AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bower Hinton? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your engine. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts till the engine sucks it through. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle stands around Bower Hinton. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bower Hinton
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Ring just where you are. Say a TA12 6 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: the engine remains off.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up Middle Street.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
The attendants working at any Bower Hinton forecourt — the BP among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays apart instead of blending — quite unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the same place the intake draws from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in West Stoke yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when your engine turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
Once it is sucked in, the damage takes two forms. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight in Bower Hinton leaves it worse. Inside your tank alone, time does nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Texaco, and the problem is diluted fuel. Blended into your diesel and sitting still, it's no threat at that stage; using your engine is the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the following tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Bower Hinton or out in Stoke sub Hamdon, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Somerset your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Bower Hinton
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — may appear the same. No one means it; plenty of designs allow it. Mostly it is not the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Martock Church School. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive near Bower Hinton. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at Rose and Crown, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new car, a fleet vehicle, or the other car in a home with both fuels — the vehicles people know least. Anywhere around Somerset, Bower Hinton included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Bower Hinton: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Through the fuel filter, along the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
You may see your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Shore's Wood or halfway across Bower Hinton. No starting it again to test: stop when safe, then switch everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M5, under 15 miles from Bower Hinton, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Bower Hinton to the car park by Martock United Reformed Church is a very different job from a run towards Wells, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the motor has been started. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Bower Hinton: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest around Bower Hinton — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road by Bridge House — our van travels to your vehicle. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, plus if your engine has turned over.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. Testing your car comes last, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, where necessary, swapped. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the last step. At that point we start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Crewkerne or a driveway around Bower Hinton. Before leaving, we make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bower Hinton
Bower Hinton is a small suburban area in inland Somerset, situated near the villages of Hurst and Martock, and close to the town of Martock. Bower Hinton has a relatively low elevation of 38 metres and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Bower Hinton is located near the West End area and is approximately 18 miles from the city of Wells. Bower Hinton is also around 120 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Bower Hinton included
Throughout the TA postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Bower Hinton reach most of Somerset too, Hurst, Martock and West End among them. Phone and ask rather than guess when you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
No moving is needed. In Bower Hinton, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Bower Hinton?
Since each jobs vary, a single price wouldn't be honest. What changes the price is, first of all, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind All Saints Church.
Before any quote, never after, every call from Bower Hinton begins with three checks: the liquid, the amount, and whether it ran. When they are answered, a range turns into a single fixed number.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Bower Hinton: still beside the vehicle?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Bower Hinton or anywhere within Somerset, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran.