AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Castletown? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; damage only starts when your pump starts pulling it. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the vehicle stands around Castletown. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Castletown: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting DT5 1, or just the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment your ignition comes on, so keep it off.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short distance along Castletown.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the car off the island if you're on a forecourt in Castletown, whether it's the Shell or elsewhere. At your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Grove overnight and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, untouched — but it would be first through once the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come 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, and so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. A motor left sitting in Castletown with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the main issue. Blended into the diesel and sitting still, it's harmless for now; using your motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the next tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Castletown or out in Easton, costs more than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around Dorset the vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Castletown
It's not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A bottle bought when heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St George's Foundation Primary School the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Castle Road. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Wreck Bar, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Castletown or the rest of Dorset, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Castletown?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Through the fuel filter, along the lines, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any might show up, perhaps part way across Castletown or returning from Victoria Gardens. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the car off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Castletown sits under 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system, and so driving towards Salisbury, under 50 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Castletown to the car park by Osprey Leisure Centre. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. When it's caught quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Castletown: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Castletown — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by Portland Castle — our van comes to your vehicle. Three answers decide the job, and so first we ask what went in, about the amount, and whether the motor has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not wash away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your engine has not run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding your system with new diesel comes last. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Castletown or in a space by Weymouth. Before we leave, our engineers confirm it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Castletown itself
Castletown is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the Portland Port and close to the villages of Chiswell and Fortuneswell. Castletown lies at a low elevation of around 8 metres, reflecting its seaside location. Castletown has a population of approximately 1975 people, with a predominance of flat-type housing. Castletown is located near the southern coast of England, within commuting distance of larger cities like Salisbury.
AdBlue drains in Castletown and across Dorset
Throughout the DT postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Castletown serve much of Dorset as well, Chiswell, Portland Port and Fortuneswell included. Phone and ask rather than guess when you're close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Anywhere your vehicle sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Castletown, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Castletown?
No flat price could be honest, because each job is different. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind Castletown D-Day Centre.
What went in, how much, and whether it ran: each Castletown enquiry begins with precisely those, before any figure, never afterwards. Given those replies, a range narrows to one fixed number.
Before a van heads out, you are told our quote on the phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In Castletown and still alongside the car?
Not touching the car is, then, the best move you can do. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Castletown or wherever within Dorset.