Penrose Hill: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes when the pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Penrose Hill, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has run. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Penrose Hill: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, so do not throw it out.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting TR13 9, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself starts the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Trevisker Drive.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Rolling your car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Penrose Hill forecourt you're on, the Pace or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in Sithney yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; and, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Penrose Hill with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's just in your tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Sainsbury's and you have a fault of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Helston or the heart of Penrose Hill, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere in Cornwall your car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Penrose Hill
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A container picked up while driving home and tipped in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill gets hurried outside Porthleven School, after your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Guisseny Place. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, stopped in the car park outside Harbour Inn.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the other motor of a family with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers know least. An identical mistake, same first response — leave it switched off — wherever you are in Penrose Hill or the rest of Cornwall.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Penrose Hill?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It has been drawn through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Gala Parc - Home of Porthleven A.F.C. or halfway across Penrose Hill. No restarting to test: stop when it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Penrose Hill sits over 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, and so driving towards Truro, under 25 miles away, gives a far bigger job than hopping across Penrose Hill to the car park by Porthleven Methodist Church. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the flushing where your car has come to a stop, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Penrose Hill?
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a street near Saint Bartholomew's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in Penrose Hill, and the van comes to it. Three answers decide the work, so before anything else we ask which fluid went in, about what quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is drained, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Next, your filter: cleaned, or changed if it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of your car. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at St Erth or on a driveway around Penrose Hill. Before we go, we check it's running properly with fresh diesel in. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Penrose Hill, for a moment
Penrose Hill is a coastal locality in Cornwall, situated near the town of Porthleven and overlooking the sea. Penrose Hill sits at an elevation of 67 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Penrose Hill is located near other small settlements such as Degibna and Sithney Common, and is approximately 16 miles from the city of Truro. Penrose Hill has a population of around 705 people, making it a small but distinct community in the region.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Penrose Hill included
Over the TR postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Penrose Hill serve much of Cornwall as well, Porthleven, Degibna and Sithney Common included. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service suits Penrose Hill, a coastal area: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Penrose Hill?
Because each jobs differ, a flat price would not be fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Christadelphian Hall.
Before any quote, not after, every enquiry from Penrose Hill begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus if the engine ran. Those replies shrink a range down to a single figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told our quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Penrose Hill: still beside the vehicle?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best move you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Penrose Hill or anywhere around Cornwall.