AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Harby? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Harby. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Harby: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly what amount? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Ring just where you are. Say a LE14 4 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Shifting the car even a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets the pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance down Boyer's Orchard.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
The staff on duty at any Harby forecourt — the the nearest petrol station included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
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. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Eastwell overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — but it will be first through once your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches until it is removed from the system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Harby with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's only in that tank, it doesn't. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes nothing.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the following tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Harby or out in Langar, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Leicestershire your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Harby
It is not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it is never the filling station: someone buys a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside Harby Church of England Primary School, after the dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped off. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive near Dickman's Lane. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside Nags Head, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the other car in a home with both fuel types — the cars people use the least. Wherever you are around Harby or the rest of Leicestershire, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Harby?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Maybe returning from Hose Thorns, or midway across Harby, your motor may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. No starting it again to check: pull over when it is safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M1, under 25 miles from Harby, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, and so driving towards Nottingham, under 15 miles away, gives a much larger job than hopping across Harby to the car park by St Mary the Virgin. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Harby?
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Harby: a side street close to Harby Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, roughly how much, and if your engine has turned over: we ask before all else, because those shape the job.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing your vehicle follows at the end, once clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if needed, replaced. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The last step is to prime your system on new diesel. Then we start the engine and you drive off, whether from a parking space at Aslockton or a drive around Harby. It is checked on new diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our technicians go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Harby
Harby is a village in Leicestershire, situated on the banks of the River Devon, with a low elevation of around 58 metres. Harby lies near the villages of Hose, Stathern, and Plungar, and is approximately 12 miles from Nottingham. Harby has a population of around 963 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Harby is located in the East Midlands region, about 100 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Leicestershire, Harby included
Hose, Stathern and Plungar are among the towns near Harby that the same vans reach, together with most of Leicestershire further out, over the LE postcode area. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
A van that comes to you fits Harby, a village: there's no need to take your car to us, because our technicians drain it there, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Harby: the cost of fixing it
No flat price could be honest, since each job is different. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Valley Christian Centre.
That is why each call from Harby starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. With those replies, the range narrows to a single fixed figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car in Harby, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Harby or anywhere in Leicestershire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.