Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in East Rainton
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your engine off and keep your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it is pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around East Rainton, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, East Rainton: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting DH5 9, or whichever street is closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Never:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: your motor remains off.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance down Quarry House Lane is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
At a forecourt around East Rainton, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a dedicated reservoir it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what the motor emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Broom Hill yesterday and not switched on stays the simple one, as long as no one turns the key.
After it is sucked in, the harm takes two forms. 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 running on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around East Rainton makes it worse. In that tank only, waiting does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Gulf. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Whether your vehicle is in West Rainton or the heart of East Rainton, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Tyne and Wear the vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in East Rainton: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside East Rainton Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off South Street. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Burn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented motors, brand-new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Keep it off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, wherever in East Rainton or the rest of Tyne and Wear you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around East Rainton?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Via the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might appear, maybe midway across East Rainton or returning from Joe's Pond. No starting it again to test: pull over once it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the A1(M), under 3 miles from East Rainton, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across East Rainton to the car park by St Cuthbert's Church is a very different job from a run towards Durham, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the engine has run there is more of it. If it is caught soon, long-term damage is very rare.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in East Rainton: what it takes
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around East Rainton: a side street near Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, about the quantity, plus if your motor has turned over: our engineers check first, because those decide the job.
Then your tank is cleared where the vehicle waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't clear away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in East Rainton or in a space outside Chester-Le-Street. It is tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs properly before we go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About East Rainton
East Rainton is a village in the county of Tyne and Wear, situated inland at an elevation of around 100 metres. East Rainton lies near the city of Durham, approximately 5 miles to the south, and is part of a network of nearby settlements including Middle Rainton and Rainton Bridge. East Rainton has a population of around 1476 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. East Rainton is located about 236 miles north of London, in the North East region of England.
AdBlue drains across Tyne and Wear, East Rainton included
The vans that answer AdBlue calls around East Rainton also cover the spots about it, Middle Rainton, Rainton Bridge and Low Moorsley among them, and most of Tyne and Wear beyond, across the DH postcode area. Phone and check instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
No towing is needed. In East Rainton, a rural village, a van that comes to you fits: your vehicle is emptied on the spot, be it on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around East Rainton
Since the jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be fair. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Middle Rainton Village.
Before any figure, never after, each call from East Rainton begins with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. Once those are known, a range becomes one firm figure.
The quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Still next to the car in East Rainton?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful move you can do. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across East Rainton or wherever in Tyne and Wear, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran.