Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Netherton
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it's sucked through the lines — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Netherton. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Netherton: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting TQ12 4, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the spot.
Never do these:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down Cross Hill.
- Emptying that tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
The staff working at any Netherton filling station — the Sainsbury's included — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. At home, your car stays just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a dedicated tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Newtake last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
After it's sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; meanwhile, because it eats at certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A motor left standing in Netherton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Tesco, and the issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, because it does not burn. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't help. That is why the flush matters more, and turning the key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Aller Park or the centre of Netherton alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Devon the vehicle is standing.
Netherton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Haytor View Community Primary School the top-up is rushed. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Shaldon Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Wild Goose Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company motor, or the spare car of a family with both fuel types — the cars drivers know least. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to an identical slip, anywhere around Netherton or the rest of Devon you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Netherton?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Your filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Stokeinteignhead Cricket Club or halfway across Netherton. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Netherton sits under 15 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Netherton to the car park by Combeinteignhead Village Hall is one thing; driving towards Exeter, under 15 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once your engine has been run. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Netherton: what it takes
A road beside All Saints' Chrch, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your car has stopped around Netherton, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run, because those replies determine this work.
Next, draining the tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through because what remains will not flush out by itself. A test of the car follows last, after fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, where needed, swapped. Engine not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on fresh diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Netherton or in a space outside Newton Abbot. Before we go, we make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Netherton, briefly
Netherton is a small coastal hamlet in Devon, situated near the towns of Combeinteignhead and Haccombe. Netherton lies at a low elevation of around 12 metres, close to the sea and approximately 13 miles from the city of Exeter. Netherton is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Netherton is part of a wider network of small settlements in the area, including Buckland.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Netherton included
AdBlue call-outs in Netherton are passed to teams that serve the towns near it — Combeinteignhead, Haccombe plus Buckland — and most of Devon further out, throughout TQ postcodes. Near a boundary, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
A mobile service fits Netherton, a rural hamlet: there's no need to bring the car to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Netherton?
Since each callouts vary, a single figure wouldn't be honest. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind St Blaise.
For that in mind, each call from Netherton opens by asking the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Their replies shrink the range right down to one figure.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Netherton: still next to the vehicle?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful move open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Netherton or wherever within Devon, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.