Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burren
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till your engine pulls it through. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Burren. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Burren, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- Take your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BT34 3, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: your engine stays off.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Even a short distance down B7041 is too far to drive the car.
- Beside the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
The staff working at any Burren filling station — the the nearest petrol station included — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to go that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle filled on a drive in Mayobridge yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches till it's cleared completely. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. A vehicle left standing in Burren with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Newtowncloghoge or the middle of Burren.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in County Down the vehicle is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Burren: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, just off B7065, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light by the pub in the village, the car is refilled by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars get it the most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare motor of a home with one of each fuels. Wherever around County Down, Burren included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Burren: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been drawn through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from the green space at the edge of the village, perhaps, or part way across Burren. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M77, over 50 miles from Burren, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so driving for Newry, under 5 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Burren to the car park by the centre. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once your engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. If it's spotted soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Burren: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest around Burren — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside a street just off the centre — the van comes to your vehicle. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if your motor has run, because those answers decide the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one when that tank is emptied, on the spot. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where your engine has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by the nearest station or on a drive around Burren. The check before we leave is that it runs correctly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Burren, for a moment
Burren is a small coastal locality in County Down, situated near the cities of Newry and Warrenpoint. Burren sits at an elevation of 107 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and coastline. Burren is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Burren is located approximately 4.6 miles from Newry, making it a commuter base for the city.
AdBlue drains across County Down, Burren included
AdBlue call-outs around Burren are passed to vans that serve the places near it — Warrenpoint, Killeen as well as Rostrevor — and most of County Down beyond, throughout BT postcodes. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A van that comes to you suits Burren, a coastal area: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, because we drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Burren: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat price could be honest, because each job is different. Three things shift the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind the far end of the built-up part.
Which fluid was put in, how much, and if the engine ran: every Burren enquiry opens with precisely that, before a quote, not after. Given them, the range narrows to one fixed number.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your policy while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still next to the car in Burren?
Not touching the car is, then, the best thing you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across County Down, Burren included.