Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Morecambe
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts till the engine sucks it through. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Morecambe. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Morecambe: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting LA4 5, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Shifting your car just 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 the pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short distance down Lines Street.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
Get the attendants to help you move your car away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Morecambe, whether it is the Morrisons or somewhere else. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. 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 poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the very place the intake sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Sandylands 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 pulled it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's cleared out. By daybreak, a car parked around Morecambe with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's just inside that tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. Blended into the diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless for now; using the engine is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again from the diesel, and so thinning it can't help. That is why the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Torrisholme or the centre of Morecambe equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, wherever your car has stopped around Lancashire.
Morecambe: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — may look the same. No one intends it; many layouts allow it. A container bought when heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Morecambe Bay Community Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Central Drive. Otherwise, after dark by The Bradford, the vehicle gets refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least known cars get it most — rentals, brand-new ones, company cars, and the other car of a home with one of each fuels. An identical slip, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you are in Morecambe or the remainder of Lancashire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Morecambe?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Poulton Hall Park, or midway across Morecambe, the engine might run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or stall. Once safe, stop then turn it off — without turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the Lune Valley Interchange, under 5 miles from Morecambe, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Morecambe to the car park by The Rainbow Centre is a very different job from a run towards Lancaster, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it is noticed quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Morecambe
Wherever it has stopped in Morecambe — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a street by Arndale Centre — the van comes to your car. The job depends on three replies, and our engineers get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided the engine hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the last step. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Morecambe or in a space outside the nearest station. It is tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our engineers go. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Morecambe itself
Morecambe is a coastal town in Lancashire, situated on the shores of Morecambe Bay, with a low elevation of around 9 metres above sea level. Morecambe lies close to the city of Lancaster, and its suburbs include areas such as West End and Bare. Morecambe has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the town. Morecambe is located in the North West region of England, approximately 211 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Morecambe and across Lancashire
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Morecambe also cover the places round it, West End, White Lund and Bare among them, and most of Lancashire beyond, across the LA postcode area. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
No towing is needed. In Morecambe, a coastal town, a van that comes to you fits: your car is drained on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Morecambe?
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Morecambe Library.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus if it ran: each Morecambe call begins by asking exactly that, ahead of any figure, never afterwards. Once those are answered, a range turns into a single firm number.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Morecambe and still beside your car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Morecambe or anywhere around Lancashire.