Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Heworth Lane
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble just starts once your pump starts drawing it. In Heworth Lane, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Heworth Lane, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops anyone switching the power on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Call just where you are. Quote a NE10 0 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Do not:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift the car.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is pointless.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down Corrofell Gardens.
- Emptying that tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Moving your vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Heworth Lane forecourt you are on, the Jet or any other. At home, your car stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It doesn't blend. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, which is why a car topped up in Heworth yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as nobody turns the key.
After it is drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and narrow channels; and, because it attacks some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting overnight in Heworth Lane leaves it worse. In the tank only, waiting does nothing. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the JET, and this problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in St Anthonys or the middle of Heworth Lane.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside that tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, wherever your car has come to rest across Tyne and Wear.
Heworth Lane: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many motors place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two can appear 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.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside The Drive Community Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. Someone pours the container in at home, right off Abbotsford Road, as the day ends. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside Maiden Over, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, new cars, company vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least known cars see it most. Anywhere around Tyne and Wear, Heworth Lane included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Heworth Lane?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. It has been sucked through the fuel filter and your lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might appear, perhaps part way across Heworth Lane or coming back from St Mary's Church Hall garden. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the A194(M), under 3 miles from Heworth Lane, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Hopping across Heworth Lane to the car park by Parish Church of Saint Mary is one thing; driving towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 3 miles away, is something else, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. When it is caught soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Heworth Lane
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Heworth Lane: a side street near St Mary's Church Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers get first — which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether the motor has run.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not wash out by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the last step. Starting the car comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, at Heworth or on a drive around Heworth Lane. The test before we head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. No workshop is required at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Heworth Lane itself
Heworth Lane is a suburban area located on the riverside in Tyne and Wear, with an elevation of around 35 metres. Heworth Lane sits near the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, approximately 2.6 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Heworth Shore, Pelaw, and Felling. Heworth Lane has a population of around 2468 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Heworth Lane and Tyne and Wear
Heworth Shore, Pelaw and Felling are among the towns near Heworth Lane that the same vans serve, along with most of Tyne and Wear further out, over the NE postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess when you are by a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Wherever your vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Heworth Lane, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Heworth Lane
No flat price could be fair, because each job differs. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company.
Ahead of a quote, not afterwards, each enquiry from Heworth Lane opens with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. With them, the range shrinks to one firm number.
You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Beside the car in Heworth Lane, still?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Heworth Lane or anywhere across Tyne and Wear.