AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Darwen? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm starts until the engine sucks it round. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Lower Darwen. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lower Darwen: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Which product, and about how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BB3 0, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Higher Croft Road.
- Draining your tank on your own by the road isn't worth trying.
Moving the car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Lower Darwen forecourt you are on, the Texaco or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in Earcroft overnight and not started since is the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when the motor runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Overnight, a car parked around Lower Darwen with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's only in that tank, it doesn't. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the main fault. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside that tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain through the next tankful, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, so watering it won't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Moss Bridge or the centre of Lower Darwen equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across Lancashire the vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Lower Darwen?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside Lower Darwen Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken in. Close to Rakes Bridge, a driver tips a container in on the drive after work. Another pattern: darkness, the car park by Golden Cup, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever across Lancashire, Lower Darwen included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lower Darwen, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Maybe coming back from Fernhurst Wood, or part way across Lower Darwen, the motor might go rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. Once safe, stop and turn it off — without restarting to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Leave the M65, under a mile from Lower Darwen, at the next junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving for Preston, under 10 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Lower Darwen to the car park by St James. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Lower Darwen
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Lower Darwen: a side street near Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What was put in, roughly the quantity, and whether the motor has been run: our engineers ask first, because those shape the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one when that tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned right through since what remains won't flush out by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is bled with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by Mill Hill (Lancs) or on a driveway around Lower Darwen. Our technicians check it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Lower Darwen and where it is
Lower Darwen is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 131 metres. Lower Darwen lies approximately 9.6 miles from Preston and 181.9 miles from London, with nearby places including Blackamoor, Higher Croft, and Ewood. Lower Darwen has a population of around 5099 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Lower Darwen is characterized by its residential community and riverside setting.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Lower Darwen included
Blackamoor, Higher Croft and Ewood are among the places around Lower Darwen that the same vans serve, along with much of Lancashire further out, over the BB postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Lower Darwen is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Lower Darwen?
There is no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Roman Road Library.
Before any figure, never after, every enquiry from Lower Darwen begins with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. With those replies, a range narrows to a single fixed number.
Our price is given on the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Lower Darwen and still next to the car?
Then, do nothing — that is the best step there is. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Lower Darwen or anywhere across Lancashire.