AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Fintona? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system draws it in. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly purged where the car stands in Fintona. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Fintona: the first few minutes
Do:
- Take your keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a BT78 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way along Wallace Cottages.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
At a forecourt in Fintona, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its supply from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, which is how a car topped up in Clanabogan last night and never started remains the simple case, as long as nobody touches the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. Overnight, a car sitting in Fintona with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's just in the tank, it doesn't. Then there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed into the diesel and left unused, it is harmless at that stage; using the engine does the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Dromore or the centre of Fintona, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't stay blended, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in County Tyrone the car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Fintona: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, because the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped off. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Dunaverty Court. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside the pub in the village, and someone using that flap the first time.
Rented cars, new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known cars see it most. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Fintona or the remainder of County Tyrone you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Fintona?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Your filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might appear, maybe part way across Fintona or returning from the green space at the edge of the village. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M77, over 50 miles from Fintona, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Fintona to the car park by the centre is one matter; driving for Armagh, under 50 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it's spotted soon.
Fintona: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Fintona: a side street close to a street just off the centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, roughly the quantity, plus if your engine has been run: we ask before all else, since those decide the work.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. A full flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains won't clear out by itself. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to prime the system on clean diesel. After that our engineers start the engine and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at the nearest station or a drive in Fintona. Before we go, our technicians make sure it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. As the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Fintona and where it is
Fintona is a small locality in County Tyrone, situated inland at an elevation of 109 metres, approximately 28.5 miles from Armagh. Fintona is characterised by its terraced housing and is located near other small settlements such as Seskinore, Eskra, and Gortaclare. Fintona has a population of around 1217 people and is a considerable distance from London, at 363.1 miles away.
Fintona and County Tyrone: AdBlue drains across the area
Seskinore, Eskra and Gortaclare are among the towns around Fintona that the same vans reach, together with most of County Tyrone further out, throughout the BT postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Anywhere your car sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians empty it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Fintona, a small village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Fintona: the cost of fixing it
No flat price could be honest, because every job differs. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight spot behind the far end of the built-up part.
Before a quote, never after, each enquiry from Fintona begins with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. Their answers narrow the range down to a single number.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
In Fintona and still alongside the vehicle?
Not touching your car is, then, the best thing you can do. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Fintona or wherever in County Tyrone, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.