Fangfoss: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts till the engine pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Fangfoss, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Fangfoss: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting YO41 5, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Things not to do:
- Moving the vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so leave it off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short distance along Station Road.
- By the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
Rolling the vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Fangfoss forecourt you're on, the JET or any other. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Yapham yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when your engine runs, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of damage follow 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 parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left sitting around Fangfoss with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a second form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the whole problem. No harm is done as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. 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 engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Meltonby or the middle of Fangfoss.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around East Riding of Yorkshire the vehicle is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Fangfoss?
Many cars place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. No one intends it. Usually it is not the filling station: someone picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside St Martin's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Fangfoss, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off The Orchard. Else, after dark outside Carpenters Arms, your vehicle is refilled by a driver opening that flap the first time.
It happens most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever in Fangfoss or the remainder of East Riding of Yorkshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Fangfoss, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. The filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any may show up, perhaps midway across Fangfoss or coming back from Crow Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M62, under 15 miles from Fangfoss, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Fangfoss to the car park by Saint Martin's Church is a very different job from a run towards York, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Fangfoss?
A street beside Wesleyan Methodish Chapel, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has stopped in Fangfoss, our engineers travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has run, because those replies settle this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when that tank is emptied, right there. The system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the car. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. You head off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Fangfoss or in a bay outside York. The test before we head off is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Fangfoss and where it is
Fangfoss is a small village situated on the riverside in the East Riding of Yorkshire, with a population of around 594 people. Fangfoss has a mix of old and new housing, but detached homes are the predominant type, reflecting the village's relatively affluent character. Fangfoss is located near several other small villages, including Bolton, Gowthorpe, and Youlthorpe, and is about 10 miles from the city of York. Fangfoss sits at an elevation of 24 metres above sea level, in a low-lying area near the River Derwent.
AdBlue drains across East Riding of Yorkshire, Fangfoss included
AdBlue call-outs in Fangfoss are passed to vans that serve the towns near it — Bolton, Gowthorpe plus Youlthorpe — and most of East Riding of Yorkshire beyond, throughout YO postcodes. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Fangfoss, a village: there's no need to take your car to us, since we empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Fangfoss
No single price would be honest, because each job differs. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Yapham Village Hall.
For that in mind, every call from Fangfoss begins by asking the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, if it ran — ahead of a quote. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Still beside your car around Fangfoss?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Fangfoss or wherever within East Riding of Yorkshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.