Holland-on-Sea: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The harm starts once it's pulled through the lines — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Holland-on-Sea, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Holland-on-Sea: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take your keys away.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Give us a postcode starting CO15 5, or whatever street is nearest, and the van finds you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Moving the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Salisbury Road.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Moving the car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Holland-on-Sea forecourt you're on, the Asda included. If you're on your own drive, leave the car just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. From a separate tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what your engine emits. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, which is why a car topped up in Great Holland yesterday and never started remains the simple one, provided no one touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Holland-on-Sea with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is only inside your tank, it doesn't. Then there is the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. No damage is done as long as it sits put, blended into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the following tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Holland-on-Sea or out in Bockings Elm, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Wherever around Essex the car has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
Holland-on-Sea: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A container bought while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The refill gets hurried outside Holland Haven Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken off. Close to York Road, a driver tips a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Oakwood, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles get it the most — hire cars, new ones, company ones, and the other car of a family with one of each fuels. Anywhere in Essex, Holland-on-Sea included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Holland-on-Sea: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Ipswich Road Paddock or halfway across Holland-on-Sea. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the car off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Holland-on-Sea lies under 50 miles from the M2; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so heading towards Colchester, under 15 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Holland-on-Sea to the car park by Holland-on-Sea Bowling Club. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it's caught early.
Holland-on-Sea: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest around Holland-on-Sea — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road beside Holland Library — our van travels to your car. Three answers shape the work, and so first we ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, plus whether your motor has turned over.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. What remains from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, the system is bled with clean diesel. After that we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space at Clacton-On-Sea or a drive around Holland-on-Sea. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Holland-on-Sea
Holland-on-Sea is a suburban area located on the coast of Essex, with a population of around 4504 people. Holland-on-Sea sits at an elevation of 15 metres, overlooking the sea and offering views of the surrounding coastline. Holland-on-Sea is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is situated near to other residential areas such as Great Clacton and Clacton-on-Sea. Holland-on-Sea is also close to Burrsville Park, a local green space.
AdBlue drains across Holland-on-Sea and Essex
Over the CO postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs in Holland-on-Sea reach much of Essex as well, Burrsville Park, Great Clacton and Clacton-on-Sea among them. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No towing is needed. In Holland-on-Sea, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your car is emptied on the spot, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Holland-on-Sea: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open driveway is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Holland On Sea Baptist Church.
That is why each call from Holland-on-Sea starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. When they are known, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. As the van is travelling, check your policy: many include misfuelling.
Holland-on-Sea: still alongside your car?
Then, touch nothing — that is the best move available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Holland-on-Sea or anywhere in Essex.