AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Holly End? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes once the pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Holly End, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has run. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Holly End, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take the keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so don't throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PE14 8, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: your motor remains off.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Elmside.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the vehicle away from the island if you are on a forecourt in Holly End, whether it is the Bloom & Wake Ltd or elsewhere. If you're on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Colletts Br overnight and left unstarted counts as the simple case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once the motor turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it's flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Holly End with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's only in your tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Morrisons, and the problem is thinned fuel. No harm is done while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Emneth Hungate or the middle of Holly End.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits just in your tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, wherever the car has come to rest around Norfolk.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Holly End
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. A bottle bought while driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Emneth Academy. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Highfields. Else, after dark by Gaultree Inn, your car gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new vehicle, a fleet vehicle, or the other car in a home with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers use least. Keep it switched off: that's the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Holly End or the remainder of Norfolk you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Holly End?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
Maybe coming back from Emneth Playing Field, or part way across Holly End, your motor might run rough, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or cut out. Once safe, pull over then switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the Great North Road, under 25 miles from Holly End, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why a hop across Holly End to park near Saint Edmund and a drive of under 25 miles towards Ely are such different jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to flush once your engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Holly End
A street beside Emneth Village Sign, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your car has stopped in Holly End, we travel to it. Three answers shape the job, so first our engineers ask what went in, roughly the amount, plus if the engine has run.
Then the tank is cleared where the car sits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned right through because what remains will not wash away by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of the car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians arrive, provided the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Whether it's a parking bay outside Downham Market or a driveway in Holly End, that is where we start it and you drive off. Before we leave, our technicians check it's running properly with clean diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Holly End
Holly End is a small suburban area in Norfolk, situated inland at a low elevation of around 3 metres. Holly End lies near the villages of Boyces Bridge and Gaultree, and is close to the larger settlement of Emneth. Holly End has a population of approximately 695 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Holly End and Norfolk
Boyces Bridge, Gaultree and Emneth are among the towns around Holly End that the same teams serve, together with most of Norfolk beyond, throughout the PE postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
No moving is needed. In Holly End, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, be it in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Holly End: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat figure could be fair, because every job is different. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight gap behind Outwell Village Sign.
Before a figure, never afterwards, each call from Holly End opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. Those replies narrow a range right down to a single number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Holly End: still beside the car?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Holly End or anywhere in Norfolk.