AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in New Buildings? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and your ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle sits around New Buildings. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in New Buildings
Do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call right where you are. Say a NN13 5 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Moving the vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Even a short distance up Portway is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
On a forecourt around New Buildings, whether it's the A E Prentice or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car clear of the pump. On that drive, your car remains just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its supply from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Aynho overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the base of your tank, undrawn — but it will be first through once your engine runs, before any diesel at all.
Once it's sucked in, the harm takes two forms. It eats at certain metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches until it's cleared completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow passages. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a car sitting around New Buildings. Only in your tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a second form of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and this issue is diluted fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Juniper Hill or the middle of New Buildings.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere the car has stopped across Northamptonshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in New Buildings
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly takes place at home, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside Croughton All Saints CofE Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Andrews Avenue. One more pattern: darkness, the car park by The Blackbird, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a new vehicle, a company motor, or the other vehicle of a home with both fuels — the vehicles people use least. Anywhere around Northamptonshire, New Buildings as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around New Buildings?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Through the filter, along the lines, and — with any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that's where it travels.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, perhaps part way across New Buildings or returning from Pesthouse Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M40, under 3 miles from New Buildings, at the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across New Buildings to the car park by All Saints is a very different job from a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once your engine has been running. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's spotted quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around New Buildings: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped in New Buildings — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a road by The Reading Room — our van comes to the car. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the engine has run, since those replies determine the work.
Next, draining that tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because residue will not flush away unaided. After that, your filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of the car. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, outside Kings Sutton or on a drive in New Buildings. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs properly before we leave. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About New Buildings itself
New Buildings is a small locality in Northamptonshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 122 metres. New Buildings lies near the villages of Croughton, Tusmore, and Souldern, and is approximately 16.5 miles from Oxford. New Buildings has a population of around 529 people, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. New Buildings is also within commuting distance of London, being about 56.9 miles from the capital.
New Buildings and Northamptonshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the NN postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around New Buildings reach most of Northamptonshire too, Croughton, Tusmore and Souldern included. Near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
A van that comes to you fits New Buildings, a small village: there's no need to bring your car to us, because our technicians drain it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around New Buildings
No flat figure would be fair, since each job is different. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Harry Dunn Memorial.
That is why every call from New Buildings starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Once they are answered, a range turns into one firm figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still beside the car in New Buildings?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Northamptonshire, New Buildings included.