Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Carlton
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then leave the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just starts once your pump starts drawing it. In Carlton, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Carlton, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting MK43 7, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: your engine stays off.
- Switching your 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.
- Even a short distance down High Street is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
At a forecourt in Carlton, whether it's the Pod Garage Supplies or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. At home, the vehicle remains just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the very place the intake draws from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Little Odell last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of damage follow 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 running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a car parked around Carlton with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is only in that tank, it doesn't. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Applegreen and you have a problem of thin fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting still, it's no threat for now; running the motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. 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 your car is in Odell or the middle of Carlton.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Bedfordshire your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Carlton?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A bottle picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Hurrying, outside Carlton CofE Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off The Moor. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Fox, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet cars, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars get it most. Wherever in Bedfordshire, Carlton included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
Carlton: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Via the filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might show up, perhaps midway across Carlton or returning from Harrold-Odell Country Park. No restarting to check: stop when safe, then switch it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M1, under 10 miles from Carlton, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving for Milton Keynes, under 15 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Carlton to the car park by St Mary's. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once the engine has run, and we do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed early.
Carlton: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A street by The Chellington Centre, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your car has come to rest around Carlton, our engineers travel to it. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if your engine has run, because those replies decide the work.
Next, emptying the tank right there takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we turn up, provided the motor hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Starting the car comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, at Bedford or on a drive in Carlton. Our engineers make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel before we go. As the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Carlton, for a moment
Carlton is a small village in Bedfordshire, situated in the eastern part of the county, with an elevation of around 48 metres. Carlton lies near the villages of Chellington and Harrold, and is home to the Emmaus Village Carlton community. Carlton has a population of approximately 548 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Carlton is located about 51 miles from London and 12 miles from Milton Keynes.
AdBlue drains in Carlton and across Bedfordshire
AdBlue call-outs around Carlton are passed to vans that serve the places near it — Chellington, Emmaus Village Carlton plus Harrold — and much of Bedfordshire further out, across MK postcodes. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you fits Carlton, a rural village: you have no need to take your car to us, since our technicians empty it there, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Carlton
Every job is different, and so not one single quote is fair. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind St Peter and All Saints.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: each Carlton enquiry opens by asking exactly those, ahead of a figure, not after. Given those replies, a range narrows to one firm figure.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
In Carlton and still alongside the car?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Carlton or anywhere in Bedfordshire.