AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Madron? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The harm starts once it's sucked through the pump — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. In Madron, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Madron: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, and that stops someone turning the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly what quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and we can know.
- Tell us a postcode starting TR20 8, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Fore Street.
- Emptying your tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
Moving your car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Madron forecourt you are on, the Texaco included. If you're on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very place the pickup sucks from. A car topped up on a driveway in Treneere overnight and not started since is the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at certain metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches till it is removed from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in tiny passages. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle parked around Madron. Only in that tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a separate kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that is the main fault. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Lower Ninnes or the middle of Madron.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only in your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has stopped across Cornwall.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Madron: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Madron Daniel CofE (VA) School the refill is hurried. Near Aldreath Close, a driver pours a container in on the drive in the evening. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by King William the Fourth.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known cars see it most. Wherever in Cornwall, Madron as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Madron, and the motor started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Trengwainton Gardens or halfway across Madron. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M5, over 50 miles from Madron, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Mileage counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further into your system, so heading for Truro, under 25 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Madron to the car park by St. Maddern's Church. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Madron
The car remains where it is, whether that's a road beside Trengwainton Gardens, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Madron, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those replies determine the work.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed when it must be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to bleed your system on new diesel. Then we start it and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Penzance or a driveway in Madron. Before we go, our engineers check it is running correctly with fresh diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Madron and where it is
Madron is a small village in Cornwall, situated on the coastal side of the Penwith peninsula, with an elevation of around 127 metres. Madron lies near several nearby settlements, including Heamoor, Boswarthen, and Tremethick Cross, and is approximately 24 miles from the city of Truro. Madron has a population of around 664 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Madron is also relatively distant from London, at around 256 miles away.
Madron and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls in Madron also cover the places about it, Heamoor, Boswarthen and Tremethick Cross among them, and most of Cornwall beyond, across the TR postcode area. Near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
A van that comes to you suits Madron, a coastal village: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, because our technicians empty it there, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Madron: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat price could be honest, because each job is different. What changes the cost is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Madron Well.
What got in, what quantity, and whether it ran: every Madron enquiry opens by asking exactly those, ahead of a figure, not after. Once they are answered, a range becomes one fixed figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Madron and still beside your car?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Madron or anywhere in Cornwall.