Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Otterburn
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until your motor sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Otterburn, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Otterburn: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, and so don't bin it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting NE19 1, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up A696.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
At a forecourt around Otterburn, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. No part in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
It does not combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Horsley last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle sitting in Otterburn. Only in your tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. Harm just comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left in the tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the vehicle is in West Woodburn or the heart of Otterburn, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Northumberland your car has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Otterburn?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — may appear the same. No one means it; many designs allow it. It usually occurs at home, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Otterburn Primary School. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near The Cherry Trees. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, stopped in the car park by William de Percy.
Hired vehicles, brand-new cars, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it most. Same slip, an identical first response — keep it off — wherever you happen to be around Otterburn or the rest of Northumberland.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Otterburn?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Through your filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Otterburn (Millennium Green), say, or midway across Otterburn. No starting it again to check: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the A167(M), under 50 miles from Otterburn, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Otterburn to the car park by St John the Evangelist Church is a very different job from a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it is noticed quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Otterburn
A street beside Otterburn Memorial Hall, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your car has come to rest around Otterburn, we come to it. Before anything else we ask what got in, about how much, and if the engine has run, because those answers determine the work.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. A test of your vehicle follows at the end, once fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, by the nearest station or on a driveway around Otterburn. It is checked on new diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our engineers head off. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Otterburn, for a moment
Otterburn is a village situated in the county of Northumberland, on the banks of the River Rede, with a mix of detached housing and rural scenery. Otterburn sits at an elevation of 157 metres, surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby settlements like Otterburn Camp and Elsdon. Otterburn remains a small, rural community with a population of around 582 residents, located approximately 28 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Otterburn is also relatively distant from major urban centres, being 271 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Otterburn and across Northumberland
Throughout the NE postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Otterburn reach most of Northumberland as well, Otterburn Camp, Raylees and Elsdon among them. Guessing won't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
Otterburn is a village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Otterburn: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, and so no fixed quote would be honest. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Percy's Cross.
Which fluid got in, how much, and whether the engine ran: every Otterburn enquiry begins with precisely that, before a quote, not afterwards. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our price by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still beside your car in Otterburn?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Otterburn or anywhere in Northumberland.