Caledon: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your motor off and keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The harm begins once it is sucked through the lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Caledon, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Caledon: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull the keys away.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so do not throw it out.
- Call right where you are. Say a BT68 4 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Never:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't thin it.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up South Crescent.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The staff working at any Caledon filling station — the the nearest petrol station among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. Nothing inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Carrickaness last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning in Caledon leaves things worse. Inside that tank only, waiting costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a fault of thin fuel. No harm comes while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the following tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Caledon or out in Madden, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever your car has come to rest in County Tyrone.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Caledon?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is not the forecourt: someone buys a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Dunskey Street. Else, after dark outside the pub in the village, your car is refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, brand-new vehicles, company vehicles, or the second vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Anywhere across County Tyrone, Caledon included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Caledon, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from the green space at the edge of the village or halfway across Caledon. Once safe, pull over then switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M77, over 50 miles from Caledon, by the first junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Caledon to the car park by the centre is one matter; driving towards Armagh, under 10 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the motor has been running. When it is spotted early, lasting damage is very unusual.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Caledon
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a street beside a street just off the centre, a driveway, a layby or a filling station around Caledon, and our van comes to it. What went in, roughly how much, and if the engine has turned over: we check before all else, since those decide the job.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through since residue won't wash out unaided. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. You drive off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Caledon or in a bay by the nearest station. It's checked on new diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our technicians go. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Caledon itself
Caledon is a small locality in County Tyrone, situated inland near the city of Armagh. Caledon sits at an elevation of 33 metres, surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby places such as Tynan, Killylea, and Middletown. Caledon has a population of around 525 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Caledon is located approximately 7.2 miles from Armagh and 341.2 miles from London.
Caledon and County Tyrone: AdBlue drains across the area
Tynan, Killylea and Middletown are among the towns near Caledon that the same teams reach, together with most of County Tyrone beyond, throughout the BT postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Caledon, a small village, well.
Caledon: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind the far end of the built-up part.
With that in mind, each call from Caledon begins by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, how much, whether it ran — before any quote. Those answers shrink a range down to one number.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Caledon: still beside your car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best thing open to you. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran are everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across County Tyrone, Caledon too.