AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Goar Knap? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your engine. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's sucked through your pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully cleaned where the car sits around Goar Knap. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Goar Knap
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, so don't throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BA21 4, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so leave the car off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's wasted.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Matthews Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
On a forecourt in Goar Knap, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Little Lyde last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of your tank, untouched — though it will be first through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; and, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning around Goar Knap leaves things worse. Inside that tank alone, waiting costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Texaco, and this problem is diluted fuel. No harm is done while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Yeovil or the middle of Goar Knap.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside the tank, the easiest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere your car has stopped across Somerset.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Goar Knap
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The top-up is hurried outside Pen Mill Infant and Nursery Academy, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were taken in. Near St. Michael's Avenue, someone pours a bottle in at home in the evening. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Pen Mill Hotel, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
Hired cars, brand-new cars, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Same mistake, same first step — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be around Goar Knap or the remainder of Somerset.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Goar Knap?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Wyndham Hill, perhaps, or midway across Goar Knap. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M5, under 25 miles from Goar Knap, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so heading for Wells, under 25 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Goar Knap to the car park by St Michael & All Angels. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Permanent damage is very unusual if it is noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Goar Knap?
Wherever it has stopped in Goar Knap — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road by Yeovil Islamic Centre — the van comes to your car. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if the motor has been run, because those answers determine this work.
Next, emptying your tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't wash away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your motor hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, your system is bled with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, at Yeovil Pen Mill or on a drive in Goar Knap. Before we go, we confirm it is running properly with fresh diesel in. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Goar Knap
Goar Knap is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Somerset, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Goar Knap sits at an elevation of 54 metres, near the towns of New Town and Pen Mill, and is located approximately 18 miles from the city of Wells. Goar Knap forms part of a larger urban area that has developed along the river, with nearby areas including Crofton Park. Goar Knap is home to around 7480 residents, who enjoy a relatively quiet location with easy access to local amenities.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Goar Knap included
New Town, Pen Mill and Crofton Park are among the places near Goar Knap that the same teams reach, together with most of Somerset further out, throughout the BA postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers empty it there, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Goar Knap, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Goar Knap: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts differ, a flat price would not be honest. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Cineworld.
What went in, how much, plus if it ran: every Goar Knap call opens by asking exactly that, ahead of any figure, never afterwards. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van heads out, you hear the price on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Next to the car around Goar Knap, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Goar Knap or anywhere in Somerset.