AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Agar Nook? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only comes when the pump begins pulling it. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully cleaned where your car stands in Agar Nook. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Agar Nook: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take your keys out.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting LE67 4, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short stretch down Oakham Drive.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
The staff working at any Agar Nook forecourt — the Shell among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On the drive, the vehicle stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Oaks in Charnwood yesterday and not started remains the simple case, provided nobody touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches till it's cleared from your system. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. A vehicle left standing in Agar Nook with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, and that is a second form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Harvest Energy. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. 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 motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Bardon or the middle of Agar Nook.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever across Leicestershire your car has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Agar Nook: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is never the filling station: a driver buys a container heading home and tips it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Warren Hills Community Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Kenmore Crescent. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside Bulls Head, and someone using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars see it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet cars, and the spare motor in a home with one of each fuels. Keep it off: that's the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Agar Nook or the rest of Leicestershire you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Agar Nook?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may see the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Schools Playing Fields or halfway across Agar Nook. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M1, under 3 miles from Agar Nook, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so heading towards Leicester, under 15 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Agar Nook to the car park by Agar Nook Community Centre. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the engine has been run. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Agar Nook
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Agar Nook: a side street near St David, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has been run, because those answers settle this work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. The system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, your system is bled with fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, at Loughborough or on a drive in Agar Nook. The check before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Agar Nook and where it is
Agar Nook is a suburban area in Leicestershire, situated approximately 10 miles north of Leicester and 98 miles northwest of London. Agar Nook sits at an elevation of 179 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Greenhill, Coalville, and Whitwick. Agar Nook has a population of around 4354 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Agar Nook is characterised by its inland setting in the East Midlands region.
AdBlue drains across Leicestershire, Agar Nook included
AdBlue call-outs in Agar Nook go to vans that cover the places around it — Greenhill, Coalville as well as Whitwick — and much of Leicestershire beyond, throughout LE postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Wherever the vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Agar Nook, a residential suburb, well.
Agar Nook: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat figure would be honest, because each job differs. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Bardon Hill.
That is why each call from Agar Nook starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. With them, the range shrinks to one firm figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Next to your car in Agar Nook, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Agar Nook or anywhere in Leicestershire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.