Doverhay: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition as well. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble starts once it's pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Doverhay, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the engine has been run. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Doverhay: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone switching the electrics on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so do not throw it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting TA24 8, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Never do these:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant the ignition goes on, so leave it off.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along Mill Lane.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Rolling the car off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Doverhay forecourt you are on, the the nearest petrol station or any other. On the drive, your car stays just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't combine. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in West Porlock overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the base of that tank, untouched — but it would be the first thing through once your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it touches until it's cleared from your system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. Overnight, a car sitting around Doverhay with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is only inside the tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. No damage is done while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only once your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether your car sits in Horner or the heart of Doverhay, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside that tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere your car has stopped across Somerset.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Doverhay?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Dubricius Church of England VA School the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Parson's Street. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Castle, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, new vehicles, company cars, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Wherever in Somerset, Doverhay as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Doverhay, and the motor started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running time carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Perhaps coming back from Porlock Recreation Ground, or part way across Doverhay, the motor may run lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or stall. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off rather than restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M4, under 25 miles from Doverhay, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
A quick hop across Doverhay to the car park by Porlock Art Den is one thing; driving for Cardiff, under 50 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has come to a stop, and once the motor has run there is more of it. If it is spotted soon, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Doverhay: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Doverhay: a side street near St Dubricius Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, and our technicians get before all else — what got in, the amount, and whether your motor has turned over.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue will not wash away by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes last. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Doverhay or in a space at the nearest station. We make sure it runs correctly on clean diesel before leaving. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Doverhay, briefly
Doverhay is a small coastal locality in Somerset, situated near the villages of Hawkcombe and Porlock, with West Luccombe also nearby. Doverhay sits at an elevation of 76 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and coastline. Doverhay has a mix of housing types, but terraced homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Doverhay is located approximately 26 miles from Cardiff and 151 miles from London.
Doverhay and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the TA postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Doverhay reach much of Somerset too, Hawkcombe, Porlock and West Luccombe included. Ring and check rather than guess when you are close to a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Doverhay, a coastal area, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Doverhay: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Churchgate Gallery & Framing.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus if it ran: every Doverhay call begins by asking exactly that, before a figure, never afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van heads out, you are told the price by phone. And you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the vehicle around Doverhay?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Doverhay or anywhere within Somerset.