Killyman: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing starts until your engine pulls it round. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Killyman. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Killyman: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we can see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BT71 6, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Never:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Chalet Road.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the vehicle away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Killyman, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor lets out. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Dungannon last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Once it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is flushed out. Lines holding AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle sitting in Killyman. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the main problem. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is inside your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether your car sits in Derrytresk or the centre of Killyman, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the following tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever around County Tyrone the car has stopped.
Killyman: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs allow it. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. The top-up is rushed outside the local primary school, because your dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken in. A driver tips the container in at home, right off North Crescent, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside the pub in the village, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that's the first step to the same slip, anywhere in Killyman or the rest of County Tyrone you happen to be.
Killyman: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may appear, maybe midway across Killyman or coming back from the green space at the edge of the village. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the car off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M77, over 50 miles from Killyman, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why crossing Killyman to park beside the centre and a drive of under 10 miles for Armagh are such separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. If it is caught quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Killyman: what it takes
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Killyman: a side street close to a street just off the centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, since those replies decide the work.
Next, emptying that tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. A careful flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't clear out on its own. A test of your vehicle comes at the end, after clean diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, where needed, swapped. Not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Last, the system is primed with fresh diesel. 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 Killyman or in a bay at the nearest station. We make sure it runs smoothly on new diesel before we go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Killyman and where it is
Killyman is a small locality in County Tyrone, situated inland at an elevation of 26 metres, approximately 9.9 miles from Armagh. Killyman is characterised by its semi-detached housing and is located near other localities such as Moygashel, Tamnamore, and Clonmore. Killyman has a population of around 748 people and is part of the wider Northern Ireland region.
AdBlue drains across County Tyrone, Killyman included
Throughout the BT postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Killyman reach most of County Tyrone too, Moygashel, Tamnamore and Clonmore among them. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
A van that comes to you fits Killyman, a small village: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Killyman: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the jobs differ, a single figure wouldn't be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind the far end of the built-up part.
For that reason, each enquiry from Killyman begins with the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Killyman: still next to your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Killyman or wherever within County Tyrone, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.