Lydgate: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Lydgate. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lydgate: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we will know.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting HD9 7, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, so leave the car off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Moorcroft Drive.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any Lydgate filling station — the Murco included — will usually help pushing it clear if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Thongsbridge yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but once your motor turns, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Lydgate with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is only in that tank, nothing changes. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It can't just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether your car sits in Totties or the centre of Lydgate, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around West Yorkshire the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Lydgate: how it ends up there
It is not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside New Mill Junior School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Bramley Close. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car after dark, parked in the car park by Wooldale Arms.
The least known vehicles get it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet ones, and the spare car of a family with one of each fuels. Same mistake, an identical first step — keep it off — anywhere you are around Lydgate or the rest of West Yorkshire.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lydgate?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via the fuel filter and lines.
Maybe returning from Royds Avenue Park, or midway across Lydgate, the motor may run rough, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the Outlane Interchange, under 10 miles from Lydgate, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, and so heading for Wakefield, under 15 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Lydgate to the car park by Lydgate Chapel. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has run, and we do all of it where your car has ended up. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Lydgate: what it takes
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Lydgate: a side street near Oliver Heywood Memorial Sunday School, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies shape the work, and so before anything else we ask which fluid was put in, roughly what quantity, plus if the engine has turned over.
Right there, the tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Lydgate or in a bay outside Brockholes. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Lydgate and where it is
Lydgate is a small village in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 160 metres. Lydgate lies near the towns of Wooldale and New Mill, and is approximately 13 miles from Wakefield. Lydgate has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly composed of terraced homes. Lydgate is located in a scenic area, with the nearby countryside offering opportunities for outdoor activities.
AdBlue drains around Lydgate and across West Yorkshire
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Lydgate also cover the places round it, Wooldale, New Mill and Town End among them, and most of West Yorkshire beyond, across the HD postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess if you are by a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
No towing is needed. In Lydgate, a village, a mobile service works: your vehicle is drained where it stands, whether in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Lydgate: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat figure would be honest, since each job is different. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Wooldale Community Centre.
That's why each call from Lydgate starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. When those are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Still beside the vehicle in Lydgate?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Lydgate or anywhere around West Yorkshire.