AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Highgate? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only comes when the pump begins drawing it. In Highgate, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Highgate
To do:
- Take your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about what amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting PE30 1, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Shifting your car just a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way up Highgate is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Emptying your tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
On a forecourt in Highgate, whether it's the Morrisons or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Stored in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its supply from. A car filled on a driveway in West Lynn yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but once the motor runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. A car left standing in Highgate with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the JET. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in that tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be diluted. 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 your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in North Lynn or the middle of Highgate.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits just in your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Norfolk.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Highgate
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the filling station: someone picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Eastgate Academy the refill is hurried. Someone tips the container in outside their house, just off Littleport Terrace, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Hob in The Well, the vehicle is refilled by someone using that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — hire cars, new ones, company ones, and the spare car of a home with one of each fuels. Anywhere across Norfolk, Highgate included, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Highgate, and the motor started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Your filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Kettlewell Lane Park, say, or midway across Highgate. 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.
If you were on the A1(M), under 50 miles from Highgate, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Highgate to park near King's Lynn Christian Fellowship and a drive of under 50 miles for Ely are very separate jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to clean out once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very unusual when it is spotted soon.
Highgate: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road beside Saint John the Evangelist, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere the car has stopped in Highgate, we travel to it. Three answers decide the job, and so first we ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, and whether your engine has run.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, at Kings Lynn or on a driveway in Highgate. It is checked on clean diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Highgate itself
Highgate is a small suburban area in Norfolk, situated near the coast and approximately 25 miles from the city of Ely. Highgate has a relatively low elevation of around 5 metres above sea level, and its location is characterized by its proximity to other nearby places such as St James End and North End. Highgate is predominantly composed of terraced housing, which reflects the typical architectural style of the region. Highgate is also within commuting distance to larger cities, including Kings Lynn and London, which is around 89 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Highgate included
St James End, North End and Kings Lynn are among the towns around Highgate that the same teams reach, together with much of Norfolk further out, throughout the PE postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Highgate, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Highgate: the cost of fixing it
Because the jobs differ, a flat price wouldn't be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Red Mount Chapel.
For that reason, every call from Highgate begins with the identical trio — what got in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Once those are known, a range turns into a single fixed number.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still next to the car around Highgate?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Norfolk, Highgate included.