Cornwood: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Cornwood, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Cornwood: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Which fluid, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or the receipt, and we can see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting PL21 9, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't thin it.
- Even a short distance up Newtown is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying the tank on your own beside the road is not worth trying.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your car off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Cornwood, whether it is the Tesco or somewhere else. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A car topped up on a driveway in Moor Cross overnight and not started since is the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor turns, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. A car left sitting around Cornwood with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Gulf's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the whole fault. Blended into the diesel and left still, it's no threat at that stage; running the engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Cornwood or out in Tor, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Wherever around Devon your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Cornwood?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; many layouts invite it. Mostly it is not the forecourt: someone buys a container heading home and tips it in at home.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Cornwood Church of England Primary School the refill is hurried. Near Abbotts Park, someone tips a bottle in on the drive after work. One more version: darkness, a pub car park by Cornwood Inn, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new cars, fleet motors, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. An identical slip, same first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Cornwood or the remainder of Devon.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cornwood?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Mount Wood, or midway across Cornwood, your engine may go lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or stall. No restarting to test: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M5, under 50 miles from Cornwood, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further into the system. That's why a hop across Cornwood to park beside St Michael and All Angels and a drive of under 10 miles towards Plymouth are very separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it is noticed early.
Cornwood: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Cornwood: a side street close to Cornwood War Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if your engine has been run, since those replies decide this work.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed right through since residue won't flush away by itself. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your engine has not run, most 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 at night.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes last. After that our technicians fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking space outside Ivybridge or a drive around Cornwood. Our engineers check it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we leave. Because the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Cornwood, for a moment
Cornwood is a village situated on the River Yealm in Devon, with a mix of rural and riverside landscapes at an elevation of around 127 metres. Cornwood lies approximately 8.5 miles from Plymouth and is surrounded by nearby places such as Corntown, Lutton, and Yondertown. Cornwood has a population of around 555 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Cornwood and across Devon
AdBlue call-outs in Cornwood are passed to vans that serve the places near it — Corntown, Lutton as well as Yondertown — and most of Devon beyond, throughout PL postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service fits Cornwood, a village: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it there, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Cornwood
There is no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Cornwood Village Hall.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Cornwood opens with the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, if it ran — ahead of any figure. Their answers narrow the range right down to one figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still alongside your car in Cornwood?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Devon, Cornwood too.