AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in North Scale? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens until your motor sucks it round. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits in North Scale. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
North Scale, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting LA14 3, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Many diesels power their pump the moment your ignition goes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is pointless.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Red Ley Lane.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
At a forecourt in North Scale, whether it is the Asda or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Barrow-in-Furness overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through if your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle sitting in North Scale. Just in your tank, it stays stable. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the whole problem. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot simply be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the next fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of North Scale or out in Tummer Hill, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever around Cumbria your car sits.
North Scale: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap — can look the same. No one means it; plenty of designs allow it. Usually it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The top-up is hurried outside Vickerstown School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the children were dropped in. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Teasdale Road, as the day ends. One more pattern: dim light, the car park by The Crown, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the other car in a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers know the least. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to an identical slip, anywhere around North Scale or the rest of Cumbria you are.
North Scale: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Via the fuel filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it has gone.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from West Shore Park or halfway across North Scale. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Leave it off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M6, under 25 miles from North Scale, at the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Hopping across North Scale to the car park by Miners is one thing; heading towards Lancaster, under 25 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around North Scale
A street by Vue, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your car has stopped around North Scale, our engineers travel to it. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has turned over: our engineers check before all else, because those decide the job.
Next, draining the tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: flushed, or changed if it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided the engine hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay by Barrow-In-Furness or a drive in North Scale, that is where our technicians start the engine and you drive off. It is checked on clean diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our engineers leave. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About North Scale
North Scale is a coastal suburban area in Cumbria, situated near the coast at an elevation of 17 metres. North Scale lies within the wider Barrow-in-Furness urban area, close to nearby places such as North Walney, Hindpool, and Vickerstown. North Scale has a population of approximately 1689 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around North Scale and across Cumbria
North Walney, Hindpool and Vickerstown are among the towns near North Scale that the same teams serve, along with much of Cumbria further out, throughout the LA postcode area. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
North Scale is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around North Scale
There is no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The cost shifts 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 the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Vickerstown Cricket Club.
That's why each call from North Scale starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. With them, the range shrinks to one firm number.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
North Scale: still alongside the car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best step available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across North Scale or anywhere within Cumbria, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.