AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Morton? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till your motor sucks it round. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully purged where the car sits around Morton. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Morton: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting DN22 8, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's pointless.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Mansfield Road.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Morton forecourt you're on, the Asda Express included. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what your engine emits. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its supply from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in West Field yesterday and not switched on remains the simple one, as long as no one touches your key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It eats at some metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches till it's cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny passages. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Morton leaves it worse. Inside that tank only, waiting does nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Asda, and this problem is thinned fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; running your motor does the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car is in Ranby or the heart of Morton, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits just inside the tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has stopped across Nottinghamshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Morton
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. The top-up gets hurried outside Ordsall Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Old London Road. Otherwise, after dark by the pub in the village, your vehicle is topped up by someone opening that flap for the first time.
Hired vehicles, new motors, company vehicles, or the second vehicle in a family with one of each: the least known cars see it the most. Same slip, same first response — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Morton or the rest of Nottinghamshire.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Morton?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Rushey Inn Wood, say, or midway across Morton. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Morton lies under 10 miles from the Doncaster By-Pass; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Morton to the car park by All Saints is a very different job from a run towards Doncaster, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Lasting damage is very rare if it is caught quickly.
Morton: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street by Retford Leisure Centre, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has stopped around Morton, our engineers travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if your motor has been run, since those replies determine this work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by Retford or a drive around Morton, that is where we start the engine and you head off. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. No workshop is needed at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Morton and where it is
Morton is a small hamlet in Nottinghamshire, situated in the East Midlands region of England, with a population of around 1034 people. Morton lies approximately 26 metres above sea level, near the villages of Babworth and Ordsall. Morton is characterized by its semi-detached housing and rural setting, close to the city of Doncaster. Morton is located inland, about 129.9 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Nottinghamshire, Morton included
Babworth, Ordsall and Upper Morton are among the towns around Morton that the same teams reach, together with most of Nottinghamshire beyond, throughout the DN postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Morton is a rural hamlet, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Morton
Since the callouts vary, a single price would not be fair. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind Westhill Community Centre.
What went in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: every Morton call opens with exactly those, before any quote, not after. When those are known, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the quote on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Morton: still next to the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best move open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Morton or anywhere across Nottinghamshire.