Camborne: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it is sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle stands in Camborne. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Camborne
Things to do:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting TR14 8, or whatever street is nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down Gurney's Lane.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
On a forecourt around Camborne, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the pump. At your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Penponds last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. 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, and so it keeps working on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight around Camborne makes things worse. Inside that tank alone, waiting does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Morrisons and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Killivose or the middle of Camborne.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Cornwall the car has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
Camborne: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — may appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts allow it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Meriadoc CofE Infant Academy the refill is hurried. Close to Commercial Street, a driver pours a bottle in at home in the evening. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The White Hart, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a new car, a fleet car, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels — the cars people use least. Anywhere around Cornwall, Camborne as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
Camborne: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any may appear, perhaps midway across Camborne or returning from Camborne Park. When you safely can, pull over then switch everything off — with no turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M5, over 50 miles from Camborne, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, so heading for Truro, under 15 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Camborne to the car park by Camborne Church. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Camborne
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a road near Camborne Wesley Methodist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Camborne, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run, because those answers settle the work.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains won't clear out on its own. Testing the car comes last, after fresh diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, if necessary, replaced. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your engine hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. At that point our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway around Camborne. The check before we head off is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Camborne itself
Camborne is a town in Cornwall, situated on the southern coast of England, approximately 11.5 miles from the city of Truro. Camborne sits at an elevation of around 103 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Camborne is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing and is close to nearby places such as Treswithian, Pengegon, and Knave-Go-By. Camborne has a population of around 19,637 people, making it a significant urban centre in the region.
Camborne and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Treswithian, Pengegon and Knave-Go-By are among the towns around Camborne that the same vans serve, together with much of Cornwall beyond, over the TR postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess if you're by a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
No moving is needed. In Camborne, a coastal town, a van that comes to you works: the car is emptied on the spot, be it in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Camborne?
Because each jobs differ, a single price wouldn't be honest. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Camborne Library.
For that reason, every call from Camborne begins with the same trio — which fluid got in, how much, if it ran — ahead of any figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still next to your car in Camborne?
Not touching your car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is all we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Cornwall, Camborne included.