AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Etherley Moor? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your motor off and keep the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts once your pump starts drawing it. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully cleaned where your car sits around Etherley Moor. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Etherley Moor: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Which product, and about what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will see.
- Call just where you are. Say a DL14 0 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Even a short distance down Croft Side is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the car off the island if you're at a forecourt in Etherley Moor, whether it is the JET or elsewhere. On that drive, the vehicle remains just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a drive in Escomb overnight and not started since is the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once the motor turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. By daybreak, a car sitting around Etherley Moor with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it is just in the tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the main fault. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it causes none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the next fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Etherley Moor or out in California, costs more than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Durham your car is standing.
Etherley Moor: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A container picked up while heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Escomb Primary School the top-up is rushed. A driver tips the container in outside their house, right off Beckett Close, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park by The Masons Arms.
The least known vehicles get it the most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the other car in a home with both fuels. Wherever you're in Etherley Moor or the rest of Durham, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Etherley Moor, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Hecklewood or halfway across Etherley Moor. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
On the A1(M), under 10 miles from Etherley Moor, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Hopping across Etherley Moor to the car park by Escomb War Memorial is one thing; heading towards Durham, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. 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 the engine has been started. When it's spotted early, lasting damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Etherley Moor?
Anywhere it has come to rest around Etherley Moor — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside Escomb Church — the van comes to your vehicle. The work depends on three replies, and our technicians get first — what got in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is drained, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Last, the fuel system is bled with fresh diesel. Then our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space by Bishop Auckland or a drive in Etherley Moor. Before leaving, we check it is running properly with new diesel in. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Etherley Moor itself
Etherley Moor is a suburban area situated near the River Wear in County Durham, with a mix of detached housing and scenic views. Etherley Moor sits at an elevation of 134 metres, close to nearby places such as Etherley Dene and High Escomb. Etherley Moor is located approximately 9.8 miles from the city of Durham, and its residents are around 227.2 miles from London. Etherley Moor has a population of around 1864 people, living in predominantly detached homes.
AdBlue drains across Etherley Moor and Durham
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls around Etherley Moor also cover the places round it, Etherley Dene, High Escomb and Woodhouses among them, and most of Durham beyond, across the DL postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Anywhere the car sits — a driveway 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 Etherley Moor, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Etherley Moor: the cost of fixing it
No single figure could be fair, because every job is different. What shifts the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Bishop Auckland RUFC.
Before a figure, not after, every enquiry from Etherley Moor begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. When they are known, a range turns into a single firm number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Etherley Moor and still next to your car?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Etherley Moor or wherever in Durham.