AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Hempnall? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens till the motor pulls it through. In Hempnall, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hempnall: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Call right where you are. Say a NR15 2 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Many diesels run their pump the instant your ignition goes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it's pointless.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up The Street.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle off the island if you are at a forecourt in Hempnall, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or elsewhere. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine 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. No part in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its fuel from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is why a vehicle filled in Silver Green last night and not started remains the simple one, provided no one touches your key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Overnight, a car sitting around Hempnall with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's only in the tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush matters more, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Road Green or the centre of Hempnall alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever around Norfolk your car sits.
Hempnall: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. Nobody means it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Hempnall Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Field Lane. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside the pub in the village, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Hempnall or the rest of Norfolk, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hempnall?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through the filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
Perhaps returning from Little Wood, or midway across Hempnall, the motor may run lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or stall. No starting it again to test: pull over when it is safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M11, over 50 miles from Hempnall, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Hempnall to the car park by Saint Margaret's is a very different job from a run towards Norwich, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where your car has ended up, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Permanent damage is very unusual if it's noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Hempnall?
A road beside Hempnall Village Sign, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the vehicle has stopped in Hempnall, our engineers come to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the engine has run, because those replies determine this work.
Then that tank is drained where your car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians arrive, if your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on fresh diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, by Norwich or on a drive around Hempnall. Our technicians confirm it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Hempnall and where it is
Hempnall is a small village in south Norfolk, situated approximately 8.7 miles south of Norwich and 91.7 miles northeast of London. Hempnall sits in a low-lying area at an elevation of around 32 metres, surrounded by other small settlements such as Hempnall Green and Saxlingham Green. Hempnall has a population of around 633 people, predominantly living in semi-detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Hempnall included
Throughout the NR postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Hempnall serve most of Norfolk too, Hempnall Green, Saxlingham Green and Lundy Green among them. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No moving is needed. In Hempnall, a rural village, a van that comes to you fits: your car is emptied where it stands, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hempnall: the cost of fixing it
No single figure could be honest, since every job differs. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Hempnall Windmill (remains).
What got in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: every Hempnall enquiry begins with precisely those, before any quote, not after. Those answers shrink a range down to a single figure.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, check your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Still beside the vehicle in Hempnall?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Hempnall or wherever within Norfolk, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.