AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lelant? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your lines — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Lelant. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lelant: the first few minutes
To do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting TR26 3, or whatever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the car: your motor stays off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch down Tyringham Road.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll your car away from the island if you are on a forecourt in Lelant, whether it's the Central Garage or somewhere else. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't blend. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Rose-an-Grouse last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
After it is sucked in, the harm 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, so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a vehicle parked around Lelant. Just in that tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Trelissick or the heart of Lelant equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Anywhere around Cornwall the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
Lelant: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver picks up a container driving home and tips it in at home.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Penpol School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Church Road. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Badger Inn.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a fleet car, or the other car in a home with both fuels — the cars drivers use least. Anywhere around Cornwall, Lelant included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it switched off.
Lelant: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might show up, perhaps part way across Lelant or returning from Ann's Wood. When safe, stop then turn everything off — with no restarting to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M5, over 50 miles from Lelant, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Lelant to the car park by St Uny, Lelant is a very different job from a run towards Truro, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has run there is more of it. If it's spotted early, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Lelant
Anywhere it has stopped in Lelant — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road by Paradise Park — our van travels to the vehicle. What went in, roughly the quantity, and if the engine has been run: we check first, because those shape the work.
Then the tank is drained where your car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains won't flush out unaided. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of the car. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. After that our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space at the nearest station or a driveway in Lelant. The test before our technicians head off is that it runs correctly on new diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Lelant itself
Lelant is a small coastal village in Cornwall, situated near the mouth of the Hayle Estuary at an elevation of 31 metres. Lelant lies within a short distance of nearby settlements such as Griggs, Hayle, and Foundry, and is approximately 18 miles from the city of Truro. Lelant has a population of around 596 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Lelant is located in the South West region of England, about 249 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Lelant included
AdBlue jobs in Lelant go to teams that cover the places near it — Griggs, Hayle as well as Foundry — and most of Cornwall further out, throughout TR postcodes. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Lelant, a coastal village: you have no need to bring the car to us, since we empty it there, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Lelant?
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Coast2Coast Karting.
That's why every call from Lelant starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single firm number.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price on the phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Lelant: still beside the vehicle?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran are all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Cornwall, Lelant too.