AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in New Boultham? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your motor off and leave the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts till the motor sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around New Boultham, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has been run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in New Boultham
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting LN6 7, or just the name of a street nearby, and so call from the car.
Never do these:
- Moving the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Centaur Road.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your car away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt in New Boultham, whether it's the Morrisons or somewhere else. At home, the car stays exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was intended to travel that way.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, which is why a car topped up in Swanpool last night and never started remains the simple case, provided nobody touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. It eats at certain metals found in fuel components, attacking any part it reaches until it is removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in tiny passages. A car left sitting around New Boultham with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Lincolnshire Co-op and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue splits back out of your diesel, so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Boultham Moor or the centre of New Boultham alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Lincolnshire your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in New Boultham
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts allow it. Usually it is never the filling station: someone buys a container driving home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside The Lincoln St Peter at Gowts Church of England Primary School. In the evening, a container goes in on a driveway near Tritton Road. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by Nosey Parker.
It takes place most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that's the first response to the same mistake, anywhere in New Boultham or the remainder of Lincolnshire you happen to be.
New Boultham: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from St Mark's Square or halfway across New Boultham. 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.
On the M180, under 25 miles from New Boultham, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
A quick hop across New Boultham to the car park by Lincoln Tank Memorial is one thing; driving towards Lincoln, under a mile away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. When it's caught quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
New Boultham: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped in New Boultham: a side street close to TK Maxx, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what went in, about how much, and whether your motor has run, because those replies settle this work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed right through since residue will not flush out unaided. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of your vehicle. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with fresh diesel comes at the end. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around New Boultham or in a space by Lincoln Central. We confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About New Boultham
New Boultham is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Lincoln, situated near the River Witham in Lincolnshire. New Boultham sits at a low elevation of around 8 metres, with the city of Lincoln just under a mile away. New Boultham is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, with nearby neighbourhoods including St Catherines and Boultham.
AdBlue drains across Lincolnshire, New Boultham included
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around New Boultham also cover the locations around it, St Catherines, Boultham and Lincoln among them, and most of Lincolnshire beyond, across the LN postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing if you are close to a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Wherever your vehicle sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits New Boultham, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around New Boultham: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, and so no single quote is honest. What moves the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Asda Living.
Ahead of any figure, not after, each call from New Boultham opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, and if it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. While our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Beside the vehicle around New Boultham, still?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across New Boultham or wherever in Lincolnshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.