AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Flexbury? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens till the motor sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Flexbury, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Flexbury: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting EX23 8, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way down Creathorne Road.
- Draining your tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
The staff on duty at any Flexbury forecourt — the Shell included — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A motor topped up on a drive in Hillhead yesterday evening and left unstarted is the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches until it's removed completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. Pipes holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle sitting in Flexbury. Only inside your tank, it stays stable. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol put into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the main issue. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside the tank, it does nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It can't just be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the following tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Flexbury or out in Lynstone, does more harm than almost any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever around Cornwall the car has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Flexbury: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It usually occurs outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Bude Primary Academy - Infants the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Cedar Grove. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Barrel Bude.
It occurs most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Flexbury or the rest of Cornwall, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Flexbury?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and lines.
Maybe returning from Bude & North Cornwall Golf Course, or part way across Flexbury, the motor might go rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M5, under 50 miles from Flexbury, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Hopping across Flexbury to the car park by Flexbury Park Methodist Church is one thing; driving for Plymouth, under 50 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. When it's spotted quickly, long-term damage is very unusual.
Flexbury: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A road by The Strand Shopping Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Flexbury, our engineers come to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run, because those answers settle the work.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because residue won't flush away unaided. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the motor has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to prime the system on clean diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Flexbury or in a bay by the nearest station. It's tested on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our engineers head off. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Flexbury
Flexbury is a coastal suburban area in Cornwall, situated near the popular seaside resort of Bude. Flexbury sits at a low elevation of around 16 metres, overlooking the Atlantic coastline and surrounded by nearby places like Crooklets and Poughill. Flexbury has a population of approximately 2614 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Flexbury is located within commuting distance of Plymouth, which is around 36 miles away.
Flexbury and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Flexbury also cover the places round it, Bude, Crooklets and Poughill among them, and most of Cornwall beyond, across the EX postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
A van that comes to you fits Flexbury, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Flexbury?
Each job is different, so not one single price would be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Bude Central Methodist Church.
Before any quote, never after, each call from Flexbury begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, and whether the engine ran. Their replies shrink a range down to one number.
Before a van sets off, you hear the quote by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Still beside the vehicle around Flexbury?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Flexbury or anywhere across Cornwall.