AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Silverknowes? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your motor. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens until the engine sucks it round. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Silverknowes. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Silverknowes: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting EH4 5, or whatever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so call wherever you stand.
Do not do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: your engine stays off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Silverknowes Court.
- Draining that tank on your own beside the road isn't worth trying.
The attendants on duty at any Silverknowes filling station — the Sainsbury's included — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Blackhall overnight and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the base of your tank, undrawn — though it would be first through once the motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm overnight for a vehicle parked around Silverknowes. Just in that tank, it stays the same. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the components that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Morrisons, and this problem is diluted fuel. Harm just comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left in your tank, it does nothing.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Drylaw or the middle of Silverknowes.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around City of Edinburgh your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Silverknowes: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of layouts allow it. It usually occurs at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the top-up is rushed. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Silverknowes Crescent. Another pattern: darkness, the car park by The Norhet, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, same first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Silverknowes or the rest of City of Edinburgh.
Silverknowes: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, perhaps midway across Silverknowes or coming back from Silverknowes Park. Once safe, stop then turn everything off — with no restarting to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M8, under 5 miles from Silverknowes, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Silverknowes to the car park by St Margaret's Catholic Church is one thing; heading towards Edinburgh, under 5 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. If it is caught soon, permanent damage is very uncommon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Silverknowes
A road beside War Memorial, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever the vehicle has stopped in Silverknowes, we travel to it. What went in, about how much, plus whether the motor has turned over: we check before all else, because those shape the job.
Next, draining your tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through since what remains won't wash out unaided. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming your system with new diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, at South Gyle or on a driveway around Silverknowes. We confirm it runs properly on new diesel before we leave. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Silverknowes
Silverknowes is a coastal suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated approximately 3.3 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Silverknowes has a relatively low elevation of around 50 metres and is characterised by predominantly flat-type housing. Silverknowes is close to nearby places such as Davidsons Mains, Muirhouse, and West Pilton, and is home to a population of around 6775 people.
AdBlue drains across Silverknowes and City of Edinburgh
Davidsons Mains, Muirhouse and West Pilton are among the places around Silverknowes that the same vans serve, along with much of City of Edinburgh further out, over the EH postcode area. Guessing won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
Silverknowes is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Silverknowes: the cost of fixing it
Since the callouts differ, a flat price would not be honest. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is easier for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind 1st Battalion Royal Scots in Burma WW2 Memorial.
What went in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Silverknowes enquiry begins by asking exactly that, ahead of a figure, not after. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside the car in Silverknowes, still?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best thing open to you. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether it ran are all we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across City of Edinburgh, Silverknowes too.