AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Nettlesworth? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens till your engine pulls it round. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Nettlesworth. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Nettlesworth, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, and that prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Ring right where you are. Say a DH2 3 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance down Park View is too far to drive it.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
Rolling your car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Nettlesworth forecourt you are on, the Plawsworth Service Station or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in Plawsworth Gate overnight and not started since counts as the simple case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine runs, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight around Nettlesworth leaves things worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Sainsbury's, and the issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside your tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, and so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Chester Moor or the heart of Nettlesworth alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Durham the vehicle is sitting.
Nettlesworth: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Nettlesworth Primary School the refill is hurried. Near B6312, a driver pours a bottle in at home after work. Else, after dark outside Red Lion, the vehicle gets topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever around Durham, Nettlesworth as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Nettlesworth?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Daisy Hill Local Nature Reserve, perhaps, or midway across Nettlesworth. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the A1(M), under 5 miles from Nettlesworth, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so heading for Durham, under 5 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Nettlesworth to the car park by Nettlesworth Community Centre. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it's noticed soon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Nettlesworth
A road beside St Philip and St James, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has stopped in Nettlesworth, our engineers travel to it. Three answers decide the work, and so first we ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, plus whether the engine has run.
Then your tank is cleared where your car waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed right through since what remains will not wash away by itself. Testing the car comes last, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking bay outside Chester-Le-Street or a driveway in Nettlesworth, that is where we start it and you head off. The test before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to go to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Nettlesworth
Nettlesworth is a small village in County Durham, situated approximately 3.3 miles from the city of Durham. Nettlesworth sits inland at an elevation of around 100 metres, near the Tan Hills and close to neighbouring villages such as Plawsworth and Kimblesworth. Nettlesworth has a population of around 610 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Nettlesworth and Durham
AdBlue jobs in Nettlesworth are passed to teams that serve the places around it — Tan Hills, Plawsworth as well as Kimblesworth — and most of Durham further out, throughout DH postcodes. Near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
Anywhere your vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Nettlesworth, a rural village, well.
Nettlesworth: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind The Salvation Army Citadel.
That's why each call from Nettlesworth starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. With those replies, the range narrows to a single firm figure.
Our price is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Nettlesworth: still beside the vehicle?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Nettlesworth or wherever within Durham, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.