Little Shelford: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts until the engine sucks it through. In Little Shelford, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Little Shelford: the first few minutes
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CB22 5, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up High Street.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
The attendants working at any Little Shelford forecourt — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On that drive, your car remains exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the very place the pickup sucks from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Stapleford yesterday and not started stays the simple one, provided no one turns the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it remains in there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle sitting in Little Shelford. Only inside that tank, it stays stable. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the BP. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Newton or the heart of Little Shelford alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Cambridgeshire the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Little Shelford: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts allow it. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Great and Little Shelford CofE (Aided) Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up your car. Someone tips the bottle in at home, right off Church Street, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, parked in the car park outside The SideQuest.
The least known vehicles see it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle of a home with both fuel types. An identical mistake, same first response — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be in Little Shelford or the remainder of Cambridgeshire.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Little Shelford?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may show up, maybe midway across Little Shelford or coming back from Wale Recreation Ground. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Leave it off rather than restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Little Shelford lies under a mile from the M11; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Little Shelford to the car park by Little Shelford Memorial Hall is one matter; heading for Cambridge, under 5 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been run. Permanent damage is very unusual when it's noticed soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Little Shelford?
Anywhere it has stopped around Little Shelford — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside All Saints — the van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the engine has run, because those answers determine the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is emptied, right there. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, the filter: flushed, or changed if it must be. Then clean diesel, then a test of the car. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, by Shelford or on a drive around Little Shelford. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Little Shelford, briefly
Little Shelford is a small village in Cambridgeshire, situated on the River Cam and near the city of Cambridge. Little Shelford has a low elevation of around 19 metres and is surrounded by nearby places such as Hauxton and Great Shelford. Little Shelford is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located approximately 45 miles from London. Little Shelford remains a quiet residential community with a population of around 534 people.
AdBlue drains across Little Shelford and Cambridgeshire
Over the CB postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Little Shelford reach much of Cambridgeshire too, Hauxton, Freestones Corner and Great Shelford included. Guessing won't help close to a border or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
No moving is needed. In Little Shelford, a village, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Little Shelford: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. What changes the cost is, first of all, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St Mary The Virgin, Great Shelford.
Ahead of any quote, not afterwards, every call from Little Shelford begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus if the engine ran. Once those are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Alongside your car in Little Shelford, still?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Little Shelford or wherever in Cambridgeshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.