Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Vicarland
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; damage only starts once the pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Vicarland, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Vicarland: the first few minutes
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Give us a postcode starting G72 8, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Never:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance up Vicarland Road.
- Emptying that tank on your own beside the road is not worth trying.
Moving your vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Vicarland forecourt you are on, the Morrisons or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Cairns last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of that tank, untouched — though it would be first through if your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. A vehicle left standing in Vicarland with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the another forecourt nearby, and this issue is diluted fuel. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and left in the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm here than almost any other mistake — in Halfway or the centre of Vicarland alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across South Lanarkshire the vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Vicarland?
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. No one intends it. It usually occurs at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. Near Greenlees Road, someone tips a bottle in at home after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The John Fairweather, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a new motor, a company vehicle, or the spare motor of a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers know least. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to the same mistake, anywhere in Vicarland or the remainder of South Lanarkshire you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Vicarland?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps midway across Vicarland or returning from Cambuslang Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Vicarland lies under 3 miles from the M74; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Vicarland to the car park by Romanian Pentecostal Church Bethlehem is a very different job from a run towards Glasgow, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after your engine has been run. Lasting damage is very rare when it's noticed soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Vicarland?
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a street near St Brides RC Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Vicarland, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if the motor has run, because those answers determine the work.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains will not flush out unaided. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the engine has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Vicarland or in a bay by Kirkhill. Our engineers check it runs properly on new diesel before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Vicarland, for a moment
Vicarland is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Glasgow, near the lakeside and close to the nearby places of Cambuslang, Greenlees, and Whitlawburn. Vicarland has a relatively low elevation of 49 metres and is located approximately 4.3 miles from Glasgow. Vicarland is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, which is common in many suburban areas of Scotland. Vicarland is also relatively distant from London, at around 340.4 miles away.
AdBlue drains across South Lanarkshire, Vicarland included
Cambuslang, Greenlees and Whitlawburn are among the towns near Vicarland that the same teams reach, together with much of South Lanarkshire further out, over the G postcode area. Phone and check instead of guessing when you are by a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Vicarland is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Vicarland: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. What moves the price is, firstly, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind War Memorial.
Before a quote, never after, each call from Vicarland begins with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether it ran. Given them, the range shrinks to one fixed number.
The quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Still beside the car in Vicarland?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Vicarland or anywhere in South Lanarkshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.