AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Carnteel? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts until the engine pulls it through. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Carnteel. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Carnteel: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BT69 6, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your car just a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch down Heugh Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Rolling your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Carnteel forecourt you are on, the the nearest petrol station included. On that drive, the vehicle remains just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Granville yesterday and not started remains the simple case, as long as no one touches the key.
Once it's drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A car left standing around Carnteel with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. No harm comes while it stays unused, blended into the diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Castlecaulfield or the heart of Carnteel, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around County Tyrone the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Carnteel: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many layouts allow it. A container bought while driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside the local primary school, because the dash flashed with a warning as the children were taken off. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, right off Welsh Place, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars see it most. Wherever around County Tyrone, Carnteel included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Carnteel: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. It has been drawn through the filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from the green space at the edge of the village, say, or midway across Carnteel. Once safe, stop and turn it off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M77, over 50 miles from Carnteel, by the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so heading towards Armagh, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Carnteel to the car park by the centre. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been started. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Carnteel
A street beside a street just off the centre, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the car has come to rest around Carnteel, our engineers travel to it. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has turned over: our engineers ask first, because those shape the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is drained, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, your system is primed with fresh diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Carnteel or in a bay by the nearest station. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Carnteel
Carnteel is a small locality in County Tyrone, situated inland at an elevation of 108 metres, approximately 12.6 miles from Armagh. Carnteel is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Carnteel is close to nearby places such as Aughnacloy, Ballygawley, and Eglish, and is home to around 586 residents.
AdBlue drains across Carnteel and County Tyrone
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs in Carnteel also cover the locations about it, Aughnacloy, Ballygawley and Eglish among them, and most of County Tyrone beyond, across the BT postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
No towing is needed. In Carnteel, a small village, a van that comes to you works: the car is drained where it stands, be it on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Carnteel: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind the far end of the built-up part.
What went in, how much, and whether the engine ran: every Carnteel enquiry opens with precisely that, before a quote, never afterwards. Those replies shrink the range down to one number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Carnteel and still next to the car?
Then, do nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Carnteel or anywhere around County Tyrone.