AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Elswick? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system pulls it in. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Elswick. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Elswick: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the amount, so don't bin it out.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a NE4 7 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Don't do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: the motor stays off.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short distance along Saint John's Road.
- By the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
Rolling your car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Elswick forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is how a car filled in Arthurs Hill last night and never started remains the straightforward one, as long as no one touches your key.
It causes 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 is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in Elswick leaves it worse. In that tank only, waiting costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a second kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Kirkland Signature Fuel's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the whole fault. Mixed into your diesel and left still, it is harmless for now; using your motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Newcastle Helix or the centre of Elswick, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Tyne and Wear the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Elswick: how it ends up there
Many motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two can appear the same. No one means it. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone buys a bottle driving home and tips it in at home.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Johns Primary School the refill is hurried. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive near West View. Another version: dim light, the car park by Benwell Sports & Social Club, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Elswick or the rest of Tyne and Wear you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Elswick?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and pipework.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Elswick Park or halfway across Elswick. When safe, pull over then switch it off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the Central Motorway East, under 3 miles from Elswick, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system. That's why crossing Elswick to park beside The Gateway Church and a drive of under 3 miles for Newcastle upon Tyne are such distinct jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been running. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it is noticed quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Elswick
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Elswick: a side street near Elswick Community Leisure Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those replies determine this work.
Then that tank is drained where the vehicle sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters 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 replaced when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a check of your vehicle. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay at Metrocentre or a driveway in Elswick, that is where we start the car and you set off. The test before our engineers go is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Elswick
Elswick is a suburban area located on the River Tyne in north-eastern England, sitting at an elevation of 57 metres and approximately 1.7 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Elswick is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and forms part of the larger urban area surrounding Newcastle. Elswick is close to nearby places such as South Benwell, Paradise, and Dunston, and is situated near the city centre. Elswick has a population of around 5687 residents.
AdBlue drains in Elswick and across Tyne and Wear
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Elswick also cover the locations around it, South Benwell, Paradise and Dunston among them, and most of Tyne and Wear beyond, across the NE postcode area. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to explain? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
A van that comes to you fits Elswick, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Elswick: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price could be honest, since every job is different. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind St Michael's Church.
With that in mind, each enquiry from Elswick opens by asking the same trio — what got in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before a figure. Those answers shrink a range down to a single number.
Before a van sets off, you are told the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still beside your car in Elswick?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Elswick or anywhere in Tyne and Wear.