AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Drinkfield? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it is sucked through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't blend with diesel. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully rinsed where the car sits around Drinkfield. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Drinkfield: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting DL3 0, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is wasted.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way down Chaytor Court.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
The staff working at any Drinkfield filling station — the Morrisons among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It doesn't blend. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Rise Carr last night and never switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as no one turns the key.
Two kinds of damage come 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, and so it keeps labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. Pipes holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle parked in Drinkfield. Only inside that tank, it stays the same. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the another forecourt nearby, and the problem is diluted fuel. No harm is done as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in Faverdale or the centre of Drinkfield, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only in your tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, wherever your car has come to rest across Durham.
Drinkfield: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside Harrowgate Hill Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Marazion Drive. One more version: dim light, a pub car park outside Rolling Mills Social Club, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Hired vehicles, brand-new cars, company motors, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known vehicles see it the most. Wherever you are in Drinkfield or the remainder of Durham, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Drinkfield, and the engine started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — returning from Drinkfield Marsh Nature Reserve, perhaps, or part way across Drinkfield. No restarting to test: stop when it is safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Drinkfield lies under 3 miles from the A1(M); if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
Hopping across Drinkfield to the car park by Drinkfield Marsh Nature Reserve is one thing; driving for Durham, under 25 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Drinkfield: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The car stays put, whether that is a street beside Whessoe Parish Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Drinkfield, and the van comes to it. The work depends on three answers, which our engineers ask for before all else — which fluid was put in, the amount, and if the engine has turned over.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. Then our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside North Road or a driveway around Drinkfield. The test before we go is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Drinkfield and where it is
Drinkfield is a suburban area in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of around 70 metres. Drinkfield lies approximately 15.7 miles from the city of Durham and is part of the wider North East region. Drinkfield is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located near other residential areas such as Harrowgate Village and Whessoe. Drinkfield is a relatively small community with a population of around 2096 people.
Drinkfield and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Drinkfield are passed to vans that serve the places near it — Harrowgate Village, Harrowgate Hill plus Whessoe — and most of Durham beyond, across DL postcodes. Near a boundary, or somewhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
Drinkfield is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Drinkfield
No single figure would be honest, because each job is different. What shifts the cost is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Elim Pentecostal Church.
That's why every call from Drinkfield starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Their replies shrink a range right down to one number.
Our price is given during the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Beside your car around Drinkfield, right now?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Drinkfield or anywhere within Durham, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.