Newtown: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. In Newtown, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Newtown, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and we can see.
- Ring right where you are. Say a CO5 9 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't do these:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it's pointless.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short way down Observer Way.
- Emptying the tank on your own beside the road is not worth trying.
The attendants on duty at any Newtown filling station — the Esso included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Nothing in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and no part of that was intended to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A motor topped up on a drive in Inworth yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches until it's cleared from the system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Newtown with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it's just in your tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the PB. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the following fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Newtown or out in Coggeshall Hamlet, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Essex the vehicle is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Newtown: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It usually takes place outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Kelvedon St Mary's Church of England Primary Academy, after the dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped off. Near Coggeshall Road, someone pours a bottle in at home after work. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by The Railway Tavern.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the spare motor in a home with one of each fuels — the cars drivers use least. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to the same slip, anywhere around Newtown or the remainder of Essex you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Newtown?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Pensioners' Piece Memorial Garden or halfway across Newtown. No restarting to check: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M11, under 25 miles from Newtown, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, and so driving towards Colchester, under 10 miles away, gives a much larger job than hopping across Newtown to the car park by Quaker Meeting House. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been running. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Newtown: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road by Kelevedon United Reformed Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere the car has stopped in Newtown, our technicians travel to it. The job depends on three answers, which we ask for first — what went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Then the tank is emptied where your car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains will not wash away on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. After that our technicians start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking space at Kelvedon or a drive around Newtown. Our engineers check it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we leave. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Newtown, for a moment
Newtown is a small suburban area in Essex, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 29 metres. Newtown lies near the cities of Colchester and Chelmsford, and is close to the villages of Kelvedon and Feering. Newtown has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most common. Newtown is located approximately 42 miles from London, making it a commuter base for some residents.
AdBlue drains across Newtown and Essex
Kelvedon, Feering and Gore Pit are among the places around Newtown that the same vans serve, together with most of Essex further out, over the CO postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a border or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
A van that comes to you suits Newtown, a new town: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, because we empty it there, in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Newtown: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts differ, a single price wouldn't be fair. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Kelvedon Institute.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Newtown opens by asking the same trio — what got in, what quantity, whether it ran — before a quote. With them, a range narrows to one fixed figure.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car in Newtown, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Newtown or anywhere within Essex, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.