Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Braunton
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump begins pulling it. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits around Braunton. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Braunton
To do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take the keys out.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting EX33 2, or whichever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so call wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Moving your vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave it off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way along Chaloner's Road is too far to drive the car.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the verge.
At a forecourt around Braunton, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its fuel from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Boode last night and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, untouched — but it would be the first thing through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting overnight in Braunton leaves it worse. Inside that tank alone, time costs nothing. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Murco. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Crystals and corrosion stay after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Knowle or the heart of Braunton equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only in your tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever the vehicle has come to rest around Devon.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Braunton
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — can look the same. No one intends it; many layouts invite it. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside Caen Community Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off East Street. Else, in dim light by The George Hotel, the car is refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a company motor, or the other motor in a home with both fuels — the cars drivers use the least. Same slip, same first step — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be in Braunton or the rest of Devon.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Braunton?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from West Hill, say, or part way across Braunton. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M4, under 50 miles from Braunton, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Braunton to park beside Braunton Pentecostal Church and a drive of under 50 miles towards Swansea are very different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage if it is noticed early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Braunton
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a street beside Parish Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Braunton, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run, since those replies settle the work.
Then the tank is cleared where the car waits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. A test of the car follows at the end, after clean diesel is added and your filter is flushed or, if necessary, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, provided your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking space outside Barnstaple or a driveway around Braunton, that is where we fire it up and you head off. Before we leave, we confirm it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Braunton
Braunton is a coastal village in north Devon, situated near the mouth of the River Taw and close to the Braunton Burrows, a large area of sand dunes. Braunton has a population of around 2807 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Braunton sits at a low elevation of 14 metres above sea level, looking out over the Bristol Channel towards Wales. Braunton is located near other small settlements such as Wrafton and Velator.
Braunton and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area
Wrafton, Velator and Heanton Punchardon are among the places near Braunton that the same vans reach, together with much of Devon beyond, over the EX postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
Braunton is a coastal village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Braunton
There is no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Three things move the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight gap behind Braunton and District Museum.
Before any figure, never afterwards, each call from Braunton opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if the engine ran. With those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Next to your car around Braunton, right now?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Devon, Braunton included.