AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Denver? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the engine off and keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The trouble starts once it is pulled through the lines — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Denver, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has been run. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Denver: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so don't throw it away.
- Call just where you are. Quote a PE38 0 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Shifting the car even a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance up Ely Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The attendants working at any Denver forecourt — the Esso among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its supply from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Bexwell yesterday and never started stays the straightforward case, provided nobody touches your key.
After it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. 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, so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Pipes holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a vehicle parked in Denver. Just in the tank, it stays stable. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on JET's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the main issue. Harm just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and left in your tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. Whether the car sits in Salters Lode or the heart of Denver, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever around Norfolk your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Denver
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill gets hurried outside Denver Voluntary Controlled Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped off. A driver pours the bottle in at home, just off Downham Road, as the day ends. Else, in dim light by The Bell Inn, the vehicle gets refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare motor in a home with one of each fuels. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Denver or the remainder of Norfolk you happen to be.
Denver: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might show up, perhaps part way across Denver or coming back from Ryston Park Golf Club. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M11, under 50 miles from Denver, at the first junction and stop safely, not carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That is why crossing Denver to park beside Denver War Memorial and a drive of under 15 miles for Ely are very different jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has been started, and we do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Caught early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Denver
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Denver: a side street close to Denver Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What got in, about the quantity, and whether the engine has been run: our technicians check first, because those shape the work.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed right through because what remains won't wash out by itself. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on clean diesel. Then our engineers start the car and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Downham Market or a driveway in Denver. Before we go, our engineers confirm it is running correctly with clean diesel in. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Denver itself
Denver is a small village in Norfolk, situated in the eastern part of England, with a low elevation of around 22 metres. Denver sits near the River Great Ouse, close to the cities of Ely and Downham Market, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Denver is located approximately 77 miles from London, making it a rural community with a relatively remote location. Denver has nearby amenities in the villages of Fordham and Broomhill.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Denver included
AdBlue call-outs around Denver go to vans that serve the towns around it — Downham Market, Fordham as well as Broomhill — and most of Norfolk beyond, across PE postcodes. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
A van that comes to you fits Denver, a rural village: you have no need to bring the car to us, since our technicians empty it there, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Denver?
There's no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Saint Mary.
With that in mind, every call from Denver begins by asking the same trio — what got in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of a quote. Once those are known, a range becomes a single firm figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Beside the vehicle in Denver, still?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Denver or anywhere in Norfolk.