AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Brent? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and the ignition as well. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Brent, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Brent, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting PL13 2, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run the pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way down Eddystone View.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Moving your car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Brent forecourt you're on, the Texaco or any other. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do 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 your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Porthallow overnight and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the base of your tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through if your engine runs, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle parked in Brent. Just in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Petrol put into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the main fault. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside the tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your vehicle is in Talland or the heart of Brent, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Cornwall the car is standing.
Brent: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars 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 takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The refill gets rushed outside Polperro Primary Academy, because the dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped in. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Sand Hill. Otherwise, after dark outside The Blue Peter Inn, the vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It happens most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever around Brent or the remainder of Cornwall you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Brent, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Chapel Cliff or halfway across Brent. Once you safely can, stop and turn everything off — without restarting to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, under 50 miles from Brent, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Plymouth, under 25 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Brent to the car park by Polperro Heritage Museum of Smuggling & Fishing. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the car has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it's spotted soon.
Brent: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street beside Downend, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere the car has come to rest around Brent, our engineers come to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run, because those answers settle the work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of the car. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. Then we start the car and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Looe or a driveway around Brent. Before leaving, our technicians check it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Brent and where it is
Brent is a small coastal locality in Cornwall, situated near the popular tourist destinations of Polperro and Crumplehorn. Brent sits at an elevation of 109 metres, overlooking the coastline of south-east Cornwall, with Plymouth just 16 miles away. Brent is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its appeal as a residential area. Brent is one of several small communities in the area, including nearby Carey Park.
Brent and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Carey Park, Polperro and Crumplehorn are among the towns around Brent that the same vans reach, along with most of Cornwall beyond, throughout the PL postcode area. Guessing won't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you suits Brent, a coastal area: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we empty it on the spot, in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Brent
Each job is different, so not one fixed quote would be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind The Polperro Pilchard.
What got in, how much, and if it ran: each Brent call opens with precisely that, ahead of any figure, never afterwards. Those replies shrink a range right down to one number.
The price is given on the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside the car in Brent, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Brent or anywhere across Cornwall.