Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Plymouth
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and your ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens until the motor pulls it round. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully rinsed where your car stands in Plymouth. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Plymouth, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take your keys away.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so do not throw it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting PL1 1, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not weaken it.
- Even a short way down Armada Way is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle away from the island if you're on a forecourt in Plymouth, whether it is the Asda or somewhere else. On the drive, the car remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. No part in a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to travel that way.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Pennycomequick overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it will be first through if the engine runs, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at some metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A car left standing around Plymouth with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a separate kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the another forecourt nearby, and the issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your car is in Coxside or the centre of Plymouth, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has stopped across Devon.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Plymouth
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: someone picks up a container heading home and pours it in outside the house.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside St Andrew's Cof E VA Primary School, after the dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Royal Parade. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Bank.
Hired vehicles, brand-new cars, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. Keep it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever around Plymouth or the rest of Devon you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Plymouth, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps part way across Plymouth or returning from Jigsaw Garden. When safe, pull over then switch everything off — with no turning it on again to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M5, under 50 miles from Plymouth, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Plymouth to the car park by Crown Court is one matter; heading towards Exeter, under 50 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. When it is noticed soon, long-term damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Plymouth?
Anywhere it has stopped around Plymouth — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside TK Maxx — the van travels to the car. What was put in, about how much, plus whether your engine has been run: our engineers ask first, since those decide the work.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned right through since residue will not wash out by itself. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the final step. Starting the car comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by the nearest station or on a drive in Plymouth. The test before our technicians head off is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Plymouth
Plymouth is a city situated on the coast of Devon in England, nestled between two major rivers. It serves as a significant port and is the largest urban centre in the county. Plymouth's location on the south coast makes it an important hub, with nearby cities including Exeter to the northeast and London further afield. The city's coastal setting and river boundaries give it a unique character.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Plymouth included
Throughout the PL postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Plymouth reach most of Devon as well, Barbican, Millbay and West Hoe included. Close to a boundary, or somewhere tricky to explain? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
A mobile service fits Plymouth, a coastal city: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Plymouth
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight space behind Plymouth Synagogue.
For that reason, every enquiry from Plymouth opens by asking the same trio — which fluid was put in, how much, whether it ran — ahead of a figure. When those are known, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still beside your car around Plymouth?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran is everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Devon, Plymouth included.