Old Fletton: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Old Fletton. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Old Fletton: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, which prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PE2 8, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Moving the car just a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance along Duke Street.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
The staff on duty at any Old Fletton forecourt — the Shell among them — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On that drive, the vehicle remains exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its supply from. A car topped up on a drive in Eastgate overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when your motor runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. A motor left standing in Old Fletton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second kind of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that is the whole fault. No damage comes while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only once your motor works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Orton Longueville or the middle of Old Fletton.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside that tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, anywhere your vehicle has stopped in Cambridgeshire.
Old Fletton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. A bottle bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Old Fletton Primary School the top-up is rushed. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Milton Road. Else, after dark outside The Wonky Donkey Micro Pub, your car is topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it the most — rentals, new ones, company cars, and the other motor in a family with one of each fuels. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Old Fletton or the rest of Cambridgeshire you happen to be.
Old Fletton: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. It has been pulled through your filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any might show up, maybe part way across Old Fletton or coming back from Private Garden. Once you safely can, pull over and turn it off — with no restarting to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the A1(M), under 5 miles from Old Fletton, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Old Fletton to park near The Fletton Centre and a drive of under a mile for Peterborough are such different jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very rare if it is spotted early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Old Fletton
A street beside St Margaret's Church, Fletton, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Old Fletton, our engineers come to it. Three replies decide the work, so before anything else we ask what was put in, about what quantity, and if your motor has turned over.
Next, draining your tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since what remains won't wash out unaided. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Lastly, your system is bled with new diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Peterborough or on a drive around Old Fletton. We confirm it runs correctly on clean diesel before we go. As the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Old Fletton itself
Old Fletton is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, with a lakeside setting and an elevation of around 12 metres. Old Fletton lies close to the city centre, approximately 0.9 miles from Peterborough, and is near other local places such as New Fletton and Woodston. Old Fletton has a population of around 6676 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Old Fletton is also within commuting distance of London, being around 72.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Old Fletton and across Cambridgeshire
AdBlue call-outs in Old Fletton go to teams that serve the towns around it — New Fletton, Woodston plus Peterborough — and much of Cambridgeshire beyond, across PE postcodes. Ring and ask rather than guess if you are close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you suits Old Fletton, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Old Fletton?
Because each jobs differ, a single price would not be honest. What moves the cost is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Southside Methodist Chapel.
With that reason, each enquiry from Old Fletton begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid went in, how much, if the engine ran — before a figure. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our quote on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Beside the car in Old Fletton, right now?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Old Fletton or wherever within Cambridgeshire.