AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Golgotha? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The harm starts once it's pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the car stands around Golgotha. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Golgotha
Do these:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting LA1 3, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Moving your car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Wyresdale Road.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
The attendants working at any Golgotha forecourt — the BP among them — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. At your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, 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, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Freehold last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. 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, so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle sitting around Golgotha. Only in the tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second kind of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the JET. No damage is done while it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the next fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Golgotha or out in Newlands, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Lancashire the vehicle is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Golgotha: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container bought while heading home and tipped in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical story.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill is rushed outside Bowerham Primary & Nursery School, because your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken off. After work, a container goes in on a drive close to Clougha Avenue. One more version: dim light, a pub car park outside The Park, and someone opening that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a company car, or the spare vehicle of a family with both fuel types — the cars drivers know least. Wherever you're in Golgotha or the remainder of Lancashire, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Golgotha?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the fuel filter, along the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's where it travels.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Fork to Fork Forest Garden or halfway across Golgotha. No starting it again to check: stop when it is safe, then turn it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M6, under a mile from Golgotha, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, so driving towards Lancaster, under 3 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Golgotha to the car park by Sports Complex. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Caught soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
Golgotha: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest in Golgotha — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by Turning Point Theatre Arts — our van travels to the car. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else we ask which fluid went in, roughly what quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on new diesel. You set off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Golgotha or in a bay by Lancaster. Before we leave, we check it's running smoothly with new diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Golgotha and where it is
Golgotha is a suburban area situated near the city of Lancaster in Lancashire, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 6082 residents. Golgotha sits at an elevation of 86 metres, close to the coastal area, and is located near other suburban areas such as Primrose and Moorlands. Golgotha is also in proximity to Bowerham and the city centre of Lancaster, which is approximately 1 mile away. Golgotha is part of the larger Lancaster urban area, with London being around 207 miles to the south.
AdBlue drains in Golgotha and across Lancashire
Primrose, Moorlands and Bowerham are among the towns near Golgotha that the same teams serve, along with much of Lancashire further out, over the LA postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No moving is needed. In Golgotha, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: your car is drained where it stands, be it in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Golgotha?
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. What moves the price is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Observatory.
That's why every call from Golgotha starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Their replies shrink the range down to a single number.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the quote on the phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Next to your car in Golgotha, right now?
Then, do nothing — that is the best move there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Golgotha or wherever within Lancashire, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.