Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Waverley
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage only comes when the pump begins drawing it. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Waverley. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Waverley: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting EH19 3, or whichever street lies closest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance along Waverley Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
At a forecourt around Waverley, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car away from the petrol pump. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is why a car filled in Bonnyrigg yesterday and never switched on stays the simple case, as long as no one touches your key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. A car left standing around Waverley with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed into your diesel and sitting still, it is harmless for now; using your motor is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Sherwood or the heart of Waverley, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever across Midlothian your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Waverley: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The refill is hurried outside the local primary school, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped in. Near Waverley Crescent, someone tips a bottle in on that drive in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light by Calderwood, the vehicle is topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical mistake, an identical first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Waverley or the rest of Midlothian.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Waverley, and the motor started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Via the filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Bonnyrigg Wee Forest or halfway across Waverley. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M8, under 10 miles from Waverley, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so heading towards Edinburgh, under 10 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Waverley to the car park by New Dundas Park. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Lasting damage is very unusual when it is spotted early.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Waverley
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Waverley: a side street close to Madinah Masjid & Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the work, so first we ask which fluid got in, roughly what quantity, and if the motor has turned over.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than with petrol. A test of your car comes at the end, once clean diesel is added and your filter is flushed or, if needed, swapped. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at Eskbank or on a driveway around Waverley. Our technicians make sure it runs properly on new diesel before we go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Waverley
Waverley is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Midlothian, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Waverley lies close to the city of Edinburgh, approximately 6.4 miles from the city centre, and is near other local places such as Lasswade and Eldindean. Waverley has a population of around 6144 people and is located at an elevation of 93 metres. Waverley is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 325.4 miles.
AdBlue drains across Waverley and Midlothian
Over the EH postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs around Waverley serve most of Midlothian as well, Lasswade, Eldindean and Quarryhead included. Phone and check rather than guess if you're by a county line, or somewhere awkward to explain.
Waverley is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Waverley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Bonnyrigg Parish Church.
That's why every call from Waverley starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Their answers narrow a range down to one number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Waverley: still beside the vehicle?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Waverley or anywhere in Midlothian.