Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eye
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just 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 Eye, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Eye, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take your keys out.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Call just where you are. Quote a IP23 7 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Broad Street.
- Beside the road, do not try draining it on your own.
On a forecourt around Eye, whether it is the Gulf Oil or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the pump. At your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps separate instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Brome last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Once it's 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's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Eye with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is only in your tank, nothing changes. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the main problem. Mixed into the diesel and left still, it is harmless for now; using your motor does the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the following tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Eye or out in Brome Street, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever around Suffolk the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Eye: how it ends up there
Many vehicles place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody intends it. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside St Peter and St Paul Church of England Primary School, Eye. Near Church Street, someone pours a bottle in at home after work. Another version: dim light, the car park by The Queens Head, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, new vehicles, company cars, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Wherever in Suffolk, Eye as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Eye?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Perhaps returning from Eye Town Moors, or midway across Eye, the engine may run rough, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or stall. Once safe, stop then switch it off — without restarting to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Eye sits under 50 miles from the M11; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Eye to the car park by Eye Town Hall is a very different job from a run towards Norwich, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. When it's caught soon, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Eye: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest around Eye — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside War Memorial — our van comes to your vehicle. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, and if the motor has turned over: our technicians ask first, because those shape the work.
Next, draining your tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since what remains won't wash away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking space by Diss or a driveway in Eye, that is where we start it and you head off. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs properly before we leave. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Eye, briefly
Eye is a small town situated on the River Waveney in Suffolk, with a population of around 2211 people. Eye is characterized by its detached housing and lies approximately 36 metres above sea level. Eye is located near several nearby villages, including Cranley, Braiseworth, and Yaxley, and is about 22 miles from Norwich. Eye sits in a rural area, about 78 miles from London.
Eye and Suffolk: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Eye go to vans that serve the places near it — Cranley, Braiseworth plus Yaxley — and much of Suffolk beyond, throughout IP postcodes. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No moving is needed. In Eye, a riverside town, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Eye: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so no single price is fair. Three things change the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind Eye Library.
That's why each call from Eye starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Those answers narrow a range down to one figure.
You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Eye: still alongside your car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Eye or wherever within Suffolk.