Charmouth: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only comes once your pump begins drawing it. 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 Charmouth. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Charmouth: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so don't bin it out.
- Ring just where you are. Say a DT6 6 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: your motor stays off.
- Many diesels power their pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't thin it.
- Even a short stretch down Lower Sea Lane is too far to drive it.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Charmouth, whether it is the Murco or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was meant to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Penn overnight and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through if the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of damage from there. It attacks certain metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches till it's removed from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. A motor left sitting in Charmouth with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the components that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Harvest Energy's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the main fault. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is inside your tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the next fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Charmouth or out in Lyme Regis, costs more than nearly any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere across Dorset your vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Charmouth?
Many motors place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. No one intends it. Usually it is never the forecourt: someone picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Charmouth Primary School the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Barr's Lane. Otherwise, in dim light outside The George, your car is topped up by someone using that flap the first time.
It happens most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical slip, an identical first step — leave it switched off — wherever you are around Charmouth or the rest of Dorset.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Charmouth?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Charmouth Tennis Club or halfway across Charmouth. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then turn it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Charmouth sits under 25 miles from the M5; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That is why crossing Charmouth to park near St Andrew and a drive of under 50 miles towards Exeter are such distinct jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to flush once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has stopped. Caught quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Charmouth?
Wherever it has stopped around Charmouth — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by Charmouth Village Hall — our van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has run, since those replies decide the work.
Next, emptying your tank right there takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since residue won't wash away by itself. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. You head off as soon as we have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Charmouth or in a space outside Axminster. It's tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians leave. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Charmouth itself
Charmouth is a coastal village in Dorset, situated on the south coast of England, with a population of around 1089 people. Charmouth has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are predominant, and the village is set at a low elevation of 19 metres above sea level. Charmouth is close to several nearby places, including Catherston Leweston, Wootton Fitzpaine, and Dragons Hill, and is within a short drive of the city of Exeter. Charmouth is also a significant distance from London, at around 131.5 miles away.
Charmouth and Dorset: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the DT postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Charmouth reach most of Dorset as well, Catherston Leweston, Wootton Fitzpaine and Dragons Hill among them. Guessing won't help by a border or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
Anywhere your vehicle sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — our technicians drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Charmouth, a coastal village, well.
Charmouth: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, and so not one fixed price is honest. What moves the price is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Charmouth Youth Club.
That's why every call from Charmouth starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
The quote is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Charmouth: still alongside the vehicle?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran are all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Dorset, Charmouth too.