Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ilton
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Ilton, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Ilton: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting TA19 9, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Many diesels run their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short way down Hill View Close.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it on your own.
The attendants on duty at any Ilton filling station — the Q8 among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. At home, your car remains exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the very spot the intake draws from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Rapps overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — though it will be the first thing through once the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. 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, so it keeps labouring on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Ilton with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is only inside your tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, and that is a separate kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Shell, and the problem is thinned fuel. Blended into the diesel and left still, it's harmless at that stage; running the engine does the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the next fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Ilton or out in Ashwell, costs more than nearly any other error.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere around Somerset your car has come to rest, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Ilton
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside St Mary's & St Peter's Church School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Frost Lane. Otherwise, after dark outside Wyndham Arms, your car is refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
It takes place most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere around Ilton or the rest of Somerset you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ilton?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Perhaps coming back from Every's Copse, or midway across Ilton, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or cut out. When you safely can, stop and switch everything off — with no restarting to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, under 10 miles from Ilton, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Ilton to the car park by St Peter is a very different job from a run towards Wells, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once the engine has been run, and we do all of it where your car has stopped. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Ilton?
A road beside St Andrew, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Ilton, we come to it. The job depends on three replies, which our technicians ask for before all else — which fluid went in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through since what remains won't wash away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the last step. Whether it is a parking bay outside Crewkerne or a driveway in Ilton, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to go to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Ilton itself
Ilton is a village in Somerset, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 33 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Ilton lies near several other small settlements, including Cad Green, Ilford, and Old Way, and is approximately 21 miles from the city of Wells. Ilton is also relatively distant from London, at around 127 miles away. Ilton has a population of around 1070 residents.
AdBlue drains across Ilton and Somerset
Throughout the TA postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Ilton serve much of Somerset as well, Cad Green, Ilford and Old Way among them. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Anywhere your car stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we empty it there, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Ilton, a village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Ilton: the cost of fixing it
Because the callouts differ, a single price wouldn't be honest. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Dillington House.
What went in, how much, plus if the engine ran: every Ilton call opens by asking exactly those, before a quote, not afterwards. Given them, the range shrinks to one fixed number.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the vehicle around Ilton?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are all we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Somerset, Ilton included.