Church Town: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes when the pump begins pulling it. In Church Town, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Church Town
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone switching the power on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting TR3 7, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Moving the car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Church Road is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
On a forecourt in Church Town, whether it is the Texaco or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. On the drive, the car remains just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Perranwell Station last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A vehicle left standing around Church Town with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and the problem is diluted fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside that tank, it causes none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay after the next fill, and AdBlue separates again out of the diesel, so watering it can't help. That is why the flush counts more, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Carclew or the heart of Church Town equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Cornwall the car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Church Town
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Perran-Ar-Worthal Community Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. Someone tips the container in outside their house, just off A39, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car in dim light, parked in the car park by The Norway Inn.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — rentals, new ones, company cars, and the spare vehicle of a family with both fuels. Wherever you're in Church Town or the remainder of Cornwall, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Church Town, and the motor started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Perhaps coming back from Richard Jory Playing Field, or midway across Church Town, your motor might go rough, smoke, lose pace, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M5, over 50 miles from Church Town, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, and so driving for Truro, under 5 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Church Town to the car park by Saint Piran's Church. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the cleaning where the car has ended up, and once the engine has run there is more of it. When it is caught quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Church Town
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Church Town: a side street near Perranarworthal Village Memorial Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three answers, which we get before all else — which fluid got in, the amount, and whether your motor has turned over.
Next, draining your tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians get there, provided the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. You drive off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Church Town or in a bay by Perranwell. It is tested on new diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Church Town, for a moment
Church Town is a small suburban area in Cornwall, situated near the coast and close to the city of Truro. Church Town has a population of around 633 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Church Town sits at a low elevation of 14 metres, reflecting its proximity to the sea. Church Town is located near other local places such as Perran Wharf and Perranarworthal.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Church Town included
Perran Wharf, Perranarworthal and Perranwell are among the towns near Church Town that the same vans serve, along with much of Cornwall beyond, over the TR postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Church Town is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Church Town: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No flat figure would be fair, since every job is different. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Devoran Village Hall.
Ahead of a figure, never after, every call from Church Town begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, and whether it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
In Church Town and still next to your car?
Then, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Church Town or anywhere in Cornwall, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.