AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fyfield? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it is pulled through your pump — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. In Fyfield, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do straight away, Fyfield: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, take your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CM5 0, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: your motor remains off.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Cannons Lane.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it on your own.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Fyfield, whether it is the BP or somewhere else. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a driveway in Millers Green yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor turns, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
Once it's drawn in, the damage takes two forms. 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. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning in Fyfield makes it worse. Inside that tank alone, time does nothing. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Applegreen and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Norton Mandeville or the middle of Fyfield.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Essex your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Fyfield
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Mostly it is not the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Dr Walker's CofE Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Queen Street. Otherwise, after dark outside The Queens Head, the vehicle gets refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a new motor, a company car, or the spare car of a home with both fuels — the cars people know the least. Wherever around Essex, Fyfield as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Fyfield, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and lines.
Maybe returning from Witney Wood, or part way across Fyfield, the motor might go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or stall. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M11, under 10 miles from Fyfield, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
A quick hop across Fyfield to the car park by St Nicholas, Fyfield is one matter; driving for Chelmsford, under 10 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's noticed quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Fyfield?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Fyfield: a side street close to Fyfield village sign, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has been run, because those replies determine this work.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers turn up, provided your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The last step is to prime the system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking bay at Ingatestone or a drive in Fyfield, that is where our engineers start the car and you head off. We confirm it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Fyfield, for a moment
Fyfield is a village in Essex, situated on the riverside in the eastern part of the county, with an elevation of around 52 metres. Fyfield lies near several smaller settlements, including Cannons Green, Clatterford End, and Norwood End, and is approximately 8.4 miles from Chelmsford. Fyfield has a population of around 795 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Fyfield is also within commuting distance of London, being around 23.5 miles from the city.
AdBlue drains across Fyfield and Essex
Cannons Green, Clatterford End and Norwood End are among the places around Fyfield that the same teams reach, together with most of Essex further out, throughout the CM postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
No moving is needed. In Fyfield, a village, a van that comes to you fits: the car is drained where it stands, be it on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Fyfield?
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. 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 gap behind Fyfield Village Hall.
That is why each call from Fyfield starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you hear our price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Fyfield: still beside the car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best move open to you. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran are everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Essex, Fyfield too.