Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dorcan
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and the ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The harm begins once it's sucked through your lines — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Dorcan, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has run. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Dorcan
Do these:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting SN3 5, or just the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short way down Edison Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you move the car off the pumps if you are at a forecourt in Dorcan, whether it is the BP or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Nythe last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches till it's removed completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. Overnight, a car sitting in Dorcan with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is only in your tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Coate or the middle of Dorcan.
As with petrol, there's good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever across Wiltshire the car sits.
Dorcan: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two may appear the same. Nobody means it. A container picked up while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. The refill is hurried outside Eldene Nursery and Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped in. Close to Faraday Road, someone tips a container in at home after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Stripey Badger, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that's the first response to the same slip, wherever around Dorcan or the remainder of Wiltshire you are.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Dorcan?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Warneage Wood, perhaps, or part way across Dorcan. Once you safely can, pull over then switch everything off — without restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M4, under 3 miles from Dorcan, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Dorcan to the car park by Dorcan Recreation Complex is a very different job from a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been run. Noticed early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Dorcan
A street beside St. Timothy's Church, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Dorcan, our engineers travel to it. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has been run, because those replies settle the work.
Then the tank is cleared where your car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes last. You set off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Dorcan or in a bay by Swindon. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Dorcan itself
Dorcan is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated near the River Cole and surrounded by other residential neighbourhoods such as Liden and Eldene. Dorcan sits at an elevation of around 105 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Dorcan is located near the city of Swindon, but is also within commuting distance of Oxford, which is approximately 24 miles away. Dorcan is part of the wider urban area, with nearby places including Covingham.
Dorcan and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Dorcan go to teams that serve the towns around it — Liden, Eldene as well as Covingham — and much of Wiltshire further out, across SN postcodes. Phone and ask rather than guess if you are close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Anywhere your vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Dorcan, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Dorcan
Since each callouts differ, a single figure would not be honest. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Liden Community Centre.
With that reason, each enquiry from Dorcan opens with the identical trio — what was put in, how much, if the engine ran — before any figure. Once they are answered, a range turns into one fixed number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is travelling, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
In Dorcan and still next to the car?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful move available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Dorcan or anywhere within Wiltshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.