AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Mylor Bridge? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and your ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system pulls it in. In Mylor Bridge, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Mylor Bridge, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- 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 TR11 5, or whatever street lies closest, and our van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle even a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way down Bonython Close.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the island if you are on a forecourt in Mylor Bridge, whether it is the Texaco or somewhere else. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Nothing inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to travel that way.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, which is why a vehicle filled in Harcourt yesterday and not switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as nobody touches your key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; and, because it eats at some metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it remains inside. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around Mylor Bridge with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it is only inside the tank, it doesn't. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back from the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Tregew or the heart of Mylor Bridge equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Cornwall the car is standing.
Mylor Bridge: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Mylor Bridge Community Primary School the top-up is rushed. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, right off Lemon Hill, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Lemon Arms, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Hired vehicles, new vehicles, company vehicles, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. Wherever around Cornwall, Mylor Bridge included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
Mylor Bridge: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. It's been pulled through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Bagatelle Plantation or halfway across Mylor Bridge. No starting it again to test: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M5, over 50 miles from Mylor Bridge, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so heading towards Truro, under 10 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Mylor Bridge to the car park by All Saints. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been running. Noticed quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Mylor Bridge: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Mylor Bridge: a side street near Enys Gardens, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three replies, which our engineers ask for first — what got in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Then the tank is drained where the vehicle stands, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers arrive, if the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is bled with new diesel. Whether it's a parking space at Penryn or a driveway around Mylor Bridge, that is where our engineers start the engine and you set off. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs correctly on new diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Mylor Bridge
Mylor Bridge is a coastal village in Cornwall, situated near the Carrick Roads and close to the shores of the Fal Estuary. Mylor Bridge lies approximately 5.5 miles south of Truro and is surrounded by other small settlements such as Trelew and Angarrick. Mylor Bridge is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and relatively low elevation of around 15 metres above sea level. Mylor Bridge remains a small but distinct community within the wider Cornwall area.
AdBlue drains across Mylor Bridge and Cornwall
AdBlue call-outs around Mylor Bridge are passed to vans that cover the places near it — Trelew, Angarrick as well as Restronguet Passage — and much of Cornwall further out, throughout TR postcodes. Ring and check instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
No moving is needed. In Mylor Bridge, a coastal village, a mobile service works: the car is emptied where it stands, be it in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Mylor Bridge: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, so not one single price would be honest. Three things move the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind St Mylor.
That's why every call from Mylor Bridge starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Those answers shrink a range down to a single figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the car around Mylor Bridge?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is all we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Cornwall, Mylor Bridge too.