Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bowburn
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the engine off and leave the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The harm starts once it's sucked through your lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle stands around Bowburn. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bowburn: the first few minutes
To do:
- Take your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting DH6 5, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: your motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition goes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Even a short stretch along The Leazes is too far to drive the car.
- Draining your tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
On a forecourt in Bowburn, whether it is the Shell or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the petrol pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very place the intake draws from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Coxhoe last night and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once your motor starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a car parked around Bowburn. Just inside that tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the JET and you have a problem of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits put, blended into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, so watering it won't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other mistake — in Tursdale or the centre of Bowburn alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits only in the tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever your car has come to rest across Durham.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Bowburn?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Bowburn Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Durham Road. One more version: darkness, a pub car park by the pub in the village, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, an identical first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you are around Bowburn or the rest of Durham.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bowburn, and the motor started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may show up, maybe midway across Bowburn or returning from Doorstep Green. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep the car off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Bowburn lies under a mile from the A1(M); if you were on it, leave by the first junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Bowburn to park beside Bowburn Youth Project / DJ Evans Youth Club and a drive of under 5 miles for Durham are such different jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Bowburn?
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a road beside Bowburn Community Association, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Bowburn, and the van comes to it. Which fluid was put in, about how much, plus whether your engine has turned over: our engineers ask first, since those decide the work.
Then that tank is emptied where the car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains won't wash out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided the engine has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes last. You set off as soon as our technicians have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Bowburn or in a space outside Durham. It is tested on new diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before we leave. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Bowburn
Bowburn is a village in County Durham, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 87 metres, approximately 3.7 miles from the city of Durham. Bowburn has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and its location near Old Quarrington, High Shincliffe, and Hett makes it a convenient residential area. Bowburn is part of the wider North East region, with London being around 230.5 miles to the south. Bowburn's riverside setting contributes to its scenic surroundings.
AdBlue drains around Bowburn and across Durham
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around Bowburn also cover the locations about it, Old Quarrington, High Shincliffe and Hett among them, and most of Durham beyond, across the DH postcode area. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and ask.
Anywhere your car sits — your driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Bowburn, a village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Bowburn?
Each job is different, and so not one single quote is fair. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Bowburn Methodist Church.
For that reason, every enquiry from Bowburn opens with the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Once those are answered, a range becomes one fixed figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside the car around Bowburn?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran is everything we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Durham, Bowburn included.