AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Guide Post? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and leave your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens till your engine sucks it round. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Guide Post. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Guide Post, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians will see.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting NE62 5, or just the name of a street nearby, and so call from the car.
Things not to do:
- Moving your car even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets the pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way up Crossway is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
Rolling the vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Guide Post forecourt you are on, the JET or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — quite different from fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in North Choppington last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Once it's sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a car parked around Guide Post with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it's just in your tank, it doesn't. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication 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 often worse
Petrol put into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the main issue. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the car sits in Stakeford or the heart of Guide Post, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not stay blended, so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere across Northumberland the car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Guide Post
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. The refill is hurried outside Mowbray Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A driver tips the bottle in at home, just off Cleaswell Hill, as the day ends. One more pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside The Shakespeare Tavern, and someone using that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new motor, a fleet car, or the spare motor in a family with one of each fuels — the cars people know the least. Wherever around Northumberland, Guide Post as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Guide Post, and the engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been sucked through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Cleasewell Hill Park, say, or midway across Guide Post. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the A167(M), under 15 miles from Guide Post, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so heading towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 15 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Guide Post to the car park by Stakeford War Memorial. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the car has stopped. Permanent damage is very unusual if it is spotted soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Guide Post
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Guide Post: a side street near Holy Family, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has run, because those replies settle the work.
Next, draining your tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since what remains won't flush out by itself. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your engine has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. You drive off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Guide Post or in a space by Ashington. Before we go, our technicians confirm it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Guide Post itself
Guide Post is a village in Northumberland, situated on the riverside at a low elevation of around 30 metres. Guide Post lies near the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, approximately 12.6 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Sheepwash and Choppington. Guide Post has a population of around 2852 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Northumberland, Guide Post included
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Guide Post also cover the spots about it, Sheepwash, Scotland Gate and Choppington among them, and most of Northumberland beyond, across the NE postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service fits Guide Post, a village: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Guide Post: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Scotland Gate War Memorial.
What got in, how much, plus whether the engine ran: every Guide Post call opens by asking precisely those, before a figure, never after. Given them, a range narrows to one firm number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Guide Post: still next to the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Guide Post or anywhere in Northumberland.