Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bampton
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly purged where the vehicle stands in Bampton. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bampton: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, so do not bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting EX16 9, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Do not do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way down B3227.
- Draining that tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
On a forecourt around Bampton, whether it's the Murco or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, treating what your motor emits. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
It does not combine. Once it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Claypits last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle parked around Bampton. Only inside that tank, it stays stable. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, which is a separate form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on NWF's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that's the whole fault. Blended into the diesel and left still, it is no threat for now; using the engine does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Exebridge or the middle of Bampton.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere across Devon your vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Bampton?
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two may appear identical. Nobody means it. Mostly it is not the filling station: someone picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Bampton Church of England Primary School the top-up is hurried. Close to Castle Street, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Quarryman's Rest, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a new motor, a company vehicle, or the other motor of a family with both fuel types — the cars people know the least. An identical mistake, an identical first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Bampton or the rest of Devon.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bampton?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Via the filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Churchclose Plantation, say, or midway across Bampton. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Bampton lies under 10 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Bampton to the car park by St Michael & All Angels is one matter; driving towards Exeter, under 25 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's caught quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Bampton
Anywhere it has stopped in Bampton — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Bampton Heritage & Visitor Centre — our van comes to the vehicle. Three answers decide the job, so before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly the amount, and whether your motor has run.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed right through because residue won't flush away by itself. A test of your vehicle follows last, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, where necessary, replaced. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with new diesel. Whether it's a parking space outside Tiverton Parkway or a driveway around Bampton, that is where our engineers start the car and you drive off. Our engineers make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we go. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Bampton and where it is
Bampton is a village in Devon, situated on the River Batherm, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other types, and is located near the villages of Morebath and Cove. Bampton sits at an elevation of around 104 metres, close to the Exe Valley, and is approximately 18 miles from Exeter. Bampton has a population of around 1294 people, and its riverside setting makes it a notable point in the local landscape. Bampton is also near Shillingford, and is connected to the wider region by road and other transport links.
AdBlue drains across Bampton and Devon
Over the EX postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Bampton serve much of Devon too, Morebath, Cove and Shillingford among them. Assuming won't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Bampton, a village: there's no need to bring your car to us, because our engineers drain it there, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Bampton: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Bampton Castle.
For that in mind, each enquiry from Bampton begins by asking the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of a figure. Their answers narrow a range right down to one number.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Bampton and still alongside your car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are all we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Devon, Bampton included.