Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Coundon
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. In Coundon, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Coundon
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting DL14 8, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's wasted.
- Even a short way up Wilson Avenue is too far to drive it.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
At a forecourt around Coundon, whether it's the Gulf or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the petrol pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor filled on a drive in Coundongate yesterday evening and left unstarted is the straightforward case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on any part it touches until it's cleared from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle parked around Coundon. Just inside the tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Binchester Service Station, and the issue is thinned fuel. Blended into the diesel and left unused, it is harmless for now; running the engine does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether the vehicle is in Westerton or the heart of Coundon, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever across Durham your car has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Coundon: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally under one flap — may look the same. No one intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Coundon, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Hillside Road. Or someone new to that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park outside Durham Ox.
Rented cars, new motors, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Wherever you are around Coundon or the remainder of Durham, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Coundon, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Quarry Wood, say, or part way across Coundon. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Coundon lies under 5 miles from the A1(M); if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Coundon to park near St Joseph's and a drive of under 10 miles for Durham are very different jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage if it's spotted quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Coundon
The car remains put, whether that's a road near Church of St James, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Coundon, and the van travels to it. The work depends on three answers, and we get before all else — what got in, the quantity, and if the motor has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when the tank is drained, right there. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not wash away by itself. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with new diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway in Coundon or in a space at Bishop Auckland. It is tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Coundon itself
Coundon is a small village in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of 173 metres, approximately 8 miles from the city of Durham. Coundon has a population of around 2001 residents, living primarily in terraced housing. Coundon is close to nearby settlements such as Leeholme and New Coundon, and is located in the north east of England, some 226 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains around Coundon and across Durham
The teams that answer AdBlue calls in Coundon also cover the locations around it, Leeholme, Howlish and New Coundon among them, and most of Durham beyond, across the DL postcode area. Ring and check rather than guess when you're close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Wherever your car sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Coundon, a rural village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Coundon?
Not one flat figure could be fair, since every job differs. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Coundon War Memorial.
For that reason, each enquiry from Coundon opens by asking the same trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before a figure. Their replies shrink the range right down to a single figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told our quote on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Coundon: still beside the vehicle?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best thing you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Coundon or anywhere in Durham, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.