AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Over Kellet? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it is pulled through the pump — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully flushed where your car sits around Over Kellet. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Over Kellet: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting LA6 1, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Do not do these:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it is wasted.
- Even a short distance along Kirklands Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
On a forecourt in Over Kellet, whether it is the Logs Direct or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car clear of the pump. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the same spot the intake sucks from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Carnforth overnight and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of your tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through if the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm overnight for a vehicle sitting around Over Kellet. Just in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the next fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Over Kellet or out in Crag Bank, does more harm than nearly any other error.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Lancashire the vehicle is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Over Kellet?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars 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 happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside Over Kellet Wilson's Endowed Church of England Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. Near Nether Kellet Road, someone tips a bottle in at home in the evening. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Eagles Head, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new motor, a company vehicle, or the other motor of a family with both fuel types — the cars people use the least. An identical slip, same first step — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be around Over Kellet or the rest of Lancashire.
Over Kellet: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Over Kellet Pond or halfway across Over Kellet. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M6, under a mile from Over Kellet, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Over Kellet to the car park by Over Kellet Village Hall is a very different job from a run towards Lancaster, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. If it is spotted early, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Over Kellet?
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Over Kellet: a side street close to St Cuthbert's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the engine has been run, because those replies settle this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since residue will not wash out unaided. A test of your car follows last, once clean diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, if needed, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, if your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. Then our engineers start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Carnforth or a driveway around Over Kellet. The check before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Over Kellet and where it is
Over Kellet is a small village in Lancashire, situated near the coast and approximately 5.7 miles from Lancaster. Over Kellet has a relatively low elevation of 77 metres and is surrounded by nearby places such as Swarthdale and Capernwray. Over Kellet is characterised by its semi-detached housing and quiet residential atmosphere.
AdBlue drains across Over Kellet and Lancashire
Swarthdale, Capernwray and Nether Kellet are among the places around Over Kellet that the same vans serve, together with much of Lancashire beyond, throughout the LA postcode area. Assuming doesn't help by a border or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
No moving is needed. In Over Kellet, a coastal village, a van that comes to you works: the vehicle is drained where it stands, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Over Kellet: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single price would be honest, since each job is different. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Carnforth Brethren Gospel Hall.
That's why every call from Over Kellet starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. With them, the range narrows to a single fixed number.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Beside the car in Over Kellet, right now?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful move you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if it ran is everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Lancashire, Over Kellet included.