Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pelton Fell
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your motor off and keep your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts once the pump starts pulling it. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Pelton Fell. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pelton Fell: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Call right where you are. Quote a DH2 2 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Station Lane.
- By the road, do not try draining it on your own.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car off the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Pelton Fell, whether it's the Esso or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in South Pelaw overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through once your engine runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle sitting around Pelton Fell. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a separate form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole problem. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in that tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Perkinsville or the centre of Pelton Fell, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere your car has come to rest across Durham.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Pelton Fell?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. It mostly occurs at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Roseberry Primary and Nursery School, because your dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped in. Close to Greenland Mews, someone pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or a driver new to that flap refills your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside The Crown.
The least familiar cars see it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet ones, and the spare car of a family with both fuel types. Same slip, same first step — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Pelton Fell or the rest of Durham.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pelton Fell?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been pulled through the filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Maybe coming back from Stellagill Wood, or midway across Pelton Fell, the motor might go rough, smoke, drop pace, light up the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the A1(M), under 3 miles from Pelton Fell, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, so heading for Durham, under 10 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Pelton Fell to the car park by Pelton Fell War Memorial. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Pelton Fell?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Pelton Fell: a side street close to King Coal, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the job, and so first we ask which fluid got in, about the amount, plus whether the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when the tank is emptied, right there. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. Next, the filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of your vehicle. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the last step. Whether it's a parking bay by Chester-Le-Street or a drive around Pelton Fell, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Our engineers confirm it runs properly on new diesel before we go. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Pelton Fell, for a moment
Pelton Fell is a small village in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of 76 metres, approximately 6 miles from the city of Durham. Pelton Fell has a population of around 506 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Pelton Fell is located near other settlements such as Whitehill, Newfield, and Pelton, and is about 240 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains around Pelton Fell and across Durham
AdBlue jobs in Pelton Fell go to vans that serve the towns near it — Whitehill, Newfield plus Pelton — and most of Durham beyond, across DH postcodes. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to explain? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
Pelton Fell is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Pelton Fell: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts vary, a flat figure would not be honest. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind The Brockwell Centre.
With that in mind, each call from Pelton Fell begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, if it ran — before any quote. Their answers narrow the range right down to one number.
Our quote is given during the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside your car around Pelton Fell?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best move available. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Pelton Fell or anywhere in Durham, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.