Gainsborough: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your engine off and keep your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump starts drawing it. In Gainsborough, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Gainsborough: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting DN21 2, or just the name of a street nearby, so phone from the spot.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: the motor stays off.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance up Spital Terrace.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
Rolling your vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Gainsborough forecourt you're on, the Tesco included. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Lea last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
After it's pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches till it is removed from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. A car left standing around Gainsborough with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the JET. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in your tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the next fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Gainsborough or out in Beckingham, costs more than almost any other error.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Lincolnshire the vehicle is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Gainsborough: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside The Gainsborough Parish Church Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Roseway. Else, after dark outside Horse and Jockey, the car gets refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
Hired vehicles, brand-new motors, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it most. An identical slip, same first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Gainsborough or the rest of Lincolnshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Gainsborough?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Your filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each may show up, perhaps part way across Gainsborough or returning from The Levellings. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M180, under 15 miles from Gainsborough, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
A quick hop across Gainsborough to the car park by The Gainsborough Heritage Centre is one matter; heading towards Lincoln, under 25 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is noticed early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Gainsborough
Wherever it has stopped around Gainsborough — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street by Gainsborough Methodist Church — our van comes to your vehicle. Three answers shape the job, and so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid got in, roughly what quantity, plus whether your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is drained, on the spot. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing your vehicle comes at the end, once clean diesel is added and the filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, replaced. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Bleeding the system with new diesel comes last. You drive off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Gainsborough or in a space by Gainsborough Central. Before we go, we confirm it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Gainsborough and where it is
Gainsborough is a town situated on the banks of the River Trent in Lincolnshire, England. It is located in a strategic position, with several major towns and cities within a reasonable distance. The town has a long history as a significant inland location, with its riverside setting playing a key role in its development. Gainsborough is also notable for its market town status, reflecting its importance as a local centre.
AdBlue drains across Gainsborough and Lincolnshire
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Gainsborough also cover the places round it, Park Springs, Morton and Saundby among them, and most of Lincolnshire beyond, across the DN postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
No moving is needed. In Gainsborough, a riverside town, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained where it stands, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Gainsborough: the cost of fixing it
No flat figure would be fair, because each job differs. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Gainsborough United Reformed Church.
That's why every call from Gainsborough starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. Once they are answered, a range turns into one firm figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle around Gainsborough, right now?
Then, touch nothing — that is the best move available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Gainsborough or anywhere within Lincolnshire, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran.