AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coombses? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once your pump starts drawing it. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully cleaned where the car sits in Coombses. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Coombses: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting TA20 2, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Shifting your car just a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Fore Street.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
On a forecourt around Coombses, whether it is the Tesco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. At home, your car remains exactly as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. When your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in South Chard yesterday and never started stays the simple one, provided nobody turns the key.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; and, because it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A vehicle left standing around Coombses with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a second kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Texaco, and the problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside your tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. 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's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Chard Junction or the middle of Coombses.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere in Somerset the car sits.
Coombses: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The top-up gets rushed outside Tatworth Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped in. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Lower Coombses, as the day ends. One more pattern: dim light, the car park by Perry Street Club & Institute, and someone using that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, brand-new cars, fleet motors, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. Wherever you're in Coombses or the remainder of Somerset, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Coombses: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might appear, perhaps part way across Coombses or returning from Horn Moor. When you safely can, pull over then turn it off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
Coombses sits under 15 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why crossing Coombses to park beside WW2 Pill Box (Intact) and a drive of under 50 miles towards Exeter are such separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the motor has been started. Long-term damage is very uncommon when it is noticed soon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Coombses: what it takes
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Coombses: a side street close to WW2 Pillbox (Intact), a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three answers, which we ask for first — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether your engine has run.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned right through since what remains won't wash out unaided. Next, your filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a test of your vehicle. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. After that our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Axminster or a drive around Coombses. It's checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs properly before we head off. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Coombses, for a moment
Coombses is a suburban area in Somerset, situated inland at an elevation of around 65 metres. Coombses lies near the villages of Perry Street and Tatworth, and is close to the Axeford Estate. Coombses is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is home to a population of approximately 1301 residents. Coombses is located 27.1 miles from Exeter and 130.2 miles from London.
Coombses and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Coombses go to vans that serve the places around it — Perry Street, Axeford Estate plus Tatworth — and much of Somerset beyond, throughout TA postcodes. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No towing is needed. In Coombses, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the car is emptied where it stands, whether in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Coombses
Each job is different, so no single price would be fair. What moves the price is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Bethel Baptist.
That is why each call from Coombses starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Those replies narrow a range right down to one number.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Coombses and still beside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Coombses or anywhere across Somerset.