Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hawes
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition too. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The harm begins once it is pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Hawes, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Hawes: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting DL8 3, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way down Brunt Acres Road.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
Rolling your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Hawes forecourt you are on, the Gulf included. At home, your car remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Hardraw last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's cleared out. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight in Hawes leaves things worse. Inside the tank alone, time costs nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Petrol put into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the main issue. No damage is done while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the next tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Hawes or out in Scaur Head, does more harm than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only in the tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in North Yorkshire.
Hawes: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up while driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Hawes Primary School. Near Penn Lane, someone tips a bottle in at home after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by White Hart Inn.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new car, a company car, or the other car of a home with one of each fuels — the cars people use the least. Leave it off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, wherever around Hawes or the rest of North Yorkshire you are.
Hawes: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Via the filter, through the pipework, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps midway across Hawes or coming back from Reapers Plantation. No starting it again to test: pull over when it is safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M6, under 25 miles from Hawes, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
Hopping across Hawes to the car park by Hawes Ropemakers is one thing; driving towards Ripon, under 50 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been started. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Hawes?
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Hawes: a side street near Dales Countryside Museum, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the work, so first our engineers ask what went in, about the amount, plus if your motor has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after that tank is emptied, on the spot. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not clear away by itself. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside Garsdale or a drive around Hawes, that is where our engineers fire it up and you head off. It is checked on new diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Hawes
Hawes is a small village situated in the Yorkshire Dales, on the banks of the River Ure in North Yorkshire. Hawes sits at an elevation of 237 metres, surrounded by picturesque countryside, and is located near the villages of Gayle, West End, and Sedbusk. Hawes has a population of approximately 523 residents, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Hawes is 29.5 miles from the city of Ripon and 211.5 miles from London.
Hawes and North Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Gayle, West End and Sedbusk are among the towns near Hawes that the same vans reach, together with much of North Yorkshire further out, over the DL postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess if you are by a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you fits Hawes, a village: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it there, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hawes: the cost of fixing it
No flat figure would be fair, since every job differs. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind St Margaret, Hawes.
What was put in, how much, and if it ran: every Hawes enquiry begins by asking precisely that, before any figure, never after. Once they are known, a range becomes a single fixed number.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Beside the car around Hawes, right now?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Hawes or anywhere within North Yorkshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.