AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Longthorpe? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes once the pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Longthorpe, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Longthorpe, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a PE3 6 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so keep it off.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Woburn Close.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
Moving your vehicle off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Longthorpe forecourt you're on, the Shell included. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the gases. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays apart instead of blending — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same spot the intake sucks from. A motor filled on a driveway in Orton Waterville overnight and not started since counts as the simple case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when the engine turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. A vehicle left sitting around Longthorpe with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the BP, and this issue is diluted fuel. No damage comes as long as it stays unused, blended into the diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Ravensthorpe or the middle of Longthorpe.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just in the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest across Cambridgeshire.
Longthorpe: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — may appear the same. No one means it; plenty of designs allow it. It usually occurs outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Longthorpe Primary Academy the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off The Leys. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the car after dark, parked in the car park by Fox & Hounds.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new vehicle, a company car, or the other motor in a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers use the least. Anywhere in Cambridgeshire, Longthorpe as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Longthorpe: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
You may notice your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Thorpe Wood Nature Reserve or halfway across Longthorpe. Once safe, stop and switch everything off — with no restarting to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the A1(M), under 3 miles from Longthorpe, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, so heading towards Peterborough, under 3 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Longthorpe to the car park by St Botolph's. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is noticed soon.
Longthorpe: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest around Longthorpe — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Longthorpe Village Hall — our van travels to your vehicle. Three replies decide the job, so first our technicians ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, and if the motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one after the tank is drained, right there. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the car follows at the end, after clean diesel goes in and your filter gets cleaned or, if needed, swapped. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your engine has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. Then our engineers start the car and you set off, whether from a parking bay by Peterborough or a drive in Longthorpe. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. We do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Longthorpe and where it is
Longthorpe is a suburban area located near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, situated in a low-lying inland area with an elevation of around 22 metres. Longthorpe is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is close to nearby places such as Westwood and Orton Longueville. Longthorpe has a population of approximately 2978 residents and is situated about 1.8 miles from Peterborough city centre. Longthorpe is also within commuting distance of London, being around 73.8 miles away.
Longthorpe and Cambridgeshire: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Longthorpe also cover the locations around it, Westwood, Orton Longueville and Bretton among them, and most of Cambridgeshire beyond, across the PE postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
No moving is needed. In Longthorpe, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your car is emptied on the spot, be it on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Longthorpe?
Every job differs, so not one fixed quote would be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Longthorpe Tower.
Which fluid went in, how much, plus whether the engine ran: each Longthorpe enquiry begins with exactly that, ahead of any figure, never afterwards. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay 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 gets there.
Beside your car in Longthorpe, right now?
Then, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Longthorpe or wherever within Cambridgeshire.