Fosdyke: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts till the engine sucks it round. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Fosdyke. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Fosdyke: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops someone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PE20 2, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance along Bell Lane.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the roadside.
The attendants working at any Fosdyke forecourt — the BP among them — will usually help pushing it clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave it just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Algarkirk last night and not started stays the straightforward one, as long as no one turns the key.
It causes two kinds of harm 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 working on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. A car left sitting in Fosdyke with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Shell, and the issue is thinned fuel. Blended through your diesel and left still, it's no threat for now; using the motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the following fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Fosdyke or out in Sutterton Dowdyke, does more harm than almost any other slip.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere in Lincolnshire the vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Fosdyke: how it ends up there
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and after dark the two may appear identical. No one intends it. It mostly takes place outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside The Fourfields Church of England School, Sutterton, after a warning lamp 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 Puttock Gate. Another version: dim light, a pub car park outside The Ship Inn, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new motors, company vehicles, or the spare car in a home with both fuels: the least known cars see it the most. Anywhere across Lincolnshire, Fosdyke included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Fosdyke, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked along, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may notice your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Moulton Marsh Nature Reserve or halfway across Fosdyke. No starting it again to test: stop once it is safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Fosdyke sits under 50 miles from the A1(M); if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so driving for Peterborough, under 25 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Fosdyke to the car park by Fosdyke Village Hall. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once the engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. When it's caught soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Fosdyke: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road by Fosdyke Village Sign, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the car has stopped in Fosdyke, our engineers travel to it. Three replies decide the job, and so first our engineers ask what was put in, roughly the amount, plus if the motor has run.
Then that tank is cleared where the vehicle waits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Testing your vehicle follows at the end, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the motor has not run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Boston or on a driveway in Fosdyke. Before leaving, we confirm it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Fosdyke itself
Fosdyke is a small village in eastern England, situated near the coast of Lincolnshire at a low elevation of around 5 metres. Fosdyke lies close to Fosdyke Bridge and other nearby settlements like Bucklegate and Seadyke, and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Fosdyke is located near the larger city of Peterborough, which is about 23 miles away, and is around 95 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Lincolnshire, Fosdyke included
Fosdyke Bridge, Bucklegate and Seadyke are among the towns near Fosdyke that the same vans serve, along with most of Lincolnshire further out, throughout the PE postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
No moving is needed. In Fosdyke, a coastal village, a mobile service works: the vehicle is drained where it stands, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Fosdyke: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind All Saints.
Before any quote, not after, every enquiry from Fosdyke opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. With those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, check your policy: many include misfuelling.
In Fosdyke and still alongside your car?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Fosdyke or anywhere around Lincolnshire.