AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Countesthorpe? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully purged where your car sits around Countesthorpe. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Countesthorpe: the first few minutes
Do:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting LE8 5, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance down Main Street.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Countesthorpe filling station — the Texaco among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On that drive, the vehicle remains just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the same place the pickup sucks from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Blaby yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once your engine runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes 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, and so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A car left standing around Countesthorpe with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing through them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the BP. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following fill, and AdBlue splits back from the diesel, and so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Willoughby Waterleys or the heart of Countesthorpe alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Leicestershire your car is sitting.
Countesthorpe: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Greenfield Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off The Square. One more pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside Bull's Head, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
Hired cars, new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars get it the most. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Countesthorpe or the rest of Leicestershire you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Countesthorpe, and the engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through the filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may show up, perhaps part way across Countesthorpe or returning from Meadows Sports Ground. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave it off instead of restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M1, under 3 miles from Countesthorpe, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so driving towards Leicester, under 10 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Countesthorpe to the car park by St Andrew. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is caught soon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Countesthorpe
The car stays where it is, whether that is a road beside 109th Leicester District Scout Group HQ, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Countesthorpe, and our van comes to it. The work rests on three replies, and our technicians ask for first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if the motor has turned over.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't wash out on its own. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. After that clean diesel, then a test of your car. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The final step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, outside South Wigston or on a drive in Countesthorpe. We check it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we go. No garage is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Countesthorpe, for a moment
Countesthorpe is a village in Leicestershire, situated approximately 5.5 miles south of Leicester, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Countesthorpe sits at an elevation of around 95 metres, in the gently rolling countryside of the East Midlands. Countesthorpe is close to nearby places such as Foston, South Wigston, and Peatling Magna, and is about 84 miles northwest of London. Countesthorpe has a population of around 3232 people, making it a small but established community.
Countesthorpe and Leicestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the LE postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Countesthorpe reach most of Leicestershire as well, Foston, South Wigston and Peatling Magna included. Assuming won't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Anywhere your car stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Countesthorpe, a rural village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Countesthorpe?
Since each callouts differ, a single price wouldn't be fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Countesthorpe Methodist Church.
Before any figure, never after, every call from Countesthorpe begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Our price is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by 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 arrives.
Alongside the vehicle in Countesthorpe, still?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Leicestershire, Countesthorpe included.