AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Darwen? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition as well. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Darwen. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Darwen: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BB3 1, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Market Street.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
Get the attendants to help you move your car off the island if you're at a forecourt around Darwen, whether it is the Shell or somewhere else. On your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. No part in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Livesey Fold last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; and, because it attacks some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a car sitting in Darwen. Only in your tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Texaco, and this problem is thinned fuel. Mixed through your diesel and left unused, it's harmless at that stage; using your engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Darwen or out in Chapels, costs more than nearly any other error.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere across Lancashire the car has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Darwen: how it ends up there
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It usually takes place outside the house, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Holy Trinity VC School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Church Street. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Millstone, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Hired motors, new motors, company vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars see it the most. Keep it switched off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, wherever around Darwen or the rest of Lancashire you are.
Darwen: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through your filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each may appear, perhaps midway across Darwen or coming back from Shorey Bank. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Darwen sits under 3 miles from the M65; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up safely rather than carrying on.
Hopping across Darwen to the car park by South African War Memorial is one thing; driving for Preston, under 15 miles away, is another, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once your engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Caught early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Darwen: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road beside Market Hall, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere the vehicle has stopped around Darwen, we come to it. Three answers shape the work, and so before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about the amount, and whether your engine has run.
Then your tank is cleared where the car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Last, the fuel system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway in Darwen, that is where our engineers start the engine and you drive off. We confirm it runs smoothly on new diesel before leaving. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Darwen itself
Darwen is a town in Lancashire, situated on the River Darwen, with a mix of terraced housing and newer developments. Darwen sits at an elevation of 161 metres, near the West Pennine Moors, and is close to the nearby communities of Belgrave, Shorey Bank, and Radford. Darwen is located approximately 10.5 miles south of Preston and 180.2 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter town with a population of around 21,041 residents.
AdBlue drains across Darwen and Lancashire
Belgrave, Shorey Bank and Radford are among the towns near Darwen that the same teams reach, along with most of Lancashire further out, over the BB postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
Anywhere your car sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Darwen, a riverside town, well.
Darwen: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind The Weaver Bird.
That is why each call from Darwen starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle in Darwen?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Lancashire, Darwen included.