Barrow: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Barrow, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Barrow
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting IP29 5, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so leave the car off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it's wasted.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch down Brittons Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Barrow, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Frizzelers Green last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; and, since it eats at some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Barrow with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is only inside the tank, nothing changes. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have an issue of thin fuel. Blended through the diesel and left still, it is harmless at that stage; using the motor does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether your vehicle is in Brooms Barn or the centre of Barrow, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere in Suffolk your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Barrow
Many motors put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can appear the same. No one means it. A bottle bought when driving home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the typical story.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Barrow Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to The Street. Or someone new to that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside Weeping Willow.
The least known vehicles see it the most — rentals, brand-new ones, company ones, and the other car of a home with both fuels. Anywhere across Suffolk, Barrow included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Barrow: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Perhaps returning from Wilsummer Wood, or part way across Barrow, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or cut out. Once safe, stop and switch everything off — with no restarting to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
Barrow sits under 25 miles from the M11; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
Hopping across Barrow to the car park by War Memorial is one thing; driving towards Ely, under 25 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the motor has been run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Barrow: what it takes
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a street beside Barrow Village Sign, a driveway, a layby or a filling station around Barrow, and the van comes to it. The work depends on three replies, which we ask for before all else — which fluid got in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
Then the tank is cleared where your car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. Testing your vehicle follows last, once fresh diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your engine hasn't run. 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 fresh diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Barrow or in a bay outside Kennett. It is tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our engineers head off. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Barrow itself
Barrow is a rural village in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of around 95 metres. Barrow lies approximately 59 miles from London and 17 miles from the city of Ely, with nearby villages including Denham End, Burthorpe, and Denham. Barrow has a population of around 1600 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Barrow remains a quiet, residential community with a strong sense of rural identity.
Barrow and Suffolk: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Barrow go to vans that cover the places near it — Denham End, Burthorpe plus Denham — and much of Suffolk further out, throughout IP postcodes. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you're by a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers empty it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Barrow, a rural village, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Barrow
No single price could be fair, since every job is different. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put 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 gap behind Baptist Chapel.
Before any figure, never after, each enquiry from Barrow begins with three checks: the liquid, the amount, and if the engine ran. Their answers shrink a range right down to one figure.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Next to the vehicle around Barrow, right now?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Barrow or anywhere within Suffolk, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.