AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Torphichen? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Torphichen. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Torphichen, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Call right where you are. Quote a EH48 4 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so keep the car off.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Even a short distance along Bowyett is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll your vehicle away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Torphichen, whether it's the Murco or somewhere else. At home, your car remains exactly where it is.
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 your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was intended to go that way.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Westfield last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny passages; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A vehicle left standing in Torphichen with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a problem of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when your motor works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Belsyde or the middle of Torphichen.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere in West Lothian the car has stopped.
Torphichen: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the refill is rushed. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near B792. Another version: darkness, the car park by Torphichen Inn, and a driver using that flap the first time.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it the most. Wherever you are in Torphichen or the remainder of West Lothian, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Torphichen: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may show up, perhaps midway across Torphichen or coming back from Moss Wood. No restarting to test: stop when safe, then turn everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M8, under 5 miles from Torphichen, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Torphichen to the car park by Victoria Diamond Jubilee Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Dunfermline, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has stopped. Long-term damage is very unusual if it is caught soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Torphichen
A road by Rev Hugh Mackay, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Torphichen, our engineers come to it. Three answers decide the job, and so first our technicians ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, and if the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after your tank is emptied, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when your engine has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Bathgate or on a drive around Torphichen. It's tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. As the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Torphichen itself
Torphichen is a village in West Lothian, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 163 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Torphichen lies near several other small settlements, including Ballencrieff Toll, Belvedere, and Bridge Castle. Torphichen is located approximately 12 miles from Dunfermline and 338 miles from London. Torphichen has a population of around 674 residents.
AdBlue drains across Torphichen and West Lothian
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Torphichen also cover the spots round it, Ballencrieff Toll, Belvedere and Bridge Castle among them, and most of West Lothian beyond, across the EH postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
A van that comes to you fits Torphichen, a village: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it there, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Torphichen: the cost of fixing it
Because the jobs differ, a flat figure wouldn't be fair. Three things change the cost: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind War Memorial.
With that reason, every call from Torphichen begins with the identical trio — what got in, how much, whether the engine ran — before a figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Torphichen and still next to the vehicle?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Torphichen or anywhere in West Lothian, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.