AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kingskerswell? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Kingskerswell. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kingskerswell: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not throw it out.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting TQ12 5, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the spot.
Not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch up School Road.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
The attendants on duty at any Kingskerswell forecourt — the Harvest Energy included — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits beneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Edginswell last night and not switched on remains the straightforward one, provided nobody touches your key.
After it is pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a car parked around Kingskerswell with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's only inside your tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate form of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside that tank, it causes nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion stay after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Daccombe or the centre of Kingskerswell equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Anywhere across Devon the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
Kingskerswell: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Kingskerswell Church of England Primary School. Near Fore Street, a driver tips a container in on that drive in the evening. Another version: darkness, a pub car park outside The Sloop, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are in Kingskerswell or the rest of Devon, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Kingskerswell: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. With any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Snakey Copse, or midway across Kingskerswell, your motor might go rough, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Kingskerswell lies under 15 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Kingskerswell to the car park by Kingskerswell Village Hall is a very different job from a run towards Exeter, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once the engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's noticed quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Kingskerswell
A street by Parish Church Centre, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Kingskerswell, we travel to it. The job rests on three replies, which our technicians ask for before all else — what got in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. The system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, provided the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, outside Newton Abbot or on a drive in Kingskerswell. It is tested on new diesel to confirm it runs properly before we head off. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Kingskerswell and where it is
Kingskerswell is a village situated in the county of Devon, near the River Teign and close to the cities of Exeter and Torquay. Kingskerswell has a population of around 2114 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Kingskerswell sits at an elevation of 31 metres, in a scenic riverside setting that is typical of many villages in the South West region. Kingskerswell is located near several smaller settlements, including Coffinswell and Stoneycombe.
AdBlue drains in Kingskerswell and across Devon
Coffinswell, Stoneycombe and North Whilborough are among the places around Kingskerswell that the same teams serve, together with most of Devon beyond, throughout the TQ postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or anywhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
No moving is needed. In Kingskerswell, a village, a mobile service fits: the car is emptied where it stands, whether on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Kingskerswell
No flat figure could be fair, because each job differs. Three things move the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind St. Mary's Church.
That's why every call from Kingskerswell starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. When they are known, a range becomes one firm figure.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Alongside your car around Kingskerswell, still?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Devon, Kingskerswell included.