Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pickney
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes when the pump begins drawing it. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully flushed where your car sits around Pickney. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pickney: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting TA2 8, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Pickney Lane.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
Moving the vehicle off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Pickney forecourt you're on, the the nearest petrol station included. At home, the vehicle stays exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very place the pickup sucks from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Cushuish yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward case, as long as nobody turns the key.
After it's sucked in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; and, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a car parked in Pickney. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Murco, and this problem is thinned fuel. No harm is done as long as it stays put, blended into the diesel — only when your engine works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, and so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Fulford or the heart of Pickney alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere in Somerset the vehicle has stopped.
Pickney: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two can look the same. Nobody intends it. A container bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Kingston St Mary Church of England Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Someone tips the container in outside their house, just off Fennington Lane, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park outside the pub in the village.
The least known vehicles see it most — rentals, brand-new ones, company ones, and the spare car of a family with both fuel types. An identical mistake, same first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you are around Pickney or the rest of Somerset.
Pickney: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Watch for rough running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Yarford Orchards, say, or midway across Pickney. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep it off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M5, under 5 miles from Pickney, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
A quick hop across Pickney to the car park by Hobby Horse Riding Centre is one matter; driving towards Wells, under 25 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the motor has been run. When it's caught soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Pickney?
The car remains put, whether that's a street near The Mill House, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Pickney, and the van travels to it. Three replies shape the job, and so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid was put in, about the amount, plus if the motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after that tank is drained, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. A test of your car follows last, after fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter gets flushed or, if necessary, replaced. Not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Whether it's a parking space by Taunton or a drive around Pickney, that is where our engineers fire it up and you drive off. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our technicians head off. No garage is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Pickney
Pickney is a small hamlet in inland Somerset, situated at an elevation of 41 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing. Pickney lies near the villages of Fennington and Yarford, and is also close to Fitzroy, within the wider countryside of the South West. Pickney is located approximately 24 miles from the city of Wells and around 134 miles from London. Pickney remains a quiet and rural community with a small population of around 516 residents.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Pickney included
Fennington, Yarford and Fitzroy are among the towns near Pickney that the same vans serve, together with most of Somerset further out, throughout the TA postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Wherever your car stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — we empty it there, with no need to take it to us; which suits Pickney, a rural hamlet, well.
Pickney: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, and so no single price is honest. The price shifts 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 turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Bishops Lydeard Mill.
That's why each call from Pickney starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Those answers narrow the range down to a single figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Next to the car in Pickney, right now?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Pickney or anywhere in Somerset.