Newlyn: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens until the motor sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Newlyn, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Newlyn, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Ring right where you are. Say a TR18 5 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Even a short way up Chywoone Hill is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
On a forecourt around Newlyn, whether it's the Texaco or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car away from the petrol pump. On the drive, the vehicle remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Trereife last night and not started remains the simple case, provided nobody touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. A motor left standing around Newlyn with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a second form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. Mixed through your diesel and sitting still, it is no threat at that stage; running the engine does the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. Crystals and corrosion remain through the next fill, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, so watering it can't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Penzance or the heart of Newlyn alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across Cornwall your vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Newlyn?
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. Nobody means it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Rushing, outside Newlyn School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent refills your car. A driver tips the container in at home, just off The Coombe, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light by The Swordfish Inn, your car is topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the cars 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. Wherever you're around Newlyn or the rest of Cornwall, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Newlyn: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe coming back from Bolitho Gardens, or midway across Newlyn, the engine may go lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M5, over 50 miles from Newlyn, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
A quick hop across Newlyn to the car park by Thomas Henry Gallery is one thing; heading for Truro, under 25 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it is spotted early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Newlyn: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest around Newlyn — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside Newlyn Filmhouse — the van comes to your car. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether the motor has run, since those answers decide this work.
Then your tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Not run? In that case expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the system is primed with new diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, by Penzance or on a driveway in Newlyn. It's checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before our technicians go. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Newlyn itself
Newlyn is a coastal town in Cornwall, situated on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean at a low elevation of around 6 metres. Newlyn lies near the towns of Penzance and Mousehole, and is close to the nearby settlements of Wherry Town, Tredavoe, and Alverton. Newlyn has a population of approximately 7359 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Newlyn is located about 24.6 miles from the city of Truro and 255.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Newlyn and Cornwall
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Newlyn also cover the places round it, Wherry Town, Tredavoe and Alverton among them, and most of Cornwall beyond, across the TR postcode area. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
A van that comes to you suits Newlyn, a coastal town: there's no need to bring the car to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Newlyn
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind St. Peter's Church.
What got in, how much, and whether it ran: every Newlyn call begins by asking precisely those, before a quote, never after. Once they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Our quote is given during the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Next to the vehicle in Newlyn, still?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the best thing open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Newlyn or anywhere within Cornwall, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.