Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Uphall
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes when your pump starts pulling it. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully flushed where the vehicle sits in Upper Uphall. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Uphall: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting EH52 6, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Do not do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: the engine remains off.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Dargai Place.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
The attendants on duty at any Upper Uphall forecourt — the BP included — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. At home, the vehicle remains just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
It does not combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its fuel from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, and that is why a car filled in Broxburn yesterday and never switched on remains the straightforward one, provided no one touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car sitting in Upper Uphall. Only in the tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second form of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and the problem is diluted fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it causes none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the following tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Upper Uphall or out in Dechmont, costs more than nearly any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever in West Lothian the car sits.
Upper Uphall: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. Mostly it's not the forecourt: someone buys a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Near Ecclesmachan Road, someone tips a container in on that drive after work. Otherwise, in dim light by Volunteer Arms, the vehicle gets refilled by someone using that flap the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the spare motor in a home with both fuels — the vehicles drivers know least. Wherever you're around Upper Uphall or the rest of West Lothian, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Upper Uphall: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and pipework.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Glebe Park, perhaps, or midway across Upper Uphall. Stop when safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Upper Uphall sits under 3 miles from the M8; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
Distance matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving for Dunfermline, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Upper Uphall to the car park by Uphall Community Centre. Tell us about how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it is caught early.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Upper Uphall
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a road near Above and Below, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Upper Uphall, and the van travels to it. The job depends on three answers, and our engineers get first — which fluid went in, the amount, and if the motor has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when your tank is emptied, right there. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, if your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the last step. Then our technicians start the engine and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Uphall or a driveway in Upper Uphall. Our technicians check it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. Because the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Upper Uphall itself
Upper Uphall is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Lothian, with a mix of flat housing and local amenities. Upper Uphall sits at an elevation of 129 metres, near the towns of Uphall and Ecclesmachan, and is approximately 9.6 miles from Dunfermline. Upper Uphall is part of the wider commuter belt around Edinburgh, but remains a distinct community with its own character. Upper Uphall has a population of around 3754 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains in Upper Uphall and across West Lothian
AdBlue call-outs around Upper Uphall go to teams that cover the places near it — Uphall, Ecclesmachan plus Uphall Station — and much of West Lothian further out, throughout EH postcodes. Phone and check rather than guess if you're close to a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
A van that comes to you fits Upper Uphall, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, since we drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Upper Uphall
Not one flat price could be honest, since every job is different. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Broxburn Baptist Church.
That is why each call from Upper Uphall starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. Given those replies, the range shrinks to one firm number.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle in Upper Uphall?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran is all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across West Lothian, Upper Uphall included.