--- title: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank Colebrook — Don't Start It canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/colebrook-devon-pl7-4/ location: Colebrook county: Devon latitude: 50.393790 longitude: -4.057810 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-02 --- # Colebrook: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts till your engine pulls it round. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits around Colebrook. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103. ## Colebrook, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away Do these: - Pocket the keys, which prevents someone switching the electrics on. - If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on. - Which fluid, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers will see. - Call us from where you are. A postcode starting PL7 4, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search. Don't do these: - Shifting the vehicle even a short way is no reason to start your engine. - Turning your key to ignition alone starts the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it. - No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, so it's pointless. - Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Hemerdon Way. - Draining your tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying. Get the attendants to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Colebrook, whether it is the Texaco or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it is. ## What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank? Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one. It does not blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Underwood yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as nobody touches the key. Two kinds of damage follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight around Colebrook leaves things worse. In that tank only, time does nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing. ## Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue? Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Sainsbury's, and the issue is thinned fuel. No damage comes while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only when the engine runs on it. AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It can't just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether the car sits in Plympton St Maurice or the heart of Colebrook, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next tankful. As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across Devon your car has stopped. ## Colebrook: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver buys a container heading home and tips it in outside the house. The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The top-up gets rushed outside Boringdon Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Lucas Lane. One more version: darkness, the car park by The Colebrook Inn, and a driver opening that flap for the first time. It crops up the most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet motor, or the spare car of a family with both fuels — the cars people know the least. Same mistake, an identical first response — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be around Colebrook or the remainder of Devon. ## Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Colebrook? Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels. Expect rough running, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Boringdon Park Golf Club, say, or part way across Colebrook. No restarting to test: stop once safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through. On the M5, under 50 miles from Colebrook, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on. A quick hop across Colebrook to the car park by Colebrook Methodist Church is one matter; heading for Plymouth, under 5 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us. Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after your engine has been run. Permanent damage is very unusual when it is spotted early. ## What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Colebrook Wherever it has come to rest around Colebrook — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road by St Mary's Church — our van travels to the car. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, plus if your motor has been run: our engineers ask first, since those shape the work. Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. A test of your vehicle comes last, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, if necessary, replaced. Not run? Then expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The last step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by Plymouth or a drive around Colebrook, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Before we go, our technicians confirm it's running properly with clean diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer. ## About Colebrook, briefly Colebrook is a suburban area in Devon, situated near the coast and approximately 4 miles from Plymouth. Colebrook sits at an elevation of 34 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Colebrook is close to nearby places such as Woodford and Plympton, and is part of the larger Plymouth urban area. Colebrook has a population of around 5007 people, according to approximate estimates. ## AdBlue drains across Colebrook and Devon Throughout the PL postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Colebrook reach most of Devon as well, Woodford, St Stephens Place and Plympton included. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming. A mobile service suits Colebrook, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station. ## Colebrook: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix Each job is different, so no fixed quote would be fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Plympton Library. With that reason, every enquiry from Colebrook begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, if it ran — before a quote. When those are known, a range turns into one firm number. Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many cover misfuelling. ## Still next to the car in Colebrook? In that case, touch nothing — that is the best step available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Colebrook or wherever within Devon, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.