Dearham: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once your pump starts drawing it. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly purged where your car stands in Dearham. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dearham
To do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting CA15 7, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short distance down Main Street.
- By the road, don't try draining it on your own.
Moving the vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Dearham forecourt you're on, the Essex Garage or any other. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Harker Marsh last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of the tank, untouched — but it would be first through if the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
After it is pulled in, the harm takes two forms. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking any part it reaches till it is removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow passages. Pipes holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle sitting around Dearham. Only in the tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Shell, and the problem is thinned fuel. Blended through the diesel and left unused, it's harmless at that stage; using the motor is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Deposits and corrosion remain through the next fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Birkby or the centre of Dearham equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Cumbria the car is standing.
Dearham: 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 the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Dearham Primary School the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Central Road. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by Sun Inn.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet cars, and the other vehicle of a home with both fuel types. Wherever across Cumbria, Dearham included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dearham?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, maybe part way across Dearham or coming back from Dam Wood. No restarting to test: pull over when safe, then switch it off. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M6, under 25 miles from Dearham, at the first junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Dearham to the car park by Dearham Village Hall is a very different job from a run towards Carlisle, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the flushing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Dearham: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Dearham: a side street near St Mungo's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, and our technicians ask for before all else — what went in, the quantity, and if your engine has turned over.
Then that tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed if it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians get there, provided the motor hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Maryport or on a driveway around Dearham. The check before our engineers go is that it runs properly on new diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Dearham
Dearham is a village in Cumbria, situated near the coast at an elevation of around 60 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Dearham lies approximately 23.9 miles from Carlisle and is close to other small settlements such as Townhead and Row Brow. Dearham is part of a wider rural area that stretches along the coastal lowlands of north-west England. Dearham has a population of around 1018 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Dearham included
Throughout the CA postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Dearham reach most of Cumbria too, Townhead, Row Brow and Kirkborough included. Phone and check instead of guessing if you are by a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Dearham is a coastal village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Dearham: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. Three things shift the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Many Norman & Viking Artefacts.
What got in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Dearham call opens by asking precisely those, before a figure, never after. Their replies shrink a range right down to one figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, check your policy: many include misfuelling.
Still alongside your car around Dearham?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Dearham or anywhere within Cumbria, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.