AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Middlezoy? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble begins once it is pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Middlezoy, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Middlezoy: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and we will see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting TA7 0, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Many diesels power their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it is pointless.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along Old Chapel Road.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
At a forecourt in Middlezoy, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Pathe last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Once it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Middlezoy with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's just inside the tank, it doesn't. 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 offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the BP, and this issue is thinned fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only once the engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Middlezoy or out in Liney, costs more than almost any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Wherever in Somerset your vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Middlezoy
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap — may look the same. No one means it; plenty of designs allow it. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside Middlezoy Primary School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped in. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Weymont Close. Otherwise, in dim light by The George Inn, your vehicle gets refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet ones, and the other car of a family with both fuels. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Middlezoy or the remainder of Somerset you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Middlezoy, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
You may notice your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Greylake Nature Reserve or halfway across Middlezoy. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M5, under 5 miles from Middlezoy, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why crossing Middlezoy to park beside Middlezoy Village Hall and a drive of under 15 miles for Wells are very distinct jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the cleaning where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Middlezoy: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Middlezoy: a side street close to Church of the Holy Cross, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job depends on three replies, which our engineers get before all else — which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then your tank is drained where your car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of the car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, if your engine has not run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the fuel system is bled with new diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, at Bridgwater or on a driveway around Middlezoy. We check it runs correctly on new diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Middlezoy and where it is
Middlezoy is a small village in Somerset, situated inland at a low elevation of around 12 metres. Middlezoy lies near the villages of Thorngrove, Greylake, and Othery, and is approximately 13 miles from the city of Wells. Middlezoy has a population of around 722 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Middlezoy is also relatively distant from London, at around 123 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Middlezoy and Somerset
AdBlue call-outs in Middlezoy are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Thorngrove, Greylake plus Othery — and much of Somerset further out, across TA postcodes. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A van that comes to you fits Middlezoy, a rural village: there's no need to take the car to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Middlezoy: the cost of fixing it
No flat figure could be honest, since every job is different. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind St Michael.
Which fluid was put in, how much, and whether the engine ran: each Middlezoy call begins by asking exactly those, ahead of a figure, never after. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Middlezoy: still next to your car?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best move you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Somerset, Middlezoy too.