AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Stranraer? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes once your pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Stranraer, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stranraer: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a DG9 7 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: your engine stays off.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short way along Church Street.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Rolling the vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Stranraer forecourt you are on, the Solo or any other. At home, your car stays exactly as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what the motor emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A car filled on a drive in Ochtrelure overnight and not started since counts as the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once the engine runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight around Stranraer leaves things worse. Inside your tank alone, time does nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Morrisons and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed into the diesel and sitting still, it's harmless for now; running the motor does the damage.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Culhorn or the middle of Stranraer.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever around Dumfries and Galloway the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Stranraer?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a container driving home and pours it in at home.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside the local primary school, after the dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped off. Near Lewis Street, someone tips a container in on the drive after work. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Bridge Arms, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles see it most — rentals, new cars, fleet cars, and the other car in a home with one of each fuel types. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Stranraer or the rest of Dumfries and Galloway you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stranraer?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, perhaps midway across Stranraer or coming back from Dick's Hill Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M77, over 50 miles from Stranraer, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Stranraer to the car park by Lochryan Pipe Band is a very different job from a run towards Belfast, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Permanent damage is very unusual if it is noticed soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Stranraer?
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a street near St Ninian's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Stranraer, and the van comes to it. Before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if your engine has been run, because those answers settle this work.
Next, emptying the tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned right through since what remains will not flush away by itself. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, provided your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime the system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space by the nearest station or a driveway around Stranraer, that is where our technicians start it and you set off. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Stranraer and where it is
Stranraer is a coastal town in Dumfries and Galloway, situated on the shores of Loch Ryan at a low elevation of around 11 metres. Stranraer has a population of approximately 8992 people, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. Stranraer is located near to several smaller communities, including Stranraer Town, Dicks Hill, and Sheuchan Parks. Stranraer sits in a scenic area, with Belfast just 41.8 miles away across the North Channel.
AdBlue drains across Stranraer and Dumfries and Galloway
Throughout the DG postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Stranraer reach much of Dumfries and Galloway as well, Stranraer Town, Dicks Hill and Sheuchan Parks included. Ring and check rather than guess when you're by a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Wherever your vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Stranraer, a coastal town, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Stranraer
Since the callouts differ, a flat figure would not be fair. Three things move the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Stranraer Community Church.
Before a figure, never afterwards, every call from Stranraer opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. When those are known, a range turns into a single firm number.
Our price is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Beside your car in Stranraer, right now?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Stranraer or wherever in Dumfries and Galloway, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.