AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Pity Me? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully flushed where the car sits in Pity Me. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pity Me
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting DH1 5, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch down Acorn Place is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
The attendants on duty at any Pity Me filling station — the Sainsbury's among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Aykley Heads last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. 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, and so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines holding AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle parked in Pity Me. Just inside your tank, it stays the same. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
A problem of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Plawsworth Service Station. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It cannot simply be run through, since it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Brasside or the middle of Pity Me.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Durham the car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Pity Me: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly takes place at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Godric's Catholic Primary School, Durham the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Front Street. Or someone new to that flap refills the car after dark, parked in the car park by Dunelm Ridge.
The least familiar vehicles see it most — rentals, brand-new cars, company cars, and the other vehicle of a family with both fuel types. Wherever across Durham, Pity Me as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pity Me?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Through your filter, along the lines, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
Perhaps coming back from Abbey Road Playing Field, or midway across Pity Me, your engine may run rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. No restarting to check: pull over once it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Pity Me lies under 3 miles from the A1(M); if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, and so driving towards Durham, under 3 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Pity Me to the car park by Polaris Viewer. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the flushing where the car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Pity Me: what it takes
A road beside Centre of the Galaxy Viewer, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the car has stopped around Pity Me, our engineers come to it. Three replies decide the job, so before anything else we ask what was put in, about the amount, plus whether your motor has turned over.
Next, draining the tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, since residue won't clear out by itself. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we arrive, if your engine has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, your system is primed with new diesel. At that point our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside Durham or a drive in Pity Me. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Pity Me itself
Pity Me is a suburban area located near the city of Durham, sitting at an elevation of 95 metres in the inland countryside of County Durham. Pity Me is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Framwellgate Moor and Newton Hall. Pity Me has a population of approximately 2393 residents and is within walking distance of Durham city centre, being only 1.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Pity Me included
AdBlue call-outs around Pity Me go to teams that serve the towns around it — Framwellgate Moor, Newton Hall plus Kimblesworth — and much of Durham beyond, throughout DH postcodes. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking is better than assuming, so ring.
No moving is needed. In Pity Me, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the car is emptied where it stands, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Pity Me
No single price would be fair, because each job differs. Three things change the price: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Marks & Spencer.
For that in mind, every call from Pity Me opens by asking the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before any figure. When those are answered, a range turns into one fixed number.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Next to your car around Pity Me, still?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Pity Me or wherever in Durham, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.