Goosewell: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Goosewell, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Goosewell, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly how much volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Tell us a postcode starting PL9 9, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Holmwood Avenue.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
Moving your car off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Goosewell forecourt you're on, the Asda or any other. At your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Hollacombe Hill overnight and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through once the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight in Goosewell leaves things worse. Inside that tank only, waiting costs nothing. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Morrisons, and this issue is thinned fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside the tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your car sits in Billacombe or the centre of Goosewell, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside your tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, wherever the vehicle has stopped across Devon.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Goosewell: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. Nobody intends it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Goosewell Primary Academy, because the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Goswela Gardens. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Staddy.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new motor, a company vehicle, or the spare car in a family with both fuel types — the cars people use least. Wherever you're in Goosewell or the remainder of Devon, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Goosewell?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Jews Wood, perhaps, or part way across Goosewell. No starting it again to test: pull over once safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Goosewell lies under 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Goosewell to the car park by University of Plymouth is a very different job from a run towards Plymouth, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been 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 spotted soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Goosewell?
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Goosewell: a side street close to Plymstock War Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three replies, which we ask for before all else — what got in, the quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
Right there, the tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue will not flush out by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the final step. Whether it is a parking space by Plymouth or a driveway in Goosewell, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. The test before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Goosewell, briefly
Goosewell is a suburban area located on the coast of Devon, near the city of Plymouth. Goosewell sits at an elevation of 52 metres, overlooking the surrounding coastline. Goosewell is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is situated close to nearby places such as Plymstock and Staddiscombe. Goosewell is approximately 2.9 miles from Plymouth, making it a convenient residential location.
AdBlue drains in Goosewell and across Devon
AdBlue jobs in Goosewell go to vans that cover the places near it — Plymstock, Staddiscombe as well as Spriddlestone — and much of Devon further out, across PL postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Goosewell is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Goosewell: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, and so no fixed price is honest. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight gap behind Plymstock Parish Hall.
Before a quote, not after, each enquiry from Goosewell opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. With them, a range narrows to a single fixed number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. While the van is on the way, dig out your policy: many include misfuelling.
In Goosewell and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Goosewell or anywhere across Devon.