Moretonhampstead: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm starts till your engine sucks it through. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle stands in Moretonhampstead. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Moretonhampstead
Things to do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting TQ13 8, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Do not:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up Ford Street.
- Draining that tank on your own beside the road isn't worth trying.
The attendants working at any Moretonhampstead forecourt — the Moor Park Garage included — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the same place the intake draws from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Westcott last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Moretonhampstead with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is only in that tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. No harm is done as long as it stays put, blended into your diesel — only once the motor works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the following tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Moretonhampstead or out in Batworthy, costs more than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Devon the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Moretonhampstead: how it ends up there
Many cars place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two may look identical. No one intends it. Usually it's not the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Moretonhampstead Primary School the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Lime Street. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Union Inn, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars get it most — hire cars, new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuels. Same mistake, same first response — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be around Moretonhampstead or the rest of Devon.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Moretonhampstead?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Maybe returning from Hingston Down, or part way across Moretonhampstead, your engine may run rough, smoke, lose pace, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Moretonhampstead lies under 15 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
A quick hop across Moretonhampstead to the car park by Bowring Library is one thing; driving for Exeter, under 15 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has been run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Moretonhampstead: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road by George Bidder, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever your car has stopped in Moretonhampstead, we travel to it. Which fluid was put in, roughly how much, plus whether your motor has turned over: we ask before all else, since those shape the work.
Next, draining your tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because residue won't flush away unaided. A test of the car follows last, once fresh diesel goes in and the filter is flushed or, where necessary, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we get there, if your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. You set off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Moretonhampstead or in a space outside Yeoford. Our technicians check it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Moretonhampstead, for a moment
Moretonhampstead is a town situated on the River Bovey in Devon, with a mix of terraced housing and other buildings. Moretonhampstead sits at an elevation of 202 metres, surrounded by rolling hills and countryside. Moretonhampstead is located near several smaller settlements, including Sloncombe, Doccombe, and North Bovey, and is approximately 11 miles from the city of Exeter. Moretonhampstead has a population of around 1729 people, making it a small but distinct community in the region.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Moretonhampstead included
AdBlue call-outs in Moretonhampstead are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Sloncombe, Doccombe as well as North Bovey — and most of Devon further out, throughout TQ postcodes. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No towing is needed. In Moretonhampstead, a riverside town, a mobile service works: the car is drained on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Moretonhampstead: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, and so not one fixed quote would be honest. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind St Andrew's Church.
What went in, how much, and whether the engine ran: every Moretonhampstead enquiry begins by asking exactly that, before any figure, never after. Once they are known, a range becomes a single fixed figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car around Moretonhampstead, still?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Moretonhampstead or anywhere in Devon.