Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cotmanhay
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the motor off then leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts when your pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Cotmanhay, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has been run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Cotmanhay: the first few minutes
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and we can know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting DE7 8, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Moving your car even a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way along Church Street.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Cotmanhay forecourt — the Asda Express among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Awsworth yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of harm 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 running on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. A motor left standing in Cotmanhay with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water content harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Tesco. Harm just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in your tank, it causes nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is 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 Cossall Marsh or the middle of Cotmanhay.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across Derbyshire the car has stopped.
Cotmanhay: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is never the filling station: someone picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The refill is hurried outside Cotmanhay Junior School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped in. After work, a container goes in on a drive close to Prince Street. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Trumpet Inn, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle in a home with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers know least. Leave it off: that is the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Cotmanhay or the remainder of Derbyshire you happen to be.
Cotmanhay: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. It's been pulled through your filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Maybe coming back from Cotmanhay Linear Park, or midway across Cotmanhay, your motor might run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. No starting it again to check: pull over when it is safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Cotmanhay sits under 3 miles from the M1; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system. That is why crossing Cotmanhay to park near Christ Church and a drive of under 10 miles for Nottingham are such different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to rinse out once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Long-term damage is very unusual if it is caught quickly.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Cotmanhay: what it takes
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Cotmanhay: a side street close to Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the motor has run, because those replies settle the work.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the system is primed with clean diesel. You set off as soon as we have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Cotmanhay or in a bay at Ilkeston. Before leaving, our engineers confirm it is running properly with fresh diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Cotmanhay
Cotmanhay is a suburban area in Derbyshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 76 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Cotmanhay lies approximately 7 miles from Nottingham and 114 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Cotmanhay is close to nearby places such as Shipley Common and Shipley Gate, and is part of the larger Ilkeston area. Cotmanhay has a population of around 7079 residents.
Cotmanhay and Derbyshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in Cotmanhay are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Shipley Common, Shipley Gate as well as Ilkeston Junction — and most of Derbyshire further out, across DE postcodes. Guessing won't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
Cotmanhay is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Cotmanhay: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, so no fixed quote is fair. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind Cotmanhay Community Network.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus if it ran: each Cotmanhay enquiry opens by asking precisely those, ahead of a quote, never afterwards. Given them, the range shrinks to one fixed number.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Cotmanhay: still beside your car?
Then, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Cotmanhay or wherever within Derbyshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.