Harelaw: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and your ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes when your pump begins pulling it. In Harelaw, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Harelaw, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Say a DH9 8 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is pointless.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up Fondlyset Lane.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
The attendants on duty at any Harelaw filling station — the Esso included — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. At home, the car remains just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its supply from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in West Kyo last night and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
After it is 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 running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left sitting around Harelaw with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Texaco, and the problem is thinned fuel. No damage comes while it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay after the next fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so watering it won't help. Hence the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Flint Hill or the centre of Harelaw alike.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around Durham the car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Harelaw
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally under one flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many layouts allow it. It mostly takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, Dipton the refill is hurried. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Harelaw Gardens. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Crown & Thistle, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, same first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you are around Harelaw or the rest of Durham.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Harelaw?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Deep Dene Local Nature Reserve, or midway across Harelaw, the engine may run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or stall. Once you safely can, pull over and switch it off — without restarting to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the A1(M), under 10 miles from Harelaw, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so driving for Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Harelaw to the car park by St Thomas's Church, Hare Law. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once the engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Permanent damage is very rare if it is noticed quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Harelaw?
The car stays put, whether that is a road beside St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Harelaw, and our van travels to it. Before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has run, because those answers settle this work.
Then that tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not wash away by itself. Next, your filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, if your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, the system is primed with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking bay at Blaydon or a drive around Harelaw, that is where we start the car and you set off. Before we leave, our technicians check it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Harelaw and where it is
Harelaw is a small suburban area in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of 252 metres. Harelaw lies approximately 9 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne and is surrounded by nearby places such as Dipton, Catchgate, and Annfield Plain. Harelaw has a population of around 740 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Harelaw is located in the North East region of England, about 242 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Harelaw and Durham
Dipton, Catchgate and Annfield Plain are among the towns near Harelaw that the same vans reach, together with most of Durham beyond, throughout the DH postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing when you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
A van that comes to you suits Harelaw, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, because our engineers empty it there, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Harelaw
Since the callouts vary, a flat price would not be fair. Three things move the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind Dipton Community Centre.
Before any figure, never after, each enquiry from Harelaw opens with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. Given them, the range shrinks to a single firm figure.
Our price is given on the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside your car in Harelaw?
Not touching the car is, then, the best move open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 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 Harelaw or anywhere across Durham.