Dovercourt: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts until the motor pulls it round. In Dovercourt, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Dovercourt, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Take the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so do not throw it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting CO12 3, or whichever street lies closest, and our van finds you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance down Cliff Road is too far to drive it.
- Emptying that tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
On a forecourt in Dovercourt, whether it is the Asda or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — entirely different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Outer Part of Town Eastward last night and never started remains the straightforward case, provided nobody turns the key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle sitting in Dovercourt. Only in your tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Texaco, and the issue is thinned fuel. Blended through the diesel and sitting still, it is no threat for now; using your motor does the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It can't just be run through, because it does not burn. Whether your car sits in Upper Dovercourt or the centre of Dovercourt, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the following fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Essex the car is sitting.
Dovercourt: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside The Mayflower Primary School the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Hill Road. Otherwise, after dark outside The Bottle Kiln, the vehicle gets refilled by someone using that flap the first time.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuel types — the vehicles people know the least. Leave it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, wherever around Dovercourt or the rest of Essex you happen to be.
Dovercourt: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through your filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Bobbits Hole, perhaps, or part way across Dovercourt. No starting it again to test: stop once safe, then turn it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M11, under 50 miles from Dovercourt, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Dovercourt to the car park by The Dovercourt & Harwich Hub is a very different job from a run towards Colchester, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the motor has been run. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Dovercourt
A street beside Dovercourt Central Church, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever the vehicle has stopped around Dovercourt, our technicians come to it. The job depends on three replies, which our engineers ask for before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if your engine has run.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not wash away by itself. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, provided your engine has not run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the fuel system is bled with fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking space outside the nearest station or a driveway around Dovercourt, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Before we leave, our technicians check it is running smoothly with new diesel in. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Dovercourt and where it is
Dovercourt is a suburban area in Essex, situated on the coast near the town of Harwich. Dovercourt sits at a low elevation of around 17 metres, with its terraced housing stock reflecting its historical development as a residential area. Dovercourt is located near several other local places, including Bath Side and the Outer Part of Town Westward, and is within commuting distance of Colchester. Dovercourt has a population of approximately 4079 people.
AdBlue drains around Dovercourt and across Essex
Over the CO postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs in Dovercourt serve most of Essex too, Bath Side, Outer Part of Town Westward and Harwich included. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our technicians drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Dovercourt, a residential suburb, well.
Dovercourt: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one single figure would be honest, because each job differs. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Kingsway Plaza.
Ahead of a quote, never afterwards, every call from Dovercourt opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, and whether it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our price by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Still alongside the car in Dovercourt?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Dovercourt or wherever in Essex, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.