Barbican: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your engine. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts till the motor sucks it through. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits in Barbican. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Barbican: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which product, and about how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call just where you are. Say a PL13 1 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Don't do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it is wasted.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Meadow Drive.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
The attendants working at any Barbican forecourt — the Texaco among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. At your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to travel that way.
It doesn't blend. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Millendreath last night and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through once your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it's pulled in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning in Barbican makes it worse. Inside that tank alone, time costs nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the another forecourt nearby, and the problem is diluted fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. 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 car is in East Looe or the middle of Barbican.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around Cornwall your car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Barbican?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Looe Primary Academy the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Barbican Road. One more version: dim light, a pub car park by The Barbican Inn, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the spare car of a home with one of each fuels — the cars people know the least. Wherever across Cornwall, Barbican included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Barbican: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, having passed via your filter and pipework.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Wooldown or halfway across Barbican. No starting it again to test: stop when safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M5, under 50 miles from Barbican, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Mileage matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so heading towards Plymouth, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Barbican to the car park by Old Radar Station. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. If it's noticed early, long-term damage is very unusual.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Barbican
Anywhere it has come to rest in Barbican — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road beside Looe Library & Community Hub — the van comes to your vehicle. The job rests on three replies, which we get before all else — what went in, the quantity, and whether the engine has run.
Then the tank is drained where the vehicle waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the final step. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Barbican or in a bay at Looe. Our technicians make sure it runs correctly on clean diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Barbican and where it is
Barbican is a coastal suburban area in Cornwall, situated near the towns of Shutta and Plaidy, and the village of St Martin. Barbican has a population of around 2794 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Barbican sits at a low elevation of 13 metres above sea level, close to the sea in the South West region of England. Barbican is located near the city of Plymouth, which is approximately 13.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Barbican and Cornwall
AdBlue call-outs around Barbican go to teams that serve the places near it — Shutta, Plaidy as well as St Martin — and most of Cornwall beyond, throughout PL postcodes. Assuming won't help close to a border or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Anywhere the car sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers empty it there, with no need to take it to us; which suits Barbican, a residential suburb, well.
Barbican: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so no single price is fair. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St Martin.
That's why every call from Barbican starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Once they are known, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the car in Barbican?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best move you can do. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Barbican or anywhere within Cornwall.