Highweek: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble starts once it is pulled through the lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Highweek, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Highweek
To do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Ring just where you are. Say a TQ12 1 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Moving your car just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance up Belvedere Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
At a forecourt in Highweek, whether it is the Heltor,Highweek Garage or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — entirely different from fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Abbotsbury last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Highweek with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is just inside the tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the another forecourt nearby, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion remain through the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, and so watering it can't work. Hence the flush matters more, and turning the key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other mistake — in Knowles Hill or the centre of Highweek equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside that tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, wherever your vehicle has come to rest in Devon.
Highweek: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. It mostly takes place at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Joseph's Catholic Primary School the top-up is rushed. Close to Darracombe Crescent, a driver pours a container in on the drive after work. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car in dim light, parked in the car park outside Highweek Village Inn.
The least known vehicles see it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet ones, and the other car in a home with both fuels. Wherever you are in Highweek or the rest of Devon, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Highweek?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through your filter and lines.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Segar's Plantation, perhaps, or midway across Highweek. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Highweek lies under 15 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Highweek to park near All Saints and a drive of under 15 miles for Exeter are such distinct jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once your engine has been started, and we do all of it where the car has ended up. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it's noticed quickly.
Highweek: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest around Highweek — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street by Community Centre — our van comes to the car. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if your engine has run, since those replies decide this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. At that point our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Newton Abbot or a driveway around Highweek. Our engineers make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we leave. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Highweek, for a moment
Highweek is a locality situated on the riverside in Devon, with an elevation of 33 metres above sea level. Highweek lies approximately 13 miles from Exeter and 166 miles from London, placing it in a rural yet accessible setting. Highweek is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its appeal as a residential area. Highweek is surrounded by nearby places such as Mile End, Broadlands, and Teigngrace, which contribute to its local community.
AdBlue drains around Highweek and across Devon
Mile End, Broadlands and Teigngrace are among the towns near Highweek that the same vans serve, together with much of Devon further out, throughout the TQ postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you suits Highweek, a small village: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Highweek
Since each jobs differ, a flat figure would not be honest. What shifts the cost is, first of all, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Newton Abbot Leisure Centre.
What went in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: every Highweek enquiry opens with precisely those, ahead of any quote, never afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
The quote is given during the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Highweek: still alongside the car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the best move open to you. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Highweek or wherever within Devon.