AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Markfield? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. In Markfield, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Markfield: the first few minutes
Do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting LE67 9, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Don't do these:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short distance down The Nook.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
On a forecourt around Markfield, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't blend. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It sinks, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its supply from. A vehicle filled on a drive in Newtown Linford overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though once the engine runs, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches until it is cleared from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a car sitting in Markfield. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger fault?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the next fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Markfield or out in Copt Oak, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever in Leicestershire your car has come to rest, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Markfield
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors waits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens at home, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside Mercenfeld Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Someone pours the container in at home, just off Main Street, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Queens Head.
It occurs most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are in Markfield or the remainder of Leicestershire, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Markfield?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from The Green, say, or midway across Markfield. No restarting to test: stop when safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Markfield sits under a mile from the M1; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Markfield to the car park by St Michael is one thing; driving towards Leicester, under 10 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Markfield: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped in Markfield — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by Trinity Methodist Church — our van comes to the car. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, because those answers settle this work.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through since residue won't wash away by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the last step. Whether it's a parking space outside Barrow Upon Soar or a driveway around Markfield, that is where we start the engine and you head off. It's checked on new diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Markfield and where it is
Markfield is a village in Leicestershire, situated approximately 7 miles northwest of Leicester, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Markfield sits in a rural area at an elevation of around 185 metres, with nearby villages including Field Head and Stanton under Bardon. Markfield is a relatively small community, with a population of around 2565 people, and is located about 95 miles northwest of London. Markfield remains a typical East Midlands village, with a mix of residential and agricultural land use.
AdBlue drains across Markfield and Leicestershire
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Markfield also cover the places round it, Field Head, Stanton under Bardon and Bondman Hays among them, and most of Leicestershire beyond, across the LE postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A van that comes to you fits Markfield, a rural village: you have no need to bring the car to us, because our technicians empty it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Markfield: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so no fixed price is honest. Three things change the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind Markfield Library.
For that reason, each call from Markfield begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of any figure. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, dig out your policy: many include misfuelling.
Alongside your car around Markfield, right now?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Markfield or wherever in Leicestershire.