AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Fortescue? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till your motor pulls it round. In Fortescue, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Fortescue: the first few minutes
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers will see.
- Ring right where you are. Say a EX10 9 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition the car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance down Higher Fortescue is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
On a forecourt around Fortescue, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car clear of the pump. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its fuel from. A car filled on a driveway in Salcombe Regis yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm come 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. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Fortescue makes it worse. Inside your tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a second kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a problem of thin fuel. No harm comes while it stays put, blended into the diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether the car is in Land Part or the centre of Fortescue, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not stay blended, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits only in your tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has stopped across Devon.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Fortescue?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Sidmouth Church of England (VA) Primary School the top-up is hurried. Close to Carslake Close, someone pours a container in on the drive after work. Else, in dim light by Blue Ball Inn, your vehicle gets refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet car, or the spare motor of a family with both fuel types — the cars people know the least. Same slip, an identical first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you are around Fortescue or the remainder of Devon.
Fortescue: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Soldier's Hill, say, or midway across Fortescue. Once safe, pull over and switch it off — with no restarting to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M5, under 15 miles from Fortescue, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Fortescue to the car park by Sidford Social Hall is one matter; heading for Exeter, under 15 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the car has stopped, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Fortescue: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Fortescue — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Saint Peters, Sidford — our van travels to your car. The job depends on three answers, which we get before all else — what went in, the amount, and if the engine has run.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through because residue won't flush away unaided. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed your system on new diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Fortescue or in a bay outside Feniton. The check before our technicians go is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Fortescue and where it is
Fortescue is a small suburban area in Devon, situated near the coast and approximately 13.6 miles from Exeter. Fortescue sits at an elevation of 37 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and nearby settlements like Sid and Sidford. Fortescue is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature.
Fortescue and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area
Sid, Lower Woolbrook and Sidford are among the places near Fortescue that the same vans reach, along with much of Devon beyond, throughout the EX postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service suits Fortescue, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Fortescue?
Every job differs, and so no single price is honest. The cost shifts 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 rests on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind War Memorial.
Before a quote, not afterwards, every call from Fortescue opens with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. Given those replies, the range shrinks to one firm figure.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Fortescue: still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Fortescue or anywhere across Devon.