Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wellwood
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the motor off then leave the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it is sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits in Wellwood. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Wellwood: the first few minutes
Do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians can see.
- Call right where you are. Quote a KY12 0 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way along Springbank Terrace.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
Moving your vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Wellwood forecourt you're on, the Tesco included. On your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same spot the intake draws from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Kingseathill last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Once it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it till morning around Wellwood makes things worse. Inside the tank alone, time costs nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Shell, and this problem is diluted fuel. No harm is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Baldridgeburn or the middle of Wellwood.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Fife the car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Wellwood?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. It usually takes place outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the refill is rushed. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Lochhead Court. Otherwise, in dim light outside Auld Classic Bar, the vehicle gets topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet car, or the other car of a family with both fuel types — the cars drivers use the least. Wherever you are in Wellwood or the rest of Fife, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wellwood, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Via your filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
Maybe returning from Canmore Golf Club, or part way across Wellwood, your engine might go rough, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or stall. When you safely can, stop then switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M90, under 3 miles from Wellwood, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Wellwood to the car park by The Salvation Army Church and Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Dunfermline, under a mile away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it's caught early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Wellwood
The car stays where it is, whether that is a road beside Wellwood Community and Social Club, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Wellwood, and our van travels to it. Three answers shape the work, and so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Next, emptying that tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through because what remains won't flush away unaided. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of your car. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Dunfermline City or on a drive in Wellwood. The test before we go is that it runs properly on new diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Wellwood and where it is
Wellwood is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland, sitting at an elevation of 129 metres. Wellwood occupies a riverside setting, with the nearby city of Dunfermline being a short distance away. Wellwood is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is situated near other local areas such as Headwell and Castleblair Park.
Wellwood and Fife: AdBlue drains across the area
Headwell, Beveridgewell and Castleblair Park are among the places around Wellwood that the same teams reach, together with much of Fife further out, over the KY postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Wellwood is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Wellwood
Not one single price would be honest, because every job is different. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Waterski & Wakeboard Scotland.
That's why every call from Wellwood starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Those replies narrow the range down to one figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Wellwood and still beside the car?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best move you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Fife, Wellwood included.