AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Curry Lane? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your motor off then keep your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it is pulled through your lines — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. In Curry Lane, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Curry Lane: the first few minutes
To do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting PL15 8, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Never do these:
- Shifting the car just a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch along B3254.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Moving your car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Curry Lane forecourt you are on, the the nearest petrol station or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Clubworthy yesterday and never switched on remains the straightforward one, provided nobody turns the key.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. It attacks certain metals used in fuel components, working on any part it touches until it is cleared from your system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow passages. A vehicle left standing around Curry Lane with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that's the main problem. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; using your motor does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Crystals and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, so watering it won't help. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Boyton or the heart of Curry Lane equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever in Cornwall the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Curry Lane?
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Usually it's not the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. The refill is hurried outside Boyton Community Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. Someone pours the container in at home, right off Braggs Hill, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car in dim light, parked in the car park by the pub in the village.
The least familiar cars see it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare car of a family with both fuels. Wherever you are around Curry Lane or the rest of Cornwall, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Curry Lane?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Sutton Wood, or midway across Curry Lane, your motor may run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or cut out. Once safe, pull over then turn everything off — without restarting to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M5, under 50 miles from Curry Lane, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
A quick hop across Curry Lane to the car park by Church of the Holy Name is one matter; driving towards Plymouth, under 50 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has stopped. Lasting damage is very rare when it is caught soon.
Curry Lane: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a road beside St James, Luffincott, a drive, a layby or a filling station in Curry Lane, and our van comes to it. The job depends on three replies, and our engineers ask for before all else — what got in, the amount, and if the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when that tank is emptied, right there. What remains from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. A test of your vehicle comes at the end, once clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where needed, swapped. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway around Curry Lane, that is where we fire it up and you set off. It is tested on new diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians go. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Curry Lane
Curry Lane is a small locality in Cornwall, situated on the riverside with a mix of detached homes and open countryside. Curry Lane has a population of around 522 people and is located near other small settlements such as West Curry and Bennacott. Curry Lane sits at an elevation of 127 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Curry Lane is close to the city of Plymouth, which is approximately 26.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Curry Lane included
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Curry Lane also cover the spots round it, West Curry, Bennacott and North Beer among them, and most of Cornwall beyond, across the PL postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
No towing is needed. In Curry Lane, a small village, a van that comes to you works: your vehicle is emptied on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Curry Lane: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because each jobs vary, a flat price would not be honest. The price changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St Paternus.
Ahead of any figure, never afterwards, every call from Curry Lane begins with three checks: the liquid, the amount, and whether the engine ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the price on the phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. While our engineer is travelling, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Next to the vehicle around Curry Lane, still?
Not touching your car is, then, the best move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran is everything our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Cornwall, Curry Lane too.