Lusty: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system draws it in. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Lusty. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Lusty, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting BA10 0, or just the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: your engine remains off.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it's wasted.
- Even a short stretch along Park Wall is too far to drive the car.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
At a forecourt in Lusty, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the pump. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Pitcombe last night and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through once your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What remains when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it's flushed out. A vehicle left standing in Lusty with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Harvest Energy. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following fill, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush counts more, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Cole or the heart of Lusty alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere around Somerset the vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Lusty?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; many designs allow it. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Bruton Primary School the refill is hurried. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Station Road, as the day ends. Another version: darkness, the car park by The Sun Inn, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars get it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet cars, and the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuels. Same slip, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you are around Lusty or the rest of Somerset.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lusty, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Via your filter, along the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Maybe coming back from Oudolf Gardens, or midway across Lusty, your motor might run rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. When safe, pull over then turn everything off — with no restarting to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, under 25 miles from Lusty, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Wells, under 15 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Lusty to the car park by Dovecote. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the motor has run, and we do all of it where the car has stopped. Long-term damage is very rare if it's spotted quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Lusty?
A road by Rhoades Gallery, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: anywhere the car has come to rest in Lusty, our engineers travel to it. Which fluid was put in, about the quantity, and if the motor has been run: our technicians ask first, since those shape the work.
Then the tank is emptied where the car waits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not wash out on its own. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of the car. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Last, the system is primed with fresh diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Bruton or on a driveway in Lusty. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Lusty and where it is
Lusty is a small riverside locality in Somerset, situated near the cities of Wells and Bruton. Lusty sits at an elevation of 84 metres, with the surrounding countryside dominated by the River Brue. Lusty has a mix of housing types, but terraced homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Lusty is located approximately 10.9 miles from Wells and 104.1 miles from London.
Lusty and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Lusty are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Bruton, Tolbury as well as Discove — and much of Somerset beyond, throughout BA postcodes. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
No towing is needed. In Lusty, a small village, a van that comes to you fits: your car is emptied on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Lusty: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, and so not one single price 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 got in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Bourgeois Gallery.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: each Lusty call begins by asking precisely that, ahead of a quote, never afterwards. Once those are answered, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our quote on the phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. While our engineer is on the way, check your policy: many include misfuelling.
Still next to the vehicle in Lusty?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Lusty or anywhere in Somerset.