AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Castle Cary? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your motor off and keep the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts until your engine sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Castle Cary, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Castle Cary: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so do not throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BA7 7, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch down Market Place is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Castle Cary forecourt you are on, the Harvest Energy included. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its supply from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits beneath your diesel, which is why a car filled in Clanville last night and never started remains the straightforward one, provided nobody turns your key.
Once it's pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting overnight in Castle Cary makes things worse. In that tank alone, time does nothing. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside the tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay after the next fill, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, so watering it can't help. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Small Way or the heart of Castle Cary alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere across Somerset the vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Castle Cary?
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two can appear the same. Nobody intends it. It usually happens at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Castle Cary Community Primary School. Near High Street, a driver pours a container in at home after work. Otherwise, in dim light by The Bay Tree, your car is topped up by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet vehicle, or the other vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers use least. Keep it off: that is the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Castle Cary or the remainder of Somerset you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Castle Cary, and the engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from The Moat Garden, say, or midway across Castle Cary. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M5, under 25 miles from Castle Cary, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
A quick hop across Castle Cary to the car park by Market house is one matter; driving towards Wells, under 15 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the motor has been running. If it is caught soon, lasting damage is very rare.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Castle Cary: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Castle Cary — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road by The Roundhouse — our van comes to your car. Before anything else we ask what got in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run, because those replies decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when your tank is drained, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue will not wash out unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. Testing your vehicle comes last, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking bay at the nearest station or a driveway in Castle Cary, that is where we start the car and you set off. Our technicians check it runs smoothly on new diesel before we leave. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Castle Cary, for a moment
Castle Cary is a small town in south Somerset, situated on the River Cary at an elevation of around 87 metres. Castle Cary has a mix of old and new buildings, including many terraced houses, and is close to the nearby villages of Ansford and South Cary. Castle Cary is located near the city of Wells, about 10 miles away, and is around 107 miles west of London. Castle Cary remains a quiet, predominantly residential community with a population of approximately 3451 people.
Castle Cary and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Castle Cary are passed to vans that serve the places around it — Ansford, South Cary as well as Hadspen — and most of Somerset beyond, throughout BA postcodes. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
Anywhere the car stands — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers empty it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Castle Cary, a riverside town, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Castle Cary: the cost of fixing it
No single price would be honest, since every job differs. Three things change the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Georgia Stoneman.
That is why every call from Castle Cary starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. Once those are known, a range turns into a single firm number.
Before a van sets off, you are told the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Check your insurance while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Castle Cary: still next to your car?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful move there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Castle Cary or anywhere around Somerset.