Clabby: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it is pulled through your lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully purged where your car sits around Clabby. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Clabby, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Say a BT75 0 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Shifting your car just a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short way along Wallace Cottages.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
The staff on duty at any Clabby forecourt — the the nearest petrol station among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
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. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was meant to go through one.
It doesn't blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Trillick last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through if your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
After it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it touches till it's removed from your system. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny passages. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning in Clabby makes it worse. In the tank only, waiting does nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. Mixed into the diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; running your motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot simply be run through, because it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Kilskeery or the middle of Clabby.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only in your tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere the car has stopped around County Fermanagh.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Clabby: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside the local primary school the top-up is hurried. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Dunaverty Court. Or the car is topped up in the car park at the pub in the village, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the spare motor in a home with one of each fuels — the cars people use least. Same mistake, an identical first response — leave it switched off — wherever you are in Clabby or the remainder of County Fermanagh.
Clabby: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — into the injection pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from the green space at the edge of the village, perhaps, or midway across Clabby. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M77, over 50 miles from Clabby, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so heading for Armagh, under 50 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Clabby to the car park by the centre. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very rare when it's noticed quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Clabby?
A street by a street just off the centre, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever your car has stopped in Clabby, our engineers come to it. Three replies shape the job, and so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid got in, about what quantity, plus whether your motor has turned over.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. A test of your car comes last, once clean diesel is added and your filter is cleaned or, where needed, swapped. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Then we start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking space outside the nearest station or a driveway around Clabby. The check before we head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Clabby, briefly
Clabby is a small locality in County Fermanagh, situated inland at an elevation of 109 metres. Clabby lies near the villages of Fivemiletown, Tempo, and Brookeborough, and is approximately 29 miles from the city of Armagh. Clabby is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Clabby is a relatively small community, with a population of around 697 people.
Clabby and County Fermanagh: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the BT postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs in Clabby serve most of County Fermanagh as well, Fivemiletown, Tempo and Brookeborough included. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Clabby is a small village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Clabby: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price would be fair, because every job differs. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind the far end of the built-up part.
With that reason, each call from Clabby begins with the identical trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Their answers narrow a range down to a single number.
Before a van sets off, you are told our quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle around Clabby?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best move available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran is everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout County Fermanagh, Clabby included.