AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dudley? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; damage just comes when your pump begins pulling it. In Dudley, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Dudley
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting NE23 7, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts the pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't thin it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Weetslade Road.
- Draining the tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
Rolling your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Dudley forecourt you are on, the BP included. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Camperdown overnight and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — but it will be the first thing through once the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
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's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Dudley with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is only inside the tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and this problem is thinned fuel. No damage is done as long as it sits put, blended into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Southfield Lea or the middle of Dudley.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever in Tyne and Wear the car has come to rest, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Dudley
Many cars place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two can appear the same. No one means it. A bottle picked up when heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Fordley Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Tantallon Court. Else, in dim light by The Dudley Hotel, your car is refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the spare vehicle of a family with both fuels — the cars drivers use least. Anywhere across Tyne and Wear, Dudley included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it switched off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Dudley?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Weetslade Country Park, perhaps, or midway across Dudley. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave it off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the A167(M), under 5 miles from Dudley, at the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Dudley to the car park by John Wille Sams Centre is a very different job from a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. 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 clean out after the engine has been started. If it is caught soon, lasting damage is very rare.
Dudley: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street beside St Paul, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the car has stopped in Dudley, our engineers travel to it. What got in, about how much, and if the motor has been run: we check first, because those decide the work.
Right there, the tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it must be. After that clean diesel, then a check of your vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians arrive, provided the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. You set off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Dudley or in a space by Cramlington. Before leaving, we make sure it is running properly with clean diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Dudley, for a moment
Dudley is a small village in Tyne and Wear, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 52 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Dudley lies approximately 5.4 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne, and is close to nearby places such as Fordley, Annitsford, and Burradon. Dudley has a population of around 2001 residents, and its location near the river gives it a distinctive character. Dudley is also relatively distant from London, at around 252.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Dudley and across Tyne and Wear
Throughout the NE postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Dudley reach most of Tyne and Wear as well, Fordley, Annitsford and Burradon included. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
No moving is needed. In Dudley, a village, a van that comes to you works: the vehicle is emptied on the spot, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Dudley: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight gap behind The Jubilee Court Centre.
What went in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: each Dudley call begins by asking precisely those, ahead of a figure, not after. With them, a range narrows to a single firm number.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Alongside the vehicle around Dudley, still?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if it ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Tyne and Wear, Dudley too.