AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Goonhavern? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your engine off and leave your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump begins drawing it. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully cleaned where your car stands in Goonhavern. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Goonhavern, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting TR4 9, or whatever street is nearest, and the van finds you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't weaken it.
- Even a short distance along Bridge Road is too far to drive the car.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Goonhavern filling station — the Texaco among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Lower Rose overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of your tank, untouched — though it will be first through if your motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches till it's removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight in Goonhavern leaves things worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Higher Reen or the middle of Goonhavern.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere around Cornwall the vehicle sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Goonhavern
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Mostly it is not the filling station: someone buys a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Goonhavern Primary School. Close to Goonhilly Close, someone tips a container in at home after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up your car in dim light, stopped in the car park by The New Inn.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in Cornwall, Goonhavern included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Goonhavern?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Eustace's Plantation, perhaps, or part way across Goonhavern. Once you safely can, pull over then turn everything off — with no turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M5, over 50 miles from Goonhavern, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Goonhavern to the car park by Goonhavern Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Truro, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted early.
Goonhavern: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street beside Caer Kief, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the vehicle has stopped in Goonhavern, our technicians come to it. Three replies decide the job, so first our technicians ask what went in, roughly what quantity, plus whether the motor has run.
Then that tank is drained where the car stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since residue will not wash away by itself. Testing the car comes at the end, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where needed, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided your motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes last. You drive off as soon as we have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Goonhavern or in a space outside Newquay. Our technicians confirm it runs correctly on clean diesel before we go. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Goonhavern itself
Goonhavern is a village in Cornwall, situated near the north coast and approximately 5.9 miles from Truro. Goonhavern sits at an elevation of around 70 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Goonhavern is close to several nearby places, including Carnkief, Wheal Frances, and Perranwell, and is located about 231.4 miles west of London.
Goonhavern and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue calls around Goonhavern also cover the locations about it, Carnkief, Wheal Frances and Perranwell among them, and most of Cornwall beyond, across the TR postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Goonhavern is a coastal village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Goonhavern?
Since each jobs vary, a single price would not be fair. What changes the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Perran Round.
That is why every call from Goonhavern starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Those answers shrink a range down to a single figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told the price by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Beside the car around Goonhavern, right now?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Goonhavern or anywhere across Cornwall.