Lower Leigh: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts until your motor pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Lower Leigh, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Lower Leigh, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Ring just where you are. Say a BA16 0 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance up Merriman Road.
- By the road, don't try draining it yourself.
Moving the vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Lower Leigh forecourt you're on, the Sainsbury's included. On that drive, the vehicle remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — entirely different from fuel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Stone Hill overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, untouched — but it would be the first thing through if the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Once it's drawn in, the harm takes two forms. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. Overnight, a car sitting in Lower Leigh with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it's only in that tank, nothing changes. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a problem of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether the vehicle is in Overleigh or the centre of Lower Leigh, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only inside that tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in Somerset.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Lower Leigh: how it ends up there
Many motors put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two can look identical. No one intends it. It mostly takes place at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Hindhayes Infant School. After work, a container goes in on a driveway close to Vestry Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Lantokay, 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 motor, or the spare car of a home with one of each fuels — the cars drivers use the least. An identical slip, same first response — keep it off — wherever you are in Lower Leigh or the remainder of Somerset.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lower Leigh?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Merriman Park or halfway across Lower Leigh. When you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — with no restarting to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M5, under 10 miles from Lower Leigh, at the first junction and stop safely, not carrying on.
A quick hop across Lower Leigh to the car park by Mission Church is one matter; driving for Wells, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Lower Leigh?
The car stays where it is, whether that's a road beside The Bayliss Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Lower Leigh, and our van travels to it. What went in, about the quantity, plus whether your engine has turned over: our engineers check before all else, since those decide the job.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. A careful flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains won't wash away by itself. Testing the car comes last, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if needed, replaced. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the motor hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, your system is bled with fresh diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, outside Castle Cary or on a drive around Lower Leigh. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. As the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Lower Leigh, briefly
Lower Leigh is a suburban area in inland Somerset, situated near the city of Wells and the villages of Street and Middle Leigh. Lower Leigh has a relatively low elevation of 23 metres and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Lower Leigh is located near the Portway and is approximately 7 miles from Wells, with the larger city of London around 116 miles to the east.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Lower Leigh included
Street, Middle Leigh and Portway are among the places near Lower Leigh that the same vans serve, together with much of Somerset beyond, over the BA postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No towing is needed. In Lower Leigh, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: your car is emptied where it stands, be it on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Lower Leigh: the cost of fixing it
Since the jobs vary, a flat price wouldn't be honest. What moves the price is, first of all, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Crispin Community Centre.
Before a figure, never afterwards, every enquiry from Lower Leigh begins with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. Those answers narrow a range down to a single figure.
Our price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Lower Leigh: still beside your car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Lower Leigh or anywhere in Somerset.