AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Old Whittington? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep 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 pulls it round. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Old Whittington. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Old Whittington, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting S41 9, or whichever street is closest, and our van reaches you straight — so call wherever you are.
Don't:
- Moving the car just a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't thin it.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down High Street.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
The attendants working at any Old Whittington filling station — the Sainsbury's among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. At home, the car remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was intended to travel that way.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Newbold Moor last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, because it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. A car left sitting around Old Whittington with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the Tesco. No harm comes while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot simply be run through, because it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in New Whittington or the middle of Old Whittington.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere around Derbyshire the car has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest part of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Old Whittington?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Usually it's not the filling station: someone picks up a container heading home and pours it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Mary Swanwick Primary School. Close to Pynot Road, someone tips a container in on the drive after work. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Cock and Magpie, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles see it the most — rentals, brand-new ones, company ones, and the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types. Anywhere across Derbyshire, Old Whittington as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Old Whittington, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Via the filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Brearley Park, perhaps, or midway across Old Whittington. No restarting to test: pull over when safe, then switch it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M1, under 5 miles from Old Whittington, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Hopping across Old Whittington to the car park by Old Whittington Library is one thing; heading for Sheffield, under 10 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Old Whittington
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Old Whittington: a side street near Revolution House, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has been run, since those answers determine the work.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. What remains from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Testing the car follows last, after clean diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, where needed, replaced. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Priming the system with clean diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking bay by Chesterfield or a driveway around Old Whittington, that is where our engineers start the engine and you set off. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Old Whittington and where it is
Old Whittington is a suburban area in Derbyshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 95 metres. Old Whittington lies approximately 8 miles from Sheffield and is part of the larger Chesterfield urban area, with nearby places including The Brushes, Whittington Moor, and Sheepbridge. Old Whittington has a population of around 3222 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Old Whittington is located in the East Midlands region, about 133.5 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Derbyshire, Old Whittington included
Throughout the S postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Old Whittington serve much of Derbyshire too, The Brushes, Whittington Moor and Sheepbridge among them. Phone and check rather than guess if you are by a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
A mobile service suits Old Whittington, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your car to us, because our engineers drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Old Whittington?
Because each callouts vary, 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 then 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 St Bartholomew.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: every Old Whittington call opens with precisely that, ahead of a figure, not afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Beside the vehicle around Old Whittington, still?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Old Whittington or wherever within Derbyshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.