AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Thornville Terrace? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just starts when the pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Thornville Terrace, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Thornville Terrace: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Remove your keys, which stops anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so don't throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting EH6 8, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Moving your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Restalrig Terrace.
- By the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
Ask the attendants to help you move your vehicle off the island if you are at a forecourt around Thornville Terrace, whether it is the JET or elsewhere. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A motor topped up on a drive in Seafield overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It eats at some metals found in fuel components, working on any part it touches till it's removed from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in tiny passages. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight in Thornville Terrace makes things worse. In the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
A problem of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. Mixed through your diesel and left still, it is no threat for now; using the engine is the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits back out — and the next tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Thornville Terrace or out in Restalrig, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around City of Edinburgh your vehicle sits.
Thornville Terrace: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; many layouts allow it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside the local primary school, because your dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped off. Close to Hermitage Park Lea, someone pours a bottle in on that drive in the evening. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside Persevere, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, new cars, company cars, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to the same slip, anywhere around Thornville Terrace or the rest of City of Edinburgh you are.
Thornville Terrace: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might show up, maybe midway across Thornville Terrace or returning from Leith Academy Sports Grounds. Once safe, stop then switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M8, under 10 miles from Thornville Terrace, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing Thornville Terrace to park near Leith St Andrew's and a drive of under 3 miles towards Edinburgh are such separate jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been running. If it is spotted soon, lasting damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Thornville Terrace?
The car remains put, whether that's a road near 3rd Company Boys' Brigade War Memorial, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Thornville Terrace, and the van travels to it. The work rests on three replies, which our technicians get before all else — which fluid got in, the amount, and if the motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after the tank is emptied, right there. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of the car. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Edinburgh Waverley or on a drive in Thornville Terrace. Our engineers check it runs correctly on clean diesel before we go. Because the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Thornville Terrace
Thornville Terrace is a coastal locality in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the shores of the Firth of Forth. Thornville Terrace has a relatively low elevation of 24 metres, and is located close to Edinburgh, the nearest city. Thornville Terrace is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which is common in many urban areas of Scotland. Thornville Terrace is part of the larger Edinburgh urban area, with nearby places including Woodbine Terrace and Lochend.
Thornville Terrace and City of Edinburgh: AdBlue drains across the area
Woodbine Terrace, Woodville Terrace and Lochend are among the towns around Thornville Terrace that the same teams reach, together with much of City of Edinburgh beyond, over the EH postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Thornville Terrace, a coastal area: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Thornville Terrace
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things shift the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Scot Regia Hall.
What got in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Thornville Terrace enquiry opens with exactly those, ahead of any figure, not afterwards. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van heads out, you hear the price by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Next to your car in Thornville Terrace, right now?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Thornville Terrace or anywhere in City of Edinburgh.