AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in North Field? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system draws it in. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly rinsed where your car sits around North Field. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do straight away, North Field: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops anyone turning the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so don't bin it out.
- Give us a postcode starting CB7 5, or whatever street is nearest, and our van reaches you straight — so call wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Even a short way up The Shade is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the verge.
Moving the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever North Field forecourt you're on, the BP or any other. At home, the car stays just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a driveway in Soham yesterday evening and not started since is the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
After it's drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. A car left standing around North Field with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and the problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside your tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether your car sits in East Fen Common or the heart of North Field, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Wherever in Cambridgeshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
North Field: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside The Shade Primary School. Near Kingfisher Drive, a driver pours a bottle in at home in the evening. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at the pub in the village, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new motor, a company vehicle, or the other car of a home with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers know the least. Wherever you are in North Field or the rest of Cambridgeshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around North Field?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and pipework.
You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Soham United Football Club or halfway across North Field. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M11, under 15 miles from North Field, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so driving for Ely, under 5 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across North Field to the car park by Soham Village Sign. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Permanent damage is very unusual if it's caught soon.
North Field: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car stays where it is, whether that's a road near The Viva Theatre, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around North Field, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if your motor has run, because those answers decide the work.
Then your tank is cleared where the vehicle stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is flushed right through since residue will not flush out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime your system on new diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Soham or on a drive around North Field. The check before we head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About North Field itself
North Field is a suburban area located near the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, situated in a low-lying inland region with an elevation of around 2 metres. North Field is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is close to nearby places such as Soham Cotes and Barcham Corner. North Field sits within the wider Eastern region of England, approximately 61 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cambridgeshire, North Field included
Throughout the CB postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around North Field reach most of Cambridgeshire as well, Soham Cotes, Barcham Corner and Broad Hill included. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
No towing is needed. In North Field, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the vehicle is drained on the spot, whether in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around North Field?
Since each jobs differ, a single price would not be honest. Three things shift the price: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Soham Methodist Church.
Ahead of any figure, not after, every call from North Field begins with three questions: the fuel, the amount, and if it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Our price is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still beside your car in North Field?
In that case, do nothing — that is the best move there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in North Field or wherever in Cambridgeshire.