AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Cloghy? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The harm begins once it is pulled through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Cloghy. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cloghy
Do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting BT22 1, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Do not:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets your pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance down B7041.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
The staff working at any Cloghy forecourt — the the nearest petrol station among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. At home, the car stays just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Ballyhalbert overnight and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the foot of your tank, untouched — but it will be first through once the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge 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 flushed out. Overnight, a car sitting in Cloghy with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it's just in that tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. No harm comes while it sits put, blended into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Kircubbin or the centre of Cloghy, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever around County Down your vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Cloghy: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts allow it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the car. Close to B7065, someone pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Otherwise, after dark by the pub in the village, your vehicle gets topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Cloghy or the remainder of County Down, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Cloghy, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may appear, maybe part way across Cloghy or coming back from the green space at the edge of the village. Once safe, stop then switch it off — without restarting to see. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M77, over 50 miles from Cloghy, by the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Cloghy to park beside the centre and a drive of under 25 miles for Belfast are very separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Noticed quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Cloghy: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped in Cloghy — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside a street just off the centre — our van comes to your car. Three replies shape the work, and so first our technicians ask what was put in, roughly the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, provided your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The final step is to prime your system on clean diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, by the nearest station or on a driveway around Cloghy. The check before we go is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Cloghy, for a moment
Cloghy is a small coastal locality in County Down, situated near the villages of Portavogie and Portaferry. Cloghy lies on the shores of the Irish Sea, at an elevation of 0 metres, and is characterized by its detached housing stock. Cloghy is located approximately 22 miles from Belfast, making it a relatively accessible rural area. Cloghy has a population of around 506 people, according to recent estimates.
Cloghy and County Down: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs in Cloghy also cover the spots round it, Portavogie, Portaferry and Strangford among them, and most of County Down beyond, across the BT postcode area. Ring and ask rather than guess if you're close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
Cloghy is a coastal area, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Cloghy: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind the far end of the built-up part.
What got in, what quantity, and if it ran: each Cloghy enquiry opens by asking exactly those, ahead of any figure, not afterwards. Given them, a range shrinks to a single firm figure.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still alongside your car around Cloghy?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Cloghy or anywhere across County Down.