AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Greatham? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm starts once it is pulled through the lines — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Greatham, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Greatham, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we can see.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting TS25 2, or just the name of a street nearby, so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition the car.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Mellanby Lane.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
At a forecourt in Greatham, whether it is the JET or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Cowpen Bewley last night and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of the tank, untouched — though it will be the first thing through once your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
After it is sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches until it is removed from the system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny channels. By daybreak, a car sitting in Greatham with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it's just in your tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed through the diesel and left still, it's no threat at that stage; using the engine does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Greatham or out in Brierton, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in Durham the vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Greatham?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars waits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the forecourt: a driver buys a container driving home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Greatham CofE Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Egerton Terrace. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Hope and Anchor, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars see it most — rentals, brand-new ones, company cars, and the other car of a home with one of each fuels. Same mistake, same first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Greatham or the rest of Durham.
Greatham: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Perhaps coming back from Greatham Sports Ground, or part way across Greatham, the motor might go rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the A1(M), under 15 miles from Greatham, by the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so driving towards Durham, under 25 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Greatham to the car park by Greatham Community Centre. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it is noticed soon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Greatham
The car stays put, whether that's a road beside Saint John the Baptist, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Greatham, and the van travels to it. The work rests on three answers, and our engineers get before all else — which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if your motor has run.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. Your system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of the car. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. You set off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Greatham or in a bay outside Seaton Carew. It's tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Greatham itself
Greatham is a small coastal village in County Durham, situated near the mouth of the Tees estuary at an elevation of around 18 metres. Greatham lies approximately 16 miles east of Durham city and some 221 miles north of London, within a landscape of coastal plains and nearby industrial areas. Greatham has a mix of housing types, but terraced homes are particularly prevalent in the village. Greatham is close to other nearby settlements, including Owton Manor, Graythorp, and Newton Bewley.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Greatham included
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Greatham also cover the spots around it, Owton Manor, Graythorp and Newton Bewley among them, and most of Durham beyond, across the TS postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
No moving is needed. In Greatham, a coastal village, a van that comes to you fits: your car is drained on the spot, be it in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Greatham
There's no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. What moves the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Greatham Hospital Chapel.
That is why each call from Greatham starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. When they are known, a range becomes one firm figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Still alongside the car in Greatham?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful move you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Greatham or anywhere within Durham, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.