AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Highfields Caldecote? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble starts once it's sucked through your pump — it will not burn, and it won't blend with diesel. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Highfields Caldecote. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Highfields Caldecote: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting CB23 7, or simply the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Moving your vehicle just a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance down Bosserts Way.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
The staff on duty at any Highfields Caldecote forecourt — the BP among them — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its supply from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Hardwick last night and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the base of the tank, untouched — but it will be the first thing through once the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting till morning around Highfields Caldecote leaves it worse. In your tank only, time costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Morrisons and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't 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 engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Crow End or the middle of Highfields Caldecote.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just in that tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever your car has stopped in Cambridgeshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Highfields Caldecote
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. It usually occurs outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Caldecote Primary School the refill is hurried. A driver tips the container in outside their house, just off Clare Drive, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car after dark, parked in the car park by the pub in the village.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the other motor of a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people know the least. Anywhere across Cambridgeshire, Highfields Caldecote as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Highfields Caldecote: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from New Barns Plantation, say, or part way across Highfields Caldecote. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Highfields Caldecote sits under 5 miles from the M11; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
A quick hop across Highfields Caldecote to the car park by Caldecote Village Club is one matter; heading for Cambridge, under 10 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has ended up. If it's caught early, long-term damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Highfields Caldecote?
The car remains put, whether that's a road near Caldecote Village Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Highfields Caldecote, and our van travels to it. The job depends on three answers, which we ask for first — what was put in, the quantity, and whether the motor has run.
Then that tank is emptied where the vehicle waits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not clear away on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with fresh diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, outside Cambridge or on a driveway around Highfields Caldecote. The test before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Highfields Caldecote and where it is
Highfields Caldecote is a village in Cambridgeshire, situated approximately 6 miles from Cambridge and 48.8 miles from London. Highfields Caldecote sits in a rural area at an elevation of around 73 metres, with nearby places including Childerley Gate and Upper Cambourne. Highfields Caldecote has a population of around 927 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Cambridgeshire, Highfields Caldecote included
Throughout the CB postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs in Highfields Caldecote serve much of Cambridgeshire too, Childerley Gate, Caldecote and Upper Cambourne included. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
No moving is needed. In Highfields Caldecote, a rural village, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Highfields Caldecote: the cost of fixing it
No flat price would be fair, since every job is different. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open driveway is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind The Cabin.
Before any figure, never afterwards, each enquiry from Highfields Caldecote begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. When those are known, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Highfields Caldecote: still next to the car?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best move there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Highfields Caldecote or wherever within Cambridgeshire.