AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Penknap? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts once the pump starts pulling it. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Penknap. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Penknap, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BA13 4, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Shifting your car just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Tower Hill.
- Emptying your tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
The attendants on duty at any Penknap forecourt — the Esso among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was intended to go through one.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same spot the intake draws from. A car topped up on a drive in Westbury Leigh yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once the engine turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
Once it's drawn in, the damage takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Penknap with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is just in your tank, nothing changes. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the BP, and the issue is thinned fuel. No damage comes while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, because it does not burn. Whether your vehicle sits in Penleigh or the heart of Penknap, 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 remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever around Wiltshire the car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Penknap?
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. A bottle bought while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Dilton Marsh CofE Primary School. A driver pours the bottle in at home, right off A3098, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Hollies Inn.
It comes up most in a rental, a new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers use the least. Anywhere across Wiltshire, Penknap as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Penknap?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled through, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any might show up, maybe midway across Penknap or returning from Chalcot Wood. No restarting to check: stop once it is safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Penknap sits under 25 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Hopping across Penknap to the car park by Penknap Baptist Church is one matter; heading for Bath, under 15 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is noticed early.
Penknap: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A road by St Mary's, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere the vehicle has stopped in Penknap, our technicians come to it. The job depends on three answers, which our technicians ask for before all else — what went in, the quantity, and whether the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is drained, right there. What remains from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking space at Dilton Marsh or a drive in Penknap, that is where we start the car and you set off. The test before we leave is that it runs properly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Penknap itself
Penknap is a locality in Wiltshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 111 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Penknap lies near the cities of Bath and Bradford on Avon, and is close to the villages of Hisomley, Dilton Marsh, and Old Dilton. Penknap is located in the South West region of England, approximately 91.6 miles from London. Penknap has a population of around 586 residents.
Penknap and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Penknap are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Hisomley, Dilton Marsh as well as Old Dilton — and much of Wiltshire beyond, across BA postcodes. Assuming doesn't help by a border or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we empty it there, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Penknap, a small village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Penknap: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The price changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Holy Trinity.
That is why every call from Penknap starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Their answers shrink a range right down to a single figure.
Before a van heads out, you are told our quote on the phone. Then you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle in Penknap?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Penknap or anywhere across Wiltshire.