AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Lack? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble just starts when the pump starts drawing it. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly flushed where your car sits in Lack. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Lack: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Say a BT93 0 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Even a short stretch up Rock Street is too far to drive the car.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Lack, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same place the pickup sucks from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, which is why a car filled in Irvinestown last night and never started stays the simple one, as long as nobody turns the key.
After it is sucked in, the damage takes two forms. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it reaches until it's cleared from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny channels. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning in Lack makes it worse. In that tank only, time does nothing. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the components that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage is done while it sits put, mixed into the diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Drumquin or the middle of Lack.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever around County Fermanagh the car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Lack
Many motors put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. No one intends it. A bottle picked up while driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical route.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. Near Crom Street, a driver tips a container in at home after work. Or the vehicle 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 crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the other vehicle of a family with both fuel types — the vehicles people use the least. Wherever across County Fermanagh, Lack as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
Lack: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Through your filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from the green space at the edge of the village or halfway across Lack. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M77, over 50 miles from Lack, by the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Hopping across Lack to the car park by the centre is one matter; heading for Derry, under 50 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once the motor has been started, and we do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Permanent damage is very unusual when it's caught early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Lack?
Anywhere it has stopped in Lack — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by a street just off the centre — our van travels to the car. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if your engine has been run, since those answers decide the work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians get there, provided your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with fresh diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, at the nearest station or on a driveway around Lack. We confirm it runs correctly on clean diesel before we leave. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Lack, briefly
Lack is a small locality in County Fermanagh, situated inland at an elevation of 108 metres. Lack lies near the villages of Ederney and Dromore, and is approximately 32 miles from the city of Derry. Lack is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Lack is home to around 520 residents, who live in a peaceful environment surrounded by the countryside of Northern Ireland.
Lack and County Fermanagh: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Lack go to vans that cover the places around it — Ederney, Dooish plus Dromore — and most of County Fermanagh beyond, throughout BT postcodes. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No moving is needed. In Lack, a small village, a van that comes to you works: your vehicle is emptied on the spot, be it on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Lack
Since the jobs differ, a flat price wouldn't be fair. What moves the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind the far end of the built-up part.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: each Lack enquiry begins by asking exactly that, before any figure, never after. With those replies, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Still beside the car around Lack?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move open to you. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout County Fermanagh, Lack included.