AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Perry Street? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off and keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens till the engine sucks it round. In Perry Street, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Perry Street: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket your keys, and that prevents someone turning the power on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Call right where you are. Quote a TA20 2 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Don't do these:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Kent Road.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
The attendants working at any Perry Street filling station — the Texaco included — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Nothing in a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to go that way.
It doesn't combine. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Chilson Common overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue sits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through once your motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it's sucked in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. Overnight, a car sitting around Perry Street with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's just inside the tank, it doesn't. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Tesco, and this issue is thinned fuel. No harm is done while it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Tatworth or the middle of Perry Street.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Somerset your car has stopped.
Perry Street: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — can look the same. No one means it; plenty of layouts allow it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside Tatworth Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped off. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive near Watermead. Or someone new to that flap refills your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside Perry Street Club & Institute.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a company vehicle, or the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers use least. Anywhere in Somerset, Perry Street included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Perry Street?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Perhaps returning from Horn Moor, or midway across Perry Street, your engine may go rough, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M5, under 15 miles from Perry Street, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Perry Street to the car park by South Chard Church is one thing; heading for Exeter, under 50 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been started. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Perry Street?
Wherever it has stopped in Perry Street — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside Bethel Baptist — our van comes to your vehicle. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run, since those replies decide the work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash away unaided, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a check of your vehicle. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming your system with clean diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking bay at Axminster or a driveway around Perry Street, that is where our engineers start the car and you head off. Our engineers check it runs correctly on clean diesel before we leave. As the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Perry Street itself
Perry Street is a suburban area in Somerset, situated inland at an elevation of 69 metres, and is located near several nearby places including Coombses, Axeford Estate, and South Chard. Perry Street has a population of approximately 1970 residents and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Perry Street is positioned relatively close to the city of Exeter, which is 26.9 miles away, and is also within a reasonable distance of London, at 130.4 miles away.
Perry Street and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
Coombses, Axeford Estate and South Chard are among the places near Perry Street that the same teams reach, together with most of Somerset beyond, throughout the TA postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess if you're close to a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Perry Street is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Perry Street: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. What shifts the price is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind WW2 Pill Box (Intact).
For that reason, each call from Perry Street begins with the identical trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether it ran — before any quote. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Our price is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Beside the car in Perry Street, still?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful step there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Perry Street or wherever within Somerset, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.