AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in North Petherton? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage only starts once your pump starts pulling it. In North Petherton, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around North Petherton
Do these:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting TA6 6, or whichever street is closest, and our van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Do not:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is wasted.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch down Tappers Lane.
- Emptying your tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Moving the car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever North Petherton forecourt you're on, the Ford Fuel Oils Ltd included. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the very place the pickup draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Farringdon last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
After it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a car sitting around North Petherton. Only inside the tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the main problem. No harm comes while it sits put, blended into the diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Rhode or the middle of North Petherton.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever across Somerset your vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around North Petherton?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside North Petherton Primary School. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Hyde Park Avenue, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by Globe Inn.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, an identical first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around North Petherton or the remainder of Somerset.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around North Petherton?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through your filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each may appear, perhaps part way across North Petherton or returning from Parker's Field. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M5, under a mile from North Petherton, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so heading for Wells, under 25 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing North Petherton to the car park by North Petherton Community Centre. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been run. When it is caught early, permanent damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in North Petherton?
Wherever it has stopped in North Petherton — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street by North Petherton Community Library — our van travels to the vehicle. Three answers shape the work, and so before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, and whether the motor has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through since residue won't flush away by itself. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of your car. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking space at Bridgwater or a drive around North Petherton, that is where our engineers start it and you set off. The test before we go is that it runs correctly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About North Petherton
North Petherton is a small town in inland Somerset, situated near the Somerset Levels and approximately 18 miles from Wells. North Petherton has a population of around 3180 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. North Petherton sits at an elevation of 37 metres, close to nearby places such as Melcombe and Woolmersdon. North Petherton is located 128 miles west of London, in the South West region of England.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, North Petherton included
Over the TA postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around North Petherton reach most of Somerset as well, Melcombe, Woolmersdon and Compass included. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, so ring.
A van that comes to you fits North Petherton, a town: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around North Petherton?
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends 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 spot behind Saint Mary the Virgin.
That is why every call from North Petherton starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. With them, a range narrows to one fixed figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear our quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. As the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
In North Petherton and still beside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in North Petherton or anywhere within Somerset.