Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Fossend
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the engine off and keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle stands in Great Fossend. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Great Fossend: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Call right where you are. Say a EX16 7 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Never:
- Shifting the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's wasted.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Station Road.
- Beside the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car off the island if you are at a forecourt in Great Fossend, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Red Ball last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it reaches till it's removed completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. Overnight, a car parked around Great Fossend with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is just in your tank, nothing changes. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the BP. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Old Beat or the middle of Great Fossend.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around Devon the vehicle sits.
Great Fossend: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Burlescombe Church of England Primary School the refill is rushed. Someone tips the bottle in at home, right off Market Place, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by Ayshford Arms.
Rented motors, brand-new cars, fleet cars, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar cars see it the most. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to the same mistake, wherever in Great Fossend or the remainder of Devon you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Great Fossend, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each may show up, perhaps part way across Great Fossend or coming back from Park Wood. Once safe, pull over then turn it off — without restarting to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M5, under a mile from Great Fossend, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Great Fossend to park beside Canonsleigh Priory and a drive of under 25 miles for Exeter are such separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Great Fossend: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Great Fossend: a side street close to St Mary's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, about the quantity, plus whether your motor has been run: our technicians check first, since those shape the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed right through because residue won't wash out unaided. After that, the filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. At that point our engineers start it and you set off, whether from a parking bay by Tiverton Parkway or a driveway in Great Fossend. We confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before leaving. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Great Fossend, for a moment
Great Fossend is a village situated in a riverside setting in Devon, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 582 residents. Great Fossend lies approximately 100 metres above sea level and is located near the villages of Burlescombe, Westleigh, and Whipcott. Great Fossend is close to the city of Exeter, which is about 17.8 miles away, and is also within a reasonable distance of London, at around 143.6 miles. Great Fossend has a rural character, typical of many villages in the South West region.
AdBlue drains across Great Fossend and Devon
Burlescombe, Westleigh and Whipcott are among the places near Great Fossend that the same vans serve, together with most of Devon further out, over the EX postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
A mobile service suits Great Fossend, a village: you have no need to take the car to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Great Fossend?
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Westleigh United Reformed Church.
Ahead of a quote, not after, each call from Great Fossend opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. Those answers narrow the range right down to a single number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Great Fossend: still alongside the vehicle?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Devon, Great Fossend included.