AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Consett? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the motor off and leave your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The harm begins once it is sucked through your lines — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully cleaned where the vehicle stands in Consett. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Consett
Do these:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so do not throw it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting DH8 5, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you stand.
Do not:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets your pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down Victoria Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
The staff working at any Consett forecourt — the Morrisons included — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Delves yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once the engine runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. 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 working on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. A car left standing around Consett with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Tesco, and this problem is diluted fuel. No harm comes as long as it sits put, mixed into the diesel — only once your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in The Grove or the middle of Consett.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever around Durham the car has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Consett?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — may look the same. No one intends it; many designs allow it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Consett Infant School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. Close to Raglan Street, a driver pours a container in at home after work. One more version: dim light, the car park outside The Steel Club, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, same first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Consett or the rest of Durham.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Consett?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been drawn through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Maybe coming back from Genesis Way Park, or part way across Consett, your engine may run rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the A1(M), under 15 miles from Consett, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
A quick hop across Consett to the car park by Boyes is one thing; heading for Durham, under 15 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been started. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Consett?
The car stays where it is, whether that's a road near Consett Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Consett, and our van travels to it. Which fluid was put in, about how much, and whether your engine has been run: our engineers check first, since those decide the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when your tank is drained, right there. A careful flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not clear out by itself. A test of the car comes at the end, after clean diesel is added and your filter is flushed or, where needed, replaced. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the last step. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Consett or in a bay by Stocksfield. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Consett itself
Consett is a town in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of 271 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Consett lies approximately 11 miles from the city of Durham and is surrounded by nearby places such as Crookhall, Blackhill, and Templetown. Consett has a population of around 16,989 people and is located about 241 miles north of London. Consett is characterised by its grid-like street pattern and rows of terraced houses.
Consett and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the DH postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Consett reach most of Durham too, Crookhall, Blackhill and Templetown included. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
Consett is a town, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Consett: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind The Derwent Centre.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Consett call opens by asking exactly that, before a quote, not afterwards. When those are known, a range turns into a single fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our price by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Consett and still next to your car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Consett or anywhere in Durham, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.