AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Drax? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your motor off then keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Drax. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Drax, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Ring right where you are. Say a YO8 8 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Never:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch along Poplar Gardens.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
On a forecourt around Drax, whether it's the Carlton Service Station or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car clear of the pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Barmby on the Marsh last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches till it's cleared from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight in Drax leaves it worse. Inside your tank only, time costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing through them, so the water part harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and the problem is thinned fuel. No harm comes while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Drax or out in Carlton, does more harm than almost any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever across North Yorkshire the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
Drax: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two can appear identical. No one means it. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The top-up gets rushed outside Camblesforth Community Primary Academy, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Main Road. Otherwise, after dark by The Huntsman, your car gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet cars, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Anywhere around North Yorkshire, Drax as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Drax?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Drax Cricket Club, say, or part way across Drax. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M62, under 3 miles from Drax, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system. That is why crossing Drax to park beside St Peter & St Paul and a drive of under 25 miles towards Doncaster are very separate jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been run. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Drax: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest in Drax — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Drax Village Hall — our van comes to the car. Before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run, since those replies settle this work.
Then your tank is drained where the vehicle waits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more here than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by Rawcliffe or on a driveway in Drax. It's tested on new diesel to make sure it runs correctly before we go. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Drax
Drax is a small village in North Yorkshire, situated near the towns of Selby and Goole, and close to the villages of Newland and Camblesforth. Drax lies in a low-lying area of the Yorkshire countryside, with an elevation of around 5 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Drax is located near the M62 motorway and is approximately 15 miles from Doncaster, making it a commuter base for the surrounding area.
AdBlue drains across Drax and North Yorkshire
Over the YO postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Drax serve most of North Yorkshire as well, Newland, Long Drax and Camblesforth included. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
Anywhere your car stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Drax, a rural village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Drax?
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Drax Priory.
Before a quote, never afterwards, every enquiry from Drax opens with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Those answers narrow the range right down to one number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Drax and still alongside the vehicle?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful move you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Drax or anywhere within North Yorkshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.