AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Axbridge? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's pulled through your lines — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Axbridge. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Axbridge, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a BS26 2 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: the motor stays off.
- Many diesels power their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's wasted.
- Even a short distance along The Square is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Moving your car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Axbridge forecourt you're on, the Texaco included. If you're on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Barrows overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through if your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it's sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. It attacks certain metals used in fuel systems, working on any part it touches till it's removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow channels. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight around Axbridge leaves it worse. In your tank alone, waiting does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a problem of thin fuel. Mixed through your diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat at that stage; running your motor does the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the car is in New Town or the centre of Axbridge, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere across Somerset your car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Axbridge?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap — may look the same. No one means it; many designs invite it. Mostly it is not the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Axbridge Church of England First School Academy the top-up is rushed. A driver pours the bottle in at home, just off Meadow Street, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside The Lamb Inn.
Rented cars, brand-new motors, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Keep it off: that's the first step to an identical slip, anywhere in Axbridge or the remainder of Somerset you are.
Axbridge: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through your filter and pipework.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Rose Wood, say, or part way across Axbridge. No starting it again to check: pull over when it is safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M5, under 5 miles from Axbridge, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, so heading for Wells, under 10 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Axbridge to the car park by King John's Hunting Lodge;King John's Hunting Lodge (Axbridge Museum). Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been run. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Axbridge: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest in Axbridge — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Church of St John the Baptist — the van comes to the vehicle. What was put in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has turned over: we ask first, since those decide the work.
Then that tank is cleared where the vehicle stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash away unaided, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. A test of your vehicle follows at the end, after clean diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, where necessary, replaced. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, your system is primed with clean diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Axbridge or in a space by Worle. The test before our engineers go is that it runs properly on clean diesel. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Axbridge itself
Axbridge is a small town situated on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, with Axbridge being close to several lakes and rivers. Axbridge sits at an elevation of 21 metres, near the towns of Wells and Glastonbury, and Axbridge is surrounded by rural landscapes. Axbridge has a population of around 1998 people, with Axbridge having a predominance of detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Axbridge and across Somerset
AdBlue jobs in Axbridge go to teams that cover the places around it — Hillside, Cross as well as Hale Coombe — and most of Somerset beyond, across BS postcodes. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Axbridge is a town, 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 is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Axbridge
Every job is different, and so no single quote would be fair. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Cross Memorial Hall.
Ahead of any figure, never after, every enquiry from Axbridge opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, and if the engine ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Beside your car around Axbridge, right now?
In that case, do nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Somerset, Axbridge too.