Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in New Eastwood
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly purged where the car stands around New Eastwood. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, New Eastwood: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and we can see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting NG16 3, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to reposition your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, so keep it off.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Even a short distance along The Sycamores is too far to drive the car.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Rolling the car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever New Eastwood forecourt you're on, the Morrisons included. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. From a separate tank it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to travel that way.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the intake sucks from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Newthorpe Common last night and never started stays the simple case, provided no one turns your key.
After it's sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches until it is removed completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny passages. A vehicle left sitting in New Eastwood with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Esso's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that's the main fault. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in the tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Hill Top or the heart of New Eastwood equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in Nottinghamshire your vehicle sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in New Eastwood
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Springbank Academy, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Close to Addison Villas, someone pours a container in at home in the evening. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Old Wine Vaults.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, same first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you are around New Eastwood or the remainder of Nottinghamshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around New Eastwood?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been pulled through your filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Jubilee Park or halfway across New Eastwood. No restarting to check: stop once safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
New Eastwood lies under 3 miles from the M1; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Hopping across New Eastwood to the car park by Christ's Church is one thing; heading towards Nottingham, under 10 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once the engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is noticed soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around New Eastwood
The car remains put, whether that is a road near Plumptre Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in New Eastwood, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if your motor has been run, because those answers determine the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is emptied, right there. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Bleeding the system with new diesel comes last. You head off as soon as we have started the car, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around New Eastwood or in a bay outside Langley Mill. Our technicians make sure it runs correctly on new diesel before leaving. As 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 once the job is done.
About New Eastwood, briefly
New Eastwood is a suburban area in Nottinghamshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 68 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. New Eastwood lies approximately 7.6 miles from Nottingham and 115.2 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. New Eastwood is surrounded by nearby places such as Shipley Gate, Bailey Grove, and Eastwood, and has a population of around 3527 residents.
AdBlue drains across New Eastwood and Nottinghamshire
Shipley Gate, Bailey Grove and Eastwood are among the places around New Eastwood that the same teams serve, along with most of Nottinghamshire beyond, over the NG postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
Wherever your vehicle sits — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it there, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits New Eastwood, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in New Eastwood: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so no fixed price would be fair. What shifts the price is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St. Mary's Church.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, and if it ran: each New Eastwood call opens by asking precisely those, ahead of any figure, never afterwards. Those replies shrink a range right down to one number.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, dig out your policy: many include misfuelling.
In New Eastwood and still beside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in New Eastwood or anywhere across Nottinghamshire.