Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kewstoke
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Kewstoke, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Kewstoke: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting BS22 9, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van finds you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Kewside.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
At a forecourt in Kewstoke, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays separate instead of blending — entirely unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A car filled on a driveway in Milton yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but once the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Once it is drawn in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting till morning in Kewstoke makes it worse. In the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the main fault. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the following fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Kewstoke or out in Worle, costs more than almost any other mistake.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever across Somerset your car has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Kewstoke: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of layouts allow it. It mostly takes place outside the house, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Kewstoke Primary School. Close to Kewstoke Road, someone tips a container in on the drive in the evening. Or someone new to that flap refills your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside The New Inn.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other motor in a family with both fuel types — the vehicles people know least. Same slip, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Kewstoke or the remainder of Somerset.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kewstoke?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
Perhaps returning from Play and adventure area (Bike Park), or part way across Kewstoke, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M5, under 3 miles from Kewstoke, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, so heading towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, gives a much bigger job than crossing Kewstoke to the car park by St Paul. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where your car has ended up, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's caught quickly.
Kewstoke: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road by Kewstoke Village Hall, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your car has stopped in Kewstoke, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else we ask what was put in, about how much, and if your engine has been run, since those answers settle the work.
Then your tank is drained where your car sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to prime the system on new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, outside Weston Milton or on a drive around Kewstoke. Before leaving, we check it is running correctly with fresh diesel in. No workshop is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Kewstoke
Kewstoke is a small coastal village in Somerset, situated near the Bristol Channel and close to the nearby settlements of Worlebury and Norton. Kewstoke has a population of around 1435 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Kewstoke sits at a low elevation of 14 metres above sea level, looking out towards the Welsh coast. Kewstoke is located near several areas of natural beauty, including Ashcombe Park.
Kewstoke and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Kewstoke go to vans that cover the places around it — Worlebury, Norton plus Ashcombe Park — and most of Somerset further out, across BS postcodes. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Kewstoke is a coastal village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Kewstoke?
No flat price could be honest, because every job differs. Three things move the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Saint Judes Theatre.
Before any figure, never after, each enquiry from Kewstoke opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you are told our quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. While the van is on the way, check your insurance: many include misfuelling.
In Kewstoke and still beside the car?
Then, touch nothing — that's the best step there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Kewstoke or anywhere across Somerset.