Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Locking
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your motor off and leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble starts once it is pulled through the lines — it won't burn, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Locking, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Locking
To do:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting BS24 8, or just the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch up B3368.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
At a forecourt in Locking, whether it is the Asda Express or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car away from the pump. On your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what the motor emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A car topped up on a drive in Lower Canada overnight and left unstarted is the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your engine runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
It does two kinds of harm 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, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car parked around Locking. Only inside that tank, it stays stable. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, and that is a second form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the main problem. Blended through the diesel and left still, it's harmless for now; using your motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Locking or out in Hutton, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside the tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere your car has come to rest across Somerset.
Locking: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts allow it. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Locking Primary School the top-up is rushed. Close to Grenville Avenue, someone tips a bottle in at home after work. Another pattern: darkness, the car park by The Coach House, and someone opening that flap the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that's the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere around Locking or the remainder of Somerset you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Locking, and the engine started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Parkland Arboretum, say, or part way across Locking. No starting it again to test: pull over when safe, then switch it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M5, under a mile from Locking, by the first junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Locking to park beside Locking Village Hall and a drive of under 15 miles towards Wells are very distinct jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. If it is spotted soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Locking: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Anywhere it has stopped in Locking — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road by Parish Church of St. Augustine — the van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether your motor has run, since those answers settle the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after your tank is drained, right there. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't wash out by itself. After that, your filter: flushed, or replaced if it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a check 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 the system on fresh diesel. You drive off as soon as we have started it, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Locking or in a bay outside Weston Milton. Before we leave, we check it is running properly with fresh diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Locking
Locking is a small village in inland Somerset, situated near the Mendip Hills and approximately 14 miles from the city of Wells. Locking has a relatively low elevation of around 13 metres and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Locking is also close to nearby places such as Locking Parklands and Elborough, and is about 120 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Locking and Somerset
Over the BS postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Locking serve most of Somerset as well, Locking Parklands, Elborough and Upper Canada included. Guessing won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
A mobile service suits Locking, a rural village: there's no need to bring the car to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Locking: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single figure would be fair, since every job differs. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight gap behind The Radio Wing.
What got in, how much, and whether the engine ran: each Locking call begins with exactly those, before any quote, never afterwards. Once they are answered, a range becomes one fixed number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Locking: still next to the car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Locking or anywhere within Somerset, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.