Ivy Cross: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage just comes once your pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Ivy Cross, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Ivy Cross, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or the receipt, and we can see.
- Call right where you are. Quote a SP7 8 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself starts your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it is wasted.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Grosvenor Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
At a forecourt around Ivy Cross, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car clear of the pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Alcester last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches till it is removed from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in narrow channels. A vehicle left standing in Ivy Cross with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, which is a second kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Tesco. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Ivy Cross or out in Long Cross, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere across Dorset the vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Ivy Cross: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Shaftesbury Church of England Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Ivy Cross Roundabout. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by The Kings Arms, and someone using that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — rentals, brand-new ones, company cars, and the spare vehicle of a home with one of each fuels. Wherever in Dorset, Ivy Cross as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ivy Cross, and your engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
Maybe coming back from Barton Hill Recreation Ground, or part way across Ivy Cross, your motor may go rough, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or stall. Once safe, stop and turn everything off — with no turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Ivy Cross lies under 50 miles from the M27; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, so driving towards Salisbury, under 25 miles away, makes a much bigger job than hopping across Ivy Cross to the car park by Kingdom Hall. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Ivy Cross: what it takes
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Ivy Cross: a side street near William Lush's Blue Coat School, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the engine has run, since those answers settle the work.
Then the tank is drained where the car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a check of the car. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the final step. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Ivy Cross or in a bay by Gillingham (Dorset). The check before our engineers head off is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Ivy Cross
Ivy Cross is a locality in north Dorset, situated inland at an elevation of 219 metres, with views of the surrounding countryside. Ivy Cross is characterized by its terraced housing and is located near the historic town of Shaftesbury and the village of Enmore Green. Ivy Cross sits within commuting distance of Salisbury, which is approximately 17.7 miles away. Ivy Cross is also relatively close to the village of St James.
Ivy Cross and Dorset: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Ivy Cross also cover the locations around it, Shaftesbury, Enmore Green and St James among them, and most of Dorset beyond, across the SP postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Ivy Cross, a small village: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Ivy Cross: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open driveway is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Shaftesbury Library.
Ahead of any quote, not afterwards, every call from Ivy Cross opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. Those replies shrink the range down to one figure.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Ivy Cross and still alongside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Ivy Cross or wherever within Dorset, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.