AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Latchbrook? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens until your engine sucks it round. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Latchbrook. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Latchbrook
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Quote a PL12 4 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the car.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Even a short way up Snell Drive is too far to drive it.
- Draining the tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
The attendants on duty at any Latchbrook forecourt — the Shell among them — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was meant to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in St Stephens overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once the engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it till morning in Latchbrook makes it worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the BP, and the issue is thinned fuel. No damage is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Carkeel or the middle of Latchbrook.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around Cornwall the vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Latchbrook?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts invite it. Usually it is never the forecourt: someone buys a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Burraton Community Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Near Gallacher Way, a driver tips a bottle in on that drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Ploughboy, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar cars see it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare car in a home with both fuels. Wherever around Cornwall, Latchbrook included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Latchbrook?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been drawn through the filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Chapel Fields, say, or part way across Latchbrook. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep it off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Latchbrook sits under 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Latchbrook to the car park by Burraton Methodist Church is a very different job from a run towards Plymouth, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it's noticed quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Latchbrook
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Latchbrook: a side street close to Burraton Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three answers, and our technicians get first — which fluid got in, the quantity, and if your engine has run.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not wash away by itself. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Latchbrook or in a space at Saltash. The check before we leave is that it runs properly on new diesel. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Latchbrook and where it is
Latchbrook is a suburban area in Cornwall, situated near the coast and approximately 5 miles from Plymouth. Latchbrook sits at an elevation of 53 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape and nearby areas such as Burraton Coombe and Forder. Latchbrook is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Latchbrook is home to around 3554 people, according to approximate population figures.
Latchbrook and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Latchbrook go to vans that cover the towns around it — Burraton Coombe, Forder plus Trehan — and most of Cornwall beyond, throughout PL postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Latchbrook is a residential suburb, and a mobile 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, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Latchbrook: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one single figure would be fair, since every job is different. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Trematon Castle.
Ahead of any quote, not after, every enquiry from Latchbrook begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, and if the engine ran. Their replies narrow a range down to a single number.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Alongside the car around Latchbrook, still?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Latchbrook or anywhere in Cornwall.