AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mere? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition as well. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens till the engine pulls it round. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Mere. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Mere
Things to do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting BA12 6, or whatever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch along Boar Street.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
On a forecourt around Mere, whether it's the Gulf or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car away from the pump. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Towns End last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches till it's removed from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in tiny channels. A car left sitting around Mere with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger problem?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and this issue is diluted fuel. No damage is done as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only once your engine works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your vehicle sits in Rook Street or the centre of Mere, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in Wiltshire your car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Mere: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Mere School the top-up is rushed. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, right off Salisbury Street, as the day ends. Another pattern: dim light, the car park by The George, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet car, or the other vehicle of a family with both fuels — the vehicles drivers use least. Anywhere across Wiltshire, Mere as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Mere?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Chaddenwick Wood or halfway across Mere. No restarting to check: pull over when it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M4, under 50 miles from Mere, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so driving towards Wells, under 25 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Mere to the car park by Mere Library. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. When it is spotted quickly, lasting damage is very unusual.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Mere
A road beside Mere Museum, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your car has come to rest around Mere, our technicians travel to it. The work rests on three answers, and our technicians ask for before all else — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed right through since what remains will not flush away by itself. A test of your car follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and the filter gets flushed or, where necessary, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, if your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. Then our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Gillingham (Dorset) or a drive in Mere. The test before our technicians go is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Mere
Mere is a small town situated on the banks of the River Mere in Wiltshire, with a mix of old and new buildings, including many detached homes. Mere sits at an elevation of 106 metres, surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby villages such as Well Head and Ivy Mead. Mere is located near the Somerset border, approximately 18 miles from Wells and 97 miles from London. Mere has a population of around 2808 people, living in a predominantly residential area with a strong sense of community.
Mere and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the BA postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs in Mere serve much of Wiltshire too, Well Head, Ivy Mead and Southbrook included. Close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
Anywhere your car stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Mere, a riverside town, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Mere: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St Michael the Archangel.
Before a figure, not afterwards, each call from Mere begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. With them, the range shrinks to one firm figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still beside your car in Mere?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Mere or anywhere across Wiltshire.