Newnham: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once your pump begins drawing it. In Newnham, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Newnham, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Call just where you are. Quote a GL14 1 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance along Severn Street.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Rolling the vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Newnham forecourt you are on, the Texaco or any other. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its supply from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle filled in Bullo last night and never switched on stays the simple case, provided no one turns the key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; and, since it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle parked in Newnham. Just in the tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the EG on the move, and the issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back from the diesel, so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other mistake — in Elton or the centre of Newnham alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever in Gloucestershire the car has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Newnham
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs allow it. A bottle bought while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Newnham St Peter's Church of England Primary School the refill is hurried. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive near High Street. Otherwise, after dark outside The Black Pig, your car is refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
The least known cars see it the most — rentals, new ones, fleet cars, and the other motor in a family with one of each fuel types. Anywhere around Gloucestershire, Newnham included, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
Newnham: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Maybe returning from Newnham Peace Garden, or midway across Newnham, the engine may run rough, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or stall. Once safe, pull over and switch everything off — with no turning it on again to test. Every start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M5, under 10 miles from Newnham, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Newnham to the car park by Armoury Village Hall is a very different job from a run towards Gloucester, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Caught early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Newnham: what it takes
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Newnham: a side street near Newnham Community Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three answers, which we get first — what went in, the quantity, and whether your engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after your tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because what remains will not wash out unaided. Testing your vehicle comes at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter is cleaned or, if needed, swapped. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the final step. Whether it is a parking bay outside Cam & Dursley or a drive in Newnham, that is where we fire it up and you head off. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Newnham itself
Newnham is a village in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and approximately 9.7 miles from Gloucester. Newnham sits at an elevation of 33 metres, with its terraced housing reflecting the local architectural style. Newnham is close to nearby places such as Ruddle, Grange Village, and Broadoak, and is located within the South West region of England.
AdBlue drains around Newnham and across Gloucestershire
Ruddle, Grange Village and Broadoak are among the places around Newnham that the same teams serve, together with much of Gloucestershire beyond, over the GL postcode area. Near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Anywhere the car sits — your driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Newnham, a coastal village, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Newnham
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, since an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind Saint Peter's Church.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: each Newnham call opens by asking exactly those, before any figure, not after. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still alongside your car around Newnham?
Not touching the car is, then, the best thing you can do. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran is everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Gloucestershire, Newnham included.