AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashburton? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. In Ashburton, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ashburton: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting TQ13 7, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: the engine remains off.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short way down St Lawrence Lane.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
At a forecourt around Ashburton, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car clear of the pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very place the pickup draws from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, which is how a car filled in Caton last night and never switched on remains the straightforward case, provided nobody turns your key.
Once it is sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. A car left standing in Ashburton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the Dart Garage Ltd.. No damage is done as long as it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. Whether your vehicle is in Stormsdown or the heart of Ashburton, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Devon your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Ashburton?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought while driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside Ashburton Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the car. Close to Stapledon Lane, a driver pours a bottle in at home after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park by Silent Whistle.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the other car of a home with both fuel types — the cars drivers use the least. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same slip, wherever in Ashburton or the remainder of Devon you happen to be.
Ashburton: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
Expect rough running, smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Boro Wood, perhaps, or midway across Ashburton. No restarting to check: stop when safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M5, under 25 miles from Ashburton, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Hopping across Ashburton to the car park by Ashburton Library is one matter; driving for Exeter, under 25 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been running. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it's spotted quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Ashburton: what it takes
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Ashburton: a side street close to Ashburton Museum, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, plus if your motor has turned over: our engineers check before all else, because those shape the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one after that tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue will not wash out by itself. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. At that point our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space at Totnes or a drive in Ashburton. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs properly before we head off. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Ashburton itself
Ashburton is a town situated on the River Dart in Devon, with a mix of old and new buildings, including many terraced houses. Ashburton sits at an elevation of around 75 metres, near the edge of Dartmoor National Park, and is close to nearby places like Holne Turn and Buckfast. Ashburton has a population of approximately 3368 people and is located near the city of Exeter, about 17 miles away. Ashburton remains a small but distinct town in the South West region of England, about 172 miles from London.
Ashburton and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the TQ postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Ashburton serve much of Devon as well, Holne Turn, Waye and Buckfast included. Guessing won't help close to a county line or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
A mobile service fits Ashburton, a riverside town: there's no need to bring the car to us, because we drain it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Ashburton: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single quote, because the jobs are not the same. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Quaker House.
Before a quote, never after, each call from Ashburton begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, and whether the engine ran. Given those replies, a range narrows to one fixed figure.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our quote on the phone. And you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Ashburton: still next to the car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Ashburton or anywhere within Devon.