Newtown: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The harm begins once it's sucked through the lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly purged where the car sits around Newtown. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Newtown: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, which stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting TA6 3, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance down Coleridge Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Get the attendants to help you move the car off the island if you are at a forecourt around Newtown, whether it is the Asda or somewhere else. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It doesn't blend. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very place the pickup sucks from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Eastover yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when the engine runs, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
It causes two kinds of damage 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 running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a car parked around Newtown with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is just in the tank, it doesn't. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Sainsbury's, and the issue is diluted fuel. Blended into your diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless at that stage; running the motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Chilton Trinity or the middle of Newtown.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere in Somerset your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Newtown: how it ends up there
Many cars put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Northgate Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Griffen Close. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Admirals Landing, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles see it most — hire cars, new ones, fleet ones, and the spare car in a home with one of each fuel types. An identical mistake, same first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be around Newtown or the rest of Somerset.
Newtown: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Brewery Field, say, or midway across Newtown. Once safe, stop then turn it off — with no restarting to test. Every start pulls more of it through.
Newtown lies under 3 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Newtown to park near Victoria Park Community Centre and a drive of under 25 miles for Wells are such separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it's caught early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Newtown?
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a road near The Green at Wembdon, a drive, a layby or a filling station in Newtown, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if your motor has run, since those answers decide the work.
Then your tank is cleared where your car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since what remains won't flush out unaided. A test of the car comes last, after fresh diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, if needed, replaced. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to prime the system on new diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at Bridgwater or on a driveway in Newtown. Before we go, our technicians confirm it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Newtown, for a moment
Newtown is a suburban area in Somerset, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 10 metres. Newtown lies near the towns of Bridgwater and Wells, and is also close to the villages of Wembdon and Northfield. Newtown has a population of approximately 8886 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Newtown is located in the South West region of England, about 127 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Newtown and across Somerset
AdBlue jobs around Newtown are passed to teams that cover the places around it — Bridgwater, Wembdon plus Northfield — and much of Somerset further out, across TA postcodes. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
Newtown is a new town, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Newtown: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Northgate Memorial.
Which fluid got in, how much, plus if the engine ran: every Newtown call begins by asking exactly that, ahead of any figure, never after. With those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Before a van heads out, you are told the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Newtown and still beside the car?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Newtown or anywhere around Somerset.