AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burgh le Marsh? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it's sucked through your pump — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Burgh le Marsh, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the engine has run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Burgh le Marsh: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Take your keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PE24 5, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition the car.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself starts your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Even a short distance down Brewery Street is too far to drive the car.
- Draining that tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
On a forecourt around Burgh le Marsh, whether it is the Gulf or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the pump. At home, your car remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath your diesel, which is how a car topped up in Bratoft last night and not switched on remains the straightforward case, as long as no one touches your key.
Two kinds of damage come from there. 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 working on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Burgh le Marsh with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just in that tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a separate kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more major than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the Lomax Corner Garage. Blended into the diesel and left still, it's no threat for now; using your motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, and so watering it can't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Irby in the Marsh or the centre of Burgh le Marsh alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Lincolnshire the vehicle is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Burgh le Marsh: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container bought when heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical story.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside The St Peter and St Paul C of E Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Jacksons Lane. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by The Guest House.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet car, or the other car of a home with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers know least. Same slip, an identical first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Burgh le Marsh or the remainder of Lincolnshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Burgh le Marsh?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may appear, maybe midway across Burgh le Marsh or coming back from Burghfield Holt. No restarting to check: pull over when it is safe, then switch it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M180, under 50 miles from Burgh le Marsh, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Burgh le Marsh to the car park by Burgh Methodist Church is a very different job from a run towards Lincoln, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once your engine has been running. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it's caught soon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Burgh le Marsh: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest in Burgh le Marsh — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road beside Burgh Community Complex — our van travels to the car. What was put in, roughly how much, plus if the motor has been run: our engineers check first, because those decide the job.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not flush out by itself. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we get there, if your motor hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Burgh le Marsh or in a bay by Thorpe Culvert. Before we leave, we make sure it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Burgh le Marsh and where it is
Burgh le Marsh is a village in the East Midlands region of England, situated in a low-lying area of Lincolnshire at an elevation of around 8 metres. Burgh le Marsh lies approximately 32 miles east of Lincoln and 115 miles north of London, with nearby places including West End, Orby, and Ashington End. Burgh le Marsh has a population of around 1352 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains in Burgh le Marsh and across Lincolnshire
West End, Orby and Ashington End are among the towns near Burgh le Marsh that the same vans reach, along with much of Lincolnshire beyond, throughout the PE postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Burgh le Marsh is a rural 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, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Burgh le Marsh: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts differ, a single figure would not be fair. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind St. Peter & St. Paul.
That's why each call from Burgh le Marsh starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. When they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the car around Burgh le Marsh?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Burgh le Marsh or anywhere across Lincolnshire.