Bescar: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes once your pump starts pulling it. In Bescar, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Bescar: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Say a L40 9 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Moving the car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition goes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Hillcrest Drive is too far to drive the car.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your car away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Bescar, whether it is the Essar or elsewhere. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
It does not combine. Once it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the very place the intake sucks from. A car filled on a drive in Smithy Lane Ends yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once your engine turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Once it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. It attacks certain metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches till it is cleared from your system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny passages. A car left standing around Bescar with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the whole problem. No harm comes while it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the following tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Bescar or out in Jacks Mere, costs more than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Lancashire the car has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Bescar: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is never the filling station: someone buys a container heading home and pours it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Scarisbrick the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Church Fields. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside the pub in the village, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet car, or the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers use least. Same mistake, same first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Bescar or the rest of Lancashire.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bescar?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Maybe returning from Mill Wood, or midway across Bescar, your motor might run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or stall. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Bescar sits under 10 miles from the M58; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Bescar to the car park by St. Mark's is a very different job from a run towards Preston, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has run there is more of it. If it is caught early, long-term damage is very unusual.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Bescar: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped around Bescar — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside Good Shepherd Mission Church — the van travels to the vehicle. What was put in, roughly how much, plus whether your engine has turned over: we ask first, since those shape the work.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than with petrol. A test of your vehicle comes at the end, once clean diesel goes in and your filter is cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers arrive, if the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Bleeding your system with clean diesel comes at the end. Whether it's a parking bay outside Bescar Lane or a drive in Bescar, that is where we start the car and you set off. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Bescar itself
Bescar is a small village in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at a low elevation of around 17 metres. Bescar lies near the villages of Drummersdale and Scarisbrick, and is close to Snape Green. Bescar has a population of approximately 551 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Bescar and Lancashire
Drummersdale, Scarisbrick and Snape Green are among the places near Bescar that the same teams serve, along with most of Lancashire further out, over the L postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No towing is needed. In Bescar, a village, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained where it stands, whether on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Bescar: the cost of fixing it
Because each callouts vary, a flat price wouldn't be fair. Three things shift the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind St Aiden's Village Hall.
For that in mind, every call from Bescar begins with the same trio — what got in, how much, whether the engine ran — before any quote. Those answers narrow a range down to one number.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our price by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Bescar: still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Bescar or wherever in Lancashire.