Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wester Hailes
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; damage just starts when the pump starts pulling it. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Wester Hailes. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Wester Hailes, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Ring right where you are. Say a EH14 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it is pointless.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Murrayburn Gate.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Moving the vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Wester Hailes forecourt you're on, the BP or any other. At home, the vehicle stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It does not combine. After it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a drive in Juniper Green yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, working on any part it touches until it is cleared from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Wester Hailes with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just inside the tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel running past them, and so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol at the Sainsbury's. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside that tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the next tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Wester Hailes or out in Kingsknowe, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only in your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has stopped across City of Edinburgh.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Wester Hailes
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. Nobody intends it. Usually it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a container heading home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside the local primary school. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, right off Murrayburn Place, as the day ends. One more pattern: dim light, a pub car park by Westsider, and someone using that flap the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a company car, or the other car of a family with both fuels — the vehicles people know least. Wherever around City of Edinburgh, Wester Hailes as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Wester Hailes: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Westburn Community Woodland or halfway across Wester Hailes. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Wester Hailes lies under 3 miles from the M8; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Wester Hailes to the car park by Wester Hailes Library is a very different job from a run towards Edinburgh, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Caught early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Wester Hailes: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Anywhere it has stopped in Wester Hailes — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Totem Pole — our van comes to the car. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run, since those replies determine this work.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of your car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, provided your engine has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the system is primed with fresh diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at the nearest station or on a drive in Wester Hailes. Before we go, our technicians confirm it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Wester Hailes and where it is
Wester Hailes is a suburban area in the City of Edinburgh, situated near the Water of Leith and approximately 4.5 miles from Edinburgh city centre. Wester Hailes sits at an elevation of around 80 metres, with the surrounding landscape characterised by the riverside setting and nearby hills. Wester Hailes is predominantly composed of flat housing, which accommodates a population of around 9343 residents. Wester Hailes is located near other suburban areas, including Baberton, Parkhead, and Sighthill.
AdBlue drains across City of Edinburgh, Wester Hailes included
Over the EH postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Wester Hailes reach much of City of Edinburgh too, Baberton, Parkhead and Sighthill included. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
Wester Hailes 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, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Wester Hailes?
Not one flat price could be honest, because every job differs. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight gap behind ODEON MULTIPLEX CINEMA.
With that in mind, every call from Wester Hailes opens by asking the identical trio — what got in, how much, if the engine ran — before any quote. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price on the phone. Then you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Wester Hailes and still alongside the car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Wester Hailes or wherever in City of Edinburgh, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.