Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Coates
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the engine. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Great Coates, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Great Coates: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting DN37 9, or whatever street is closest, and our van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift the car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Woad Lane is too far to drive it.
- By the road, do not try draining it on your own.
The staff working at any Great Coates filling station — the JET among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what your engine emits. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Yarborough last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. By daybreak, a car sitting around Great Coates with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's only in the tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Great Coates or out in Pyewipe, does more harm than nearly any other error.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Lincolnshire your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Great Coates?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Great Coates Primary School the refill is rushed. A driver tips the container in at home, just off Ferndown, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car after dark, parked in the car park by The Willows Social Club.
It occurs most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in Lincolnshire, Great Coates included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Great Coates, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Your filter and lines have had it pulled through, and some running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may appear, perhaps part way across Great Coates or coming back from The Queens Green Canopy (The Platinum Jubilee 2022). Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
Great Coates sits under 15 miles from the M180; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why a hop across Great Coates to park beside Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and a drive of under 15 miles towards Kingston upon Hull are such separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted soon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Great Coates: what it takes
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Great Coates: a side street near Great Coates Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those answers determine this work.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. A careful flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't wash out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the final step. You drive off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Great Coates or in a bay by the nearest station. The check before our engineers go is that it runs properly on new diesel. Because the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Great Coates itself
Great Coates is a suburban area in northern Lincolnshire, situated near the coast and approximately 14 miles from Kingston upon Hull. Great Coates has a population of around 3477 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Great Coates is close to other local places such as The Willows, Wybers Wood, and Little Coates, and is relatively low-lying with an elevation of around 6 metres.
AdBlue drains across Great Coates and Lincolnshire
AdBlue call-outs in Great Coates go to teams that serve the places near it — The Willows, Wybers Wood as well as Little Coates — and much of Lincolnshire beyond, across DN postcodes. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you are close to a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
No towing is needed. In Great Coates, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Great Coates: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price would be honest, because each job differs. What changes the price is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Light Tower Christian Church.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Great Coates call opens by asking exactly that, before any quote, not after. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, dig out your policy: many include misfuelling.
Still alongside the vehicle in Great Coates?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Lincolnshire, Great Coates too.