Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newton
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till your motor sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Newton, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Newton: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not throw it away.
- Give us a postcode starting DN5 8, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Don't:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance down Newton Drive.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
Moving your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Newton forecourt you are on, the Texaco or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Sprotbrough Park last night and not started stays the simple case, as long as no one touches the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked around Newton. Only in your tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Morrisons and you have a fault of thin fuel. No harm comes as long as it stays put, blended into your diesel — only once the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Newton or out in Hyde Park, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits just in that tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, wherever the vehicle has stopped across South Yorkshire.
Newton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The refill is rushed outside Richmond Hill Primary Academy, after your dash flashed with a warning while the children were dropped in. After work, a container goes in on a drive close to Cromwell Drive. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Newton Arms, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Hired vehicles, brand-new cars, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it most. An identical slip, an identical first response — leave it off — wherever you happen to be in Newton or the rest of South Yorkshire.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Newton, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Through the filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Maybe returning from Hexthorpe Park, or part way across Newton, the engine might go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the A1(M), under a mile from Newton, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, so heading towards Doncaster, under 3 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Newton to the car park by Sprotbrough Road Community Church. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Long-term damage is very unusual when it is noticed early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Newton: what it takes
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Newton: a side street near Sprotbrough Community Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if your engine has been run, since those answers decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when your tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through since residue will not wash away unaided. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed if it must be. After that clean diesel, then a check of the car. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Doncaster or a driveway in Newton, that is where our technicians start it and you drive off. Our engineers confirm it runs smoothly on new diesel before we go. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Newton and where it is
Newton is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated on the riverside near Doncaster. Newton has a relatively low elevation of around 15 metres and is located close to nearby places such as Richmond Hill and Hexthorpe. Newton is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential architecture of the region. Newton is also near Cusworth, another local suburb.
AdBlue drains across Newton and South Yorkshire
Over the DN postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Newton reach much of South Yorkshire as well, Richmond Hill, Hexthorpe and Cusworth included. Phone and check instead of guessing when you are by a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Anywhere the car sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Newton, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Newton: the cost of fixing it
There's no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind St Jude.
Before any quote, not afterwards, every call from Newton opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and whether it ran. With them, a range narrows to one firm figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told our quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Beside the car in Newton, still?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best move open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across South Yorkshire, Newton too.