Lidget: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it's sucked through the pump — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Lidget. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Lidget: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Pocket your keys, and that stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting DN9 3, or whichever street lies nearest, and our van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short way along Mosham Road.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
At a forecourt in Lidget, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. On the drive, the car stays just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Branton last night and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of your tank, untouched — though it would be first through if the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it does 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, and so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle parked in Lidget. Only in the tank, it stays stable. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the JET. No harm is done as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only once your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits again — and the next fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Lidget or out in Finningley, does more harm than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in South Yorkshire.
Lidget: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Auckley Primary Academy. A driver pours the bottle in at home, just off Lidgett Gardens, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills the car after dark, parked in the car park outside Eagle and Child.
It takes place most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Lidget or the rest of South Yorkshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Lidget: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — into the injection pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may appear, perhaps midway across Lidget or returning from Hayfield green. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Lidget sits under 3 miles from the M18; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system. That's why crossing Lidget to park beside St Saviour and a drive of under 10 miles for Doncaster are such separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Lidget
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Lidget: a side street near Yorkshire Wildlife Park, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run, because those answers settle this work.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. A careful flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't clear away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The final step is to prime the system on clean diesel. At that point we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Kirk Sandall or a drive around Lidget. Before we leave, our technicians check it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Lidget and where it is
Lidget is a locality in South Yorkshire, situated near the town of Doncaster and close to several nearby places including Auckley, Hayfield Green, and Blaxton. Lidget lies inland, with an elevation of around 9 metres, and is approximately 142 miles north of London. Lidget is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Lidget is a small community with a population of around 616 people.
Lidget and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Auckley, Hayfield Green and Blaxton are among the places near Lidget that the same vans reach, together with most of South Yorkshire further out, over the DN postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you're by a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service suits Lidget, a small village: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Lidget: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because each jobs vary, a single figure would not be honest. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind Stone Circle.
What was put in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: every Lidget call opens with exactly that, before a quote, never afterwards. Given those replies, the range narrows to one fixed number.
Our price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Lidget and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Lidget or wherever within South Yorkshire.