AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Hatch? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until the motor pulls it round. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly purged where the car sits around Hatch. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Hatch: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting TQ7 4, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Never do these:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance along Clarks Barn Road.
- By the road, don't try draining it on your own.
Ask the attendants to help you move the vehicle off the island if you're at a forecourt around Hatch, whether it is the Asda Express or elsewhere. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. Nothing inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was meant to go that way.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. 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 Aveton Gifford last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning around Hatch leaves things worse. In your tank alone, waiting costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the BP. Blended into the diesel and left unused, it is no threat at that stage; running the engine is the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Sorley or the middle of Hatch.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Anywhere around Devon your car has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
Hatch: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. No one means it. Usually it's never the filling station: someone buys a container driving home and tips it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Aveton Gifford CofE Primary School. Someone tips the bottle in at home, right off Hatch Bridge, as the day ends. Another version: darkness, the car park by The Church House Inn, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles see it the most — rentals, new ones, fleet ones, and the other motor in a family with both fuel types. Anywhere around Devon, Hatch as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hatch, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might appear, maybe midway across Hatch or returning from Lower Sturtlebury Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M5, under 50 miles from Hatch, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Hopping across Hatch to the car park by St Mary's Church is one matter; driving for Plymouth, under 25 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Long-term damage is very unusual when it's spotted quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Hatch
Wherever it has stopped around Hatch — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road by Church Hall — the van comes to your car. Three answers decide the work, and so first we ask which fluid got in, about what quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Then your tank is cleared where the car stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains won't wash out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we turn up, if your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Hatch or in a space by Ivybridge. Our engineers make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel before we go. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Hatch
Hatch is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Devon, with a low elevation of around 23 metres. Hatch lies near several other small settlements, including Venn, Churchstow, and Icy Park, and is approximately 15 miles from Plymouth. Hatch has a population of around 571 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Hatch is located in the South West region of England, about 180 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Hatch included
Venn, Churchstow and Icy Park are among the towns around Hatch that the same teams reach, together with most of Devon further out, over the TQ postcode area. Assuming won't help by a county line or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — we empty it there, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Hatch, a rural hamlet, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hatch: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind St Andrew's.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and whether it ran: every Hatch call begins by asking exactly that, ahead of any figure, not after. Given them, the range narrows to one firm number.
The quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Hatch and still beside the car?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran are all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Devon, Hatch included.