Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Long Bennington
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it is pulled through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. In Long Bennington, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Long Bennington: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call just where you are. Say a NG23 5 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition your car.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself starts the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't thin it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Vicarage Lane.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
The attendants working at any Long Bennington forecourt — the JET included — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On that drive, your car stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. From a dedicated tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. Nothing inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was intended to travel that way.
It does not combine. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a driveway in Staunton in the Vale yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once your motor runs, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and narrow passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Long Bennington with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it's only in your tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Esso, and this issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Askerton Hill or the heart of Long Bennington alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Lincolnshire the car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Long Bennington
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many designs invite it. Usually it's never the filling station: someone picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. The top-up is hurried outside Long Bennington Church of England Academy, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped in. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Squires View, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Reindeer, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new car, a company car, or the spare car in a home with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers know least. Wherever you're in Long Bennington or the remainder of Lincolnshire, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Long Bennington?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. With any running time, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might appear, perhaps midway across Long Bennington or returning from Normanton Thorns. No starting it again to check: pull over when safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Long Bennington sits under 25 miles from the M1; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Long Bennington to the car park by St James Hall is a very different job from a run towards Nottingham, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been started. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's noticed early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Long Bennington: what it takes
A road by Long Bennington Sports Pavilion, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the car has stopped around Long Bennington, our engineers come to it. Three answers decide the work, so first our technicians ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, plus if your motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when that tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of your vehicle. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. You set off as soon as we have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Long Bennington or in a space outside Bottesford. Our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on clean diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Long Bennington itself
Long Bennington is a village in Lincolnshire, situated on the banks of the River Witham, with a low elevation of around 31 metres. Long Bennington lies near the villages of Westborough, Dry Doddington, and Foston, and is approximately 16.5 miles from Nottingham. Long Bennington has a population of around 710 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Lincolnshire, Long Bennington included
Over the NG postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Long Bennington serve most of Lincolnshire as well, Westborough, Dry Doddington and Foston among them. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A mobile service fits Long Bennington, a village: there's no need to bring your car to us, because we drain it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Long Bennington: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price would be fair, since every job differs. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind St Swithun.
Which fluid went in, how much, and if the engine ran: each Long Bennington enquiry opens with exactly that, before a figure, never after. When those are answered, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Beside the vehicle in Long Bennington, right now?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Lincolnshire, Long Bennington included.