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside the local primary school. Close to Cockpen Road, someone pours a container in on that drive after work. Else, in dim light outside The Retreat, the vehicle is topped up by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new car, a company car, or the spare motor of a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers use the least. An identical mistake, same first step — keep it off — wherever you are in Sherwood or the remainder of Midlothian.
Sherwood: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Bonnyrigg Wee Forest or halfway across Sherwood. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M8, under 10 miles from Sherwood, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why a hop across Sherwood to park beside New Dundas Park and a drive of under 10 miles towards Edinburgh are very distinct jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Sherwood?
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Sherwood: a side street near Madinah Masjid & Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three answers, which our technicians get before all else — what went in, the quantity, and if the engine has run.
Then your tank is emptied where your car stands, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains won't wash out by itself. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, by Newtongrange or on a driveway in Sherwood. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Sherwood
Sherwood is a suburban area in Midlothian, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 87 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Sherwood lies close to the nearby towns of Waverley, Bonnyrigg, and Lasswade, and is approximately 6.7 miles from Edinburgh. Sherwood is part of the wider Edinburgh urban area, with the city's amenities and services within easy reach. Sherwood has a population of around 6501 residents.
AdBlue drains across Sherwood and Midlothian
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Sherwood also cover the places round it, Waverley, Bonnyrigg and Lasswade among them, and most of Midlothian beyond, across the EH postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
A mobile service suits Sherwood, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our technicians empty it there, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Sherwood
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. What moves the price is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Cockpen and Carrington Parish Church.
That is why every call from Sherwood starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Once those are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. While the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
In Sherwood and still next to your car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Sherwood or wherever in Midlothian, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.