Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fawdon
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The harm starts once it is pulled through the lines — it will not burn, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Fawdon, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Fawdon
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting NE3 3, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch up Apsley Crescent is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
At a forecourt in Fawdon, whether it is the Tesco or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the pump. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Newcastle Great Park overnight and not started since counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once the motor turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. 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, so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. A motor left sitting in Fawdon with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Then there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left in the tank, it causes none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Kingston Park or the middle of Fawdon.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere across Tyne and Wear your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Fawdon
It is not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it is not the filling station: someone buys a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside Mountfield Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. Close to Redland Avenue, someone pours a container in at home in the evening. Another version: darkness, a pub car park outside The Windsor, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new car, a fleet car, or the spare car in a home with one of each fuels — the cars people know least. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to the same slip, wherever around Fawdon or the rest of Tyne and Wear you are.
Fawdon: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
You may see your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Northumberland Wildlife Trust St Nicholas Park Nature Reserve or halfway across Fawdon. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Fawdon lies under 3 miles from the A167(M); if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why a hop across Fawdon to park near Shandon Way Community Centre and a drive of under 3 miles for Newcastle upon Tyne are very different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. When it's spotted quickly, long-term damage is very unusual.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Fawdon
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Fawdon: a side street near Kenton Park Sports Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, so first we ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, plus if the engine has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. After that, the filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of your vehicle. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. After that our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay by Manors or a driveway around Fawdon. The test before we head off is that it runs properly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Fawdon and where it is
Fawdon is a suburban area located inland in Tyne and Wear, sitting at an elevation of 81 metres and approximately 2.9 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Fawdon is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is situated near other local places such as Kenton, Kenton Bar, and Coxlodge. Fawdon has a population of around 6320 residents and is part of the wider Newcastle upon Tyne urban area.
Fawdon and Tyne and Wear: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls in Fawdon also cover the places about it, Kenton, Kenton Bar and Coxlodge among them, and most of Tyne and Wear beyond, across the NE postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are by a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Fawdon is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Fawdon: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single figure would be fair, because every job is different. Three things change the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind St Cuthberts.
That's why every call from Fawdon starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. Their answers shrink the range down to one number.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Still beside the car around Fawdon?
Then, do nothing — that is the best move available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Fawdon or wherever within Tyne and Wear, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.