Norlington: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The harm begins once it is pulled through your lines — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully flushed where your car stands around Norlington. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Norlington: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting BN8 5, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: your engine stays off.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance up Norlington Court.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
Rolling your vehicle off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Norlington forecourt you are on, the Busy Bee Garage included. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor lets out. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Broyle Side last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — but it will be first through once the engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of damage from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it touches till it's cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. Overnight, a car parked around Norlington with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's only inside the tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing through them, and so the water content damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
An issue of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Clayhill Service Station. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Norlington or out in Little Norlington, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across East Sussex the car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Norlington
Many vehicles put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody intends it. A bottle picked up while driving home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Ringmer Primary and Nursery School. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a drive near Norlington Lane. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park by The Anchor Inn, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Hired vehicles, brand-new cars, company vehicles, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Wherever you're around Norlington or the remainder of East Sussex, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Norlington: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Perhaps returning from Ringmer Green, or midway across Norlington, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or stall. No restarting to check: pull over when it is safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M23, under 25 miles from Norlington, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving for Brighton and Hove, under 15 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Norlington to the car park by St Mary the Virgin. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to flush once the motor has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. Caught quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Norlington: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest around Norlington — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Ringmer War Memorial — our van travels to your vehicle. Three replies decide the job, and so before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly what quantity, plus if your motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is drained, right there. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your engine has not run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by Lewes or on a driveway in Norlington. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Norlington
Norlington is a small hamlet in East Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of 19 metres, approximately 10 miles from Brighton and Hove. Norlington lies near the villages of Ringmer and Upper Wellingham, and is part of a wider area of rural settlements. Norlington has a population of around 616 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Norlington is also within commuting distance of London, being about 43 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains across East Sussex, Norlington included
AdBlue call-outs around Norlington go to vans that cover the places around it — Ringmer, Upper Wellingham as well as Rushy Green — and most of East Sussex further out, across BN postcodes. Phone and check rather than guess when you're close to a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service suits Norlington, a rural hamlet: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Norlington: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs differ, a flat figure would not be honest. Three things change the price: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Ringmer Village Hall.
Before any figure, never afterwards, each call from Norlington begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. Once they are known, a range turns into a single firm number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Alongside the car around Norlington, right now?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Norlington or anywhere in East Sussex.