Higher Reen: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and your ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The harm starts once it's pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Higher Reen. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Higher Reen
Do:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a TR6 0 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it is pointless.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down B3285.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Moving the vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Higher Reen forecourt you are on, the Texaco included. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Bolingey last night and not switched on stays the simple one, as long as no one touches the key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it's cleared out. Lines holding AdBlue spell damage by morning for a car parked around Higher Reen. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running past them, and so the water part harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the main issue. No harm comes as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Perranwell or the middle of Higher Reen.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever across Cornwall your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Higher Reen
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Perranporth Community Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Close to Quarry Road, someone tips a container in on that drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Bolingey Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other car in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people use least. Wherever around Cornwall, Higher Reen as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Higher Reen?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Via your filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
You may notice your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Perranporth Golf Club or halfway across Higher Reen. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, over 50 miles from Higher Reen, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
A quick hop across Higher Reen to the car park by Perran Round is one matter; driving for Truro, under 10 miles away, is something else, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Higher Reen?
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Higher Reen: a side street near Rose Methodist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three replies, and our engineers ask for first — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether the motor has turned over.
Then that tank is emptied where the car stands, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your motor has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on fresh diesel. After that we start the car and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Newquay or a driveway around Higher Reen. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Higher Reen itself
Higher Reen is a small coastal hamlet in Cornwall, situated approximately 80 metres above sea level and 6.6 miles from Truro. Higher Reen is characterized by its detached housing and quiet residential atmosphere, with nearby places including Rose, Reen Manor, and Lower Rose. Higher Reen sits within a scenic coastal area, with the South West Coast Path nearby, and is home to around 511 residents.
Higher Reen and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Higher Reen are passed to vans that cover the towns near it — Rose, Reen Manor plus Lower Rose — and much of Cornwall further out, throughout TR postcodes. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're by a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Anywhere the car stands — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Higher Reen, a rural hamlet, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Higher Reen
There's no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Christ the King Catholic Church.
Before any figure, not afterwards, each enquiry from Higher Reen opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus if it ran. Given those replies, the range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Alongside the vehicle around Higher Reen, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Higher Reen or anywhere within Cornwall, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.