Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Linslade
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble begins once it is sucked through the pump — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully cleaned where the car stands in Linslade. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Linslade
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting LU7 2, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way down Springfield Road.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
The attendants working at any Linslade forecourt — the Tesco among them — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. At home, your car stays exactly where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup draws its supply from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Rushmere last night and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of that tank, untouched — but it will be first through if the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of damage come from there. 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 parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning in Linslade makes it worse. In the tank alone, time does nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the whole problem. Blended into your diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless at that stage; running the engine is the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle is in Grove or the centre of Linslade, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not stay blended, so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Bedfordshire the car has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Linslade
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. A bottle bought when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Linslade Lower School. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive near Southcourt Road. Or someone new to that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Buckingham Arms.
Rented cars, brand-new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it most. Wherever in Bedfordshire, Linslade as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Linslade: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been sucked through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Linslade Recreation Ground, or part way across Linslade, the motor may go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or cut out. No starting it again to check: pull over once safe, then switch everything off. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M1, under 10 miles from Linslade, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Linslade to the car park by Nyamba is a very different job from a run towards Milton Keynes, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where your car has stopped, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very rare if it's noticed soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Linslade?
Wherever it has stopped around Linslade — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside St Barnabas Church — the van travels to the vehicle. The job rests on three replies, which we ask for before all else — what was put in, the quantity, and if your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after your tank is drained, on the spot. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not wash out by itself. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a test of your car. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. Whether it's a parking space by Leighton Buzzard or a drive around Linslade, that is where our engineers start it and you drive off. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Linslade and where it is
Linslade is a suburban area in Bedfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse at an elevation of around 99 metres. Linslade lies approximately 36.9 miles northwest of London and is close to the nearby towns of Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes. Linslade has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Linslade is separated from the older settlement of Old Linslade by the Grand Union Canal.
AdBlue drains across Bedfordshire, Linslade included
AdBlue jobs around Linslade go to vans that cover the towns near it — Leighton Buzzard, Old Linslade plus Ascott — and most of Bedfordshire further out, throughout LU postcodes. Assuming won't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
Linslade is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Linslade: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind St Barnabas Church Hall.
That is why every call from Linslade starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. With them, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Linslade: still next to the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Linslade or wherever within Bedfordshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.