Pentire: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it's sucked through the pump — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Pentire. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pentire
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and about how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Give us a postcode starting TR7 1, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Pentire Crescent.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
At a forecourt in Pentire, whether it is the Texaco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the gas. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its supply from. A motor topped up on a drive in West Pentire overnight and left unstarted counts as the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches till it is removed from your system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in tiny passages. By daybreak, a car parked around Pentire with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it's only in that tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a second form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Esso. Mixed into your diesel and sitting unused, it is no threat for now; running your engine does the damage.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your car is in Trenance or the centre of Pentire, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits just in your tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, wherever your vehicle has come to rest across Cornwall.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Pentire?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — may look the same. No one means it; many layouts allow it. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Trenance Learning Academy the refill is rushed. Close to Riverside Avenue, someone pours a container in on that drive after work. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Old Albion.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a fleet car, or the spare car of a family with both fuels — the vehicles drivers know least. Same mistake, an identical first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Pentire or the remainder of Cornwall.
Pentire: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. With any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Esplanade Road Green, or midway across Pentire, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or cut out. When safe, pull over then switch everything off — with no turning it on again to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Pentire sits over 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Pentire to the car park by St Carantoc's Church is a very different job from a run towards Truro, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the flushing where the car has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Pentire?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Pentire: a side street close to Dolphins, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job depends on three replies, which our technicians get first — which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing the car follows at the end, after fresh diesel is added and the filter is cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, outside Newquay or on a drive in Pentire. The test before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Pentire and where it is
Pentire is a coastal suburban area in Cornwall, situated near the popular seaside town of Newquay and close to the village of Crantock. Pentire sits at an elevation of 39 metres, overlooking the Atlantic coast and within easy reach of Truro, the county's administrative centre. Pentire has a population of around 1672 people, living in predominantly detached housing. Pentire is also near Trevowah, and its residents can access a range of local amenities and services.
AdBlue drains around Pentire and across Cornwall
Over the TR postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Pentire reach much of Cornwall as well, Crantock, Newquay and Trevowah included. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Pentire, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the car to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Pentire?
No flat price could be honest, since each job is different. Three things change the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Most Holy Trinity Church.
That is why each call from Pentire starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van sets off, you are told our quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
In Pentire and still beside your car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Pentire or anywhere across Cornwall.