Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southhouse
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then leave the ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. In Southhouse, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Southhouse
To do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't bin it out.
- Give us a postcode starting EH17 8, or whatever street lies closest, and our van finds you directly — so call wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is pointless.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Gracemount Road.
- By the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
Moving your car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Southhouse forecourt you're on, the Gulf or any other. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. No part inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was intended to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Gracemount overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — but it will be the first thing through if the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, because it eats at certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle parked around Southhouse. Just inside the tank, it stays the same. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Morrisons and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether your vehicle sits in Mortonhall or the heart of Southhouse, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere around City of Edinburgh your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Southhouse: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — can look the same. No one intends it; many layouts invite it. Usually it is never the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Southhouse Avenue. One more pattern: dim light, the car park by The Waverley Inn, and someone using that flap the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a new car, a fleet motor, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuel types — the vehicles people use least. Wherever in City of Edinburgh, Southhouse as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Southhouse, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It's been sucked through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might appear, maybe midway across Southhouse or returning from Mortonhall Crematorium. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M8, under 10 miles from Southhouse, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Southhouse to the car park by Balm Well is one thing; heading towards Edinburgh, under 5 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has run there is more of it. When it is spotted soon, lasting damage is very unusual.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Southhouse: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest around Southhouse — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by St Catherine of Alexandria — the van travels to your vehicle. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run, because those replies determine the work.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue won't flush out by itself. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed if it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the car. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Eskbank or a driveway around Southhouse, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. It's tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs correctly before we head off. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Southhouse itself
Southhouse is a suburban area located on the riverside in the City of Edinburgh, with a mix of flat housing and local amenities. Southhouse sits at an elevation of 128 metres, approximately 3.8 miles from Edinburgh city centre, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Kaimes, Alnwickhill, and Burdiehouse. Southhouse has a population of around 6838 people, making it a relatively small but distinct community within the larger Edinburgh urban area.
Southhouse and City of Edinburgh: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the EH postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Southhouse reach most of City of Edinburgh as well, Kaimes, Alnwickhill and Burdiehouse included. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Anywhere the car sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Southhouse, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Southhouse?
No single price could be honest, because each job differs. What shifts the price is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Valley Park Community Centre.
What was put in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: each Southhouse call begins by asking exactly those, ahead of a figure, never after. Given them, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. While the van is travelling, dig out your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Southhouse: still beside the car?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across City of Edinburgh, Southhouse included.