Alwalton: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts when your pump starts drawing it. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle sits around Alwalton. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Alwalton
Do these:
- Take the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not bin it away.
- Ring right where you are. Say a PE7 3 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Shifting the car even a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Allerton Garth.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
At a forecourt in Alwalton, whether it's the Welcome Break or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car clear of the petrol pump. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A car filled on a drive in Orton Wistow yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and tiny channels; and, since it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Alwalton with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's just inside your tank, it doesn't. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on The Co-operative's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the main problem. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left inside that tank, it does nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the next tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Alwalton or out in Orton Southgate, costs more than almost any other mistake.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere your car has stopped in Cambridgeshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Alwalton
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Mostly 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. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Orton Wistow Primary School. Close to Oundle Road, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Cuckoo, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a rental, a new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle in a home with both fuels — the cars drivers know least. Wherever across Cambridgeshire, Alwalton as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Alwalton?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might show up, maybe part way across Alwalton or returning from East of England Showground. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the Great North Road, under a mile from Alwalton, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Alwalton to the car park by Saint Andrew (Alwalton Parish Church) is a very different job from a run towards Peterborough, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the motor has been started. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's noticed soon.
Alwalton: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A road by Colonel Dane Memorial Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Alwalton, our technicians come to it. The work rests on three answers, and we ask for before all else — which fluid got in, the amount, and whether the motor has turned over.
Then your tank is cleared where the vehicle stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since residue won't clear out by itself. After that, the filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of your car. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. After that our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space at Peterborough or a drive around Alwalton. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Alwalton
Alwalton is a small suburban area situated on the banks of the River Nene in Cambridgeshire, with a mix of detached housing and open spaces. Alwalton lies close to the city of Peterborough, approximately 4 miles to the west, and is part of the wider Peterborough urban area. Alwalton's riverside setting and low elevation of around 26 metres give it a distinctive character, with nearby places like Orton Northgate and Lynch Wood also forming part of the local landscape.
AdBlue drains across Alwalton and Cambridgeshire
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls in Alwalton also cover the spots about it, Orton Northgate, Lynch Wood and Chesterton among them, and most of Cambridgeshire beyond, across the PE postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you are by a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Alwalton is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Alwalton
Not one single figure could be fair, because each job differs. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open drive is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind Alwalton Manor.
That is why each call from Alwalton starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. When those are known, a range turns into one fixed number.
The quote is given on the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still next to the car in Alwalton?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Alwalton or wherever within Cambridgeshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.